WKRP on DVD today

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Postby jon » Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:19 pm

The News isn't that WKRP is out on DVD, but that it gets really good reviews by people who have actually seen the new DVDs. Despite the fact that so much of the music has been changed.

Film Jerk had this to say: "With the original music, the show worked wonderfully. With the replacement music, the show still works wonderfully, a fine testament to the camaraderie of the cast and the quality of the writing. When the show was at its peak, it cracked with an incendiary wit that was rarely matched in its day."

The rest of the review is here: http://www.filmjerk.com/reviews/article.php?id_rev=1109

Best prices I've seen are $34.99 at Future Shop and $34.96 at amazon.ca. Please post any better prices, if you see any.
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Postby Mike Cleaver » Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:36 pm

There were many episodes where the music was key to the plot and how the scenes played out.
I hope they admit on the packaging that "some of the original music has been replaced and some scenes have been deleted."
If you really want the "real" WKRP, it still runs in syndication.
Check your on-line tv listings and set up your computer or pvr and record your own, then burn them to dvd.
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54 years experience at some of Canada's Premier Broadcasting Stations
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Postby radiofan » Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:04 pm

Mike Cleaver wrote: I hope they admit on the packaging that "some of the original music has been replaced and some scenes have been deleted."

I saw the package at Best Buy today and there is a note on the cover that some of the original music has been deleted or replaced.

I believe it was $34.99.
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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Postby jon » Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:52 pm

I was quite shocked to see that same notice on "Simon and Simon" when it first came out last year. So far, I haven't noticed any difference in the music, but it has been years since I've seen most episodes.

As for Syndication in general, I've been totally amazed at how many scenes are cut out to make way for commercials. I forget the exact number, but 4-8 minutes of each Perry Mason episode is missing when aired every day on Fox 28 in Spokane. Watching the DVD of the first season (yes, 39 episodes), it is almost like watching a different episode, so much has been (re-)added.

I hadn't planned to go near the WKRP DVDs because my feelings were the same as Mike's: the music is so integral to the shows. But filmjerk's review changed my mind, and I'm willing to give it a try.
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Postby glaherty » Thu Apr 26, 2007 10:12 am

I'm a little in the dark here, why do they change the music on the DVD?
Are you talking about the theme, background, songs played on the air by Fever,
Flytrap et al? I don't think there are many of us who grew up in radio around
that era or shortly after it, who didn't identify with the line; "Got kinda tired
of packin and unpackin, town to town, up and down the dial"!
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Postby jon » Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:16 am

I haven't actually seen it yet either, but my understanding is that the theme song survived. It was the fact that they played a lot of songs in each episode from the current Billboard Top 10 at a time when music rights were relatively cheap for a weekly sitcom. To buy the rights to those same songs now, for DVD distribution, is unbelievably expensive. I'm sure that some, perhaps many, were affordable, but when you do the arithmetic, the cost for the entire first season's set of songs (we are talking hundreds of songs here) was just too big a number of consider. Worse yet, some artists who (now) have the rights to their music may have flatly refused to negotiate.

The issue is not really a new one. I remember when the Woodstock movie and soundtrack came out, a friend in the know quite correctly quipped that Warner Bros. was the only label with enough of the artists on their labels to even consider the legal work required to negotiate the rights to the music from all the other labels involved. The WB-owned labels at that time make them the largest "record company" in the world at the time.
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Postby glaherty » Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:50 pm

Thanks, got er.
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