Finally, my copy arrived in the mail yesterday. Watched the Pilot and it is very good quality, with all the music.
Found this review from a keener who ordered direct from the manufacturer to get earlier delivery:
***** (5 stars = top rating)
EXCELLENT image quality w/ minimal edits!By Marty Gillis on October 6, 2014
'WKRP in Cincinnati' is on my short list of favorite classic TV comedies. Perfect casting, lovable characters and inspired writing, all framed with the music of the day. I never thought I would see this released but here it is, almost intact on DVD. I was so excited over this I purchased from Shout Factory direct so I could get the set a few weeks earlier than the street date.
For those not as concerned with the final music clearances, let me just say the image quality is almost uniformly excellent, with only a few spots here and there that show deterioration of the original broadcast tapes. WKRP was shot on video tape and edited that way as well so we are getting a scan of the master which is 2nd generation from each camera. DVD is more than sufficient to give us the full tape resolution, Blu Ray wouldn't have provided any uptick in quality other than being able to put more episodes on each disc, making the set smaller.
Discs load up quickly and after the prerequisite and annoying FBI warnings, you then go directly to the disc menu with the theme music playing. Hit the episode selection button and the music changes to the end theme. There are no listed chapter selections, just episode titles. (each title has 5 chapters) If you own other Shout Factory Series Box Sets, you pretty much know what you are getting here. You can choose your episodes individually or select the "Play All" function and just sit back and enjoy.
Both front and back theme music are presented in their full versions, along with the MTM logo at the end. There are occasional commercial "bumpers" between some scenes. (no commercials however)
The packaging is very nice. heavy duty outer cardboard sleeve holds 4 amaray cases that hold 3 discs each plus a slimline case that the extras disc is housed in. All discs were tightly on the spindles with nothing banging around in the entire set. Nice! Sightly different artwork on the discs and color portraits of Johnny, Venus, Andy and Jennifer adorn the 4 amaray cases. (what? No Les, Herb, Bailey or Big Guy?) There is additional art work on the back of each Season set with a short season synopsis.
No booklet of episodes is included and that is a real shame. You can find the titles but only by opening the case for the first two disc contents, which are posted on the left of disc #1 and by removing the #3 disc in each case for it's contents. Likewise, episode titles are not on the discs themselves so you still need to look inside the cases and behind the DVDs to find the show you are looking for. That's really the only place where the ball was dropped for this set, the lack of booklet. Even a small cheapo would have sufficed.
I took pics of the cases , front and back plus the discs themselves but Amazon is currently not allowing pics to be uploaded. (again) If at any time they can be posted, I will upload them.
Audio is fine, MONO of course, and disc media is robust.
And now for the folks worried about the music............. (I was one of them)
Music Edits: This seems to be foremost on everyone's mind. MOST of the music is there, SOME of it isn't. IN a few cases entire scenes have been reedited and slightly changed to eliminate certain songs that Shout could not obtain the music clearance rights to. All 3 of The Beatles songs are missing, while the McCartney song remains. No Pink Floyd .. In the end, no big deal as "Turkey's Away" still flies high! OH, the humanity!
Jennifer's doorbell is flying to the moon while Les's toupee is again accompanied by "Hot Blooded".. Classic! "The Contest Nobody Can Win" retains All the original contest songs but the very end of the show has been reedited to eliminate "A Lotta Love".. "Hoodlum Rock" is totally unedited so we get Scum of the Earth's full song at the end..... RUFF!!! RUFF RUFF !!! That's it for you then !
Basically, MOST of the important stuff is back, way more than anyone had thought possible, given the sometimes greedy nature of the rights holders. In most cases, the artists themselves do not control the issuing of music clearances and can not be blamed for their exclusion from this set. The Beatles aren't there , because MJ's company wouldn't play ball. McCartney's stuff IS there, he is more reasonable. Etc. Etc. Etc.
BOTTOM LINE: This is the very best we are EVER going to see and hear WKRP unless you owned a U Matic Video Tape recorder back in the day and have first generation copies of all the original broadcasts. (and if you do, watch out for Phone Cops! They're everywhere!)
OK, so how do the episodes REALLY look?
Image quality is very very good. It is not perfect. A few episodes show color fading and some have slight anomalies on the sides (typical tape artifacts). Mostly the episodes are clean, clear , brightly colored and stable. Let's face it, all us fans have been living with the faded low rez syndicated copies for so long that when you first see these, they will blow you away! Better than I had expected! Video quality is truly a fans dream come true here. Running time is approx 24 minutes per episode so you get at least 2 extra minutes (or more) of content that was chopped off in the syndication masters. Remember, the source was broadcast videotape and is not as detailed or as clear as film. Tape also deteriorates over time and there are signs of that happening occasionally during episodes. It is still miles ahead of any current broadcast rerun you can find. A few of the earlier episodes of Season One are a bit on the dark side, but this clears up quickly and doesn't return.
OK, picture quality is good, how about the sound?
WKRP was always intended for MONO broadcast and as such that is the only mix available for this release. Other than the few cases where edits were required for this release, the sound is presented in it's original form, with the original mixes intact. It's a solid 4 out of 5 for the audio with almost all dialogue clean and clear and some nice dimension and fidelity to the music. Pretty darn good for video tape source material. It speaks to the original quality of the production sound and Shout Factory has ported that over to us intact. BOOGER!!!
** you may notice the sound seems to be mastered at a much higher level than some of your other discs. I have had to lower the volume on my amp wile playing these. Also, there is just a bit of audio "clipping" from time to time that sharp eared listeners will register as distortion, but this goes back to the production sound and is not an issue with the Shout Factory transfers.
OK, picture and sound are really good, how about the special features?
'WKRP in Cincinnati' is no slouch in the special features department. The cast reunion, interviews and featurettes are all very welcome additions to this package. (Sad to say both Richard Sanders and Frank Bonner are MIA) I admit I would have been just as happy with a bare bones release so this is great to have the additional material.
This set is a WKRP fan's dream come true. Yes , there have been edits but with a great picture, good sound and a large majority of music restored, 'WKRP in Cincinnati' delivers the goods. Time for some serious binge watching! This set is worth the price of admission just for the extra 2 or 3 minutes of former syndication cuts per show that are now included.
I am totally enjoying this set. In fact, you might even say I am becoming addicted to it all over again. I GOTTA MONKEY ON MY FOOT!
TOTALLY Recommended by ME, Marty G
See
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3R4U5J7NSO6U1/ for the more than 100 responses Marty received or responded to