Quantum Leap Season 2 DVDs-Music Replaced!

Eric Paddon · December 14th, 2004, 01:20 PM

Those who were planning on getting the Season 2 Quantum Leap DVD set, be forewarned. A number of episodes that used specific songs have had them replaced with generic music apparently because of music rights clearance issues that Universal never bothered to provide fans with any warning about (unlike another company's warning about dropping the theme song from the Season 3 DVD release of the sitcom "Married With Children"). Fans are especially upset that the episode "MIA" is missing the song "Georgia On My Mind".

I am not a major QL fan so this issue doesn't affect me personally (and I wasn't planning on getting it anyway), but this issue highlights an increasingly disturbing trend in TV on DVD releases where no effort is being done in many cases to insure the best quality product is available. Music replacement has become one problem, but so too have companies in their ignorance using syndicated cut versions of episodes ("ALF", "Too Close For Comfort"), or deleting episode main title openings except for one time only at the start ("Little House On The Prairie", "The Joey Bishop Show"). And then even those that are released uncut and complete aren't always mastered from the best available elements ("Lost In Space"-Season 1). Let's also not forget Universal's failure to include the TV version of the "Buck Rogers" pilot movie.

With all that in mind, consider how fortunate we are that "Battlestar Galactica" didn't fall victim to any of this kind of shoddy treatment, and had more extras than we could have hoped to receive (especially since Universal is becoming more determined to save costs by releasing bare-bones only versions of the shows they're putting out now).

skippercollecto · December 14th, 2004, 03:05 PM

I've been fortunate in that the two DVD sets I've purchased recently (the first seasons of Everwood and The Flintstones) were unedited, have all the opening and closing credits, and all the correct music. I hope the producers of those series DVD keep it up. And the VHS boxed set I have of some individual episodes of The Partridge Family are complete and original too.
However, I also recently purchased some individual episodes of Petticoat Junction on DVD, and although the episodes are complete, its delightful theme song was changed. And I purchased a boxed VHS set of some of the episodes of WKRP in Cincinnati and I hated it because ALL the hit songs used in it were replaced with generic instrumentals!
A suggestion:
Maybe we should start a running tally of all of the DVD full season sets we acquire (for whatever TV series, sci fi or otherwise) and tell everyone which ones are unedited, with original music and original opening and closing credits, so that we know in the future what to purchase and what to avoid.

Mary

kingfish · December 25th, 2004, 08:58 AM

Hopefully Uni will not frack up the Miami Vice music when the set is released in February.

Eric Paddon · January 2nd, 2005, 09:47 AM

Universal supposedly promised Season 1 of Miami Vice would have all the music intact, but this is a hollow promise because Quantum Leap had all of its music intact for Season 1 and *then* pulled this stunt with the music for Season 2. It could be that Universal wants to sucker people into buying a full run of a series by figuring that if Season 1 is okay, they'll be hooked enough to keep going despite how they screw it up.

Darth Marley · January 2nd, 2005, 10:24 AM

Well, I can understand the issue.
The studio makes money off of the songs being in the eps, royalties apply, just like reruns of the shows should in theory pay royalties.

It is sad that the money game forced such an alteration.
Two similar cases come to mind.

One is sampling in modern music. If sampling forced such issues (and it has, a White Zombie tune comes to mind that was changed in subsequent releases), then music would be in chaos.

Another is the issue of payment for commentary extras on DVDs. The participants wanted money, and the studios would rather not pay residuals, so in some cases did without the commentaries.

I think we all as fans, Internet users, and citizens of the world have an interest in limiting copyrights to a more reasonable term.

When is the last time something on the level of "Georgia on My Mind" entered the public domain?