QL SEASON 2 BUTCHERED! We need to write Universal!

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dazed76

Guest
This is the review of Season 2 that I just posted on Amazon. WE ALL need to write Universal about this...and maybe we can make a difference for future releases! Here it is::protest

*note: this review is for the DVD release, not the ORIGINAL television series.

The release of Quantum Leap Season 2 is a great example of why underground bootleggers get rich. YOU CANNOT CUT the original music from a series and expect fans not to notice. Universal should have, at the VERY LEAST, put a disclaimer on the outer DVD packaging..."EDITED"! True fans are the ones buying this DVD and I for one would rather have nothing at all, than this cheap, slapped together product.

The first season released on DVD looked promising, but this edition is just worthless. It's 22 episodes on 3 double-sided discs, with no special features (although the package states "Bonus Material" on Disc 3, Side B) and the classic music of the series is replaced throughout. The most disturbing deletion was Ray Charles' "Georgia on Mind". That song was so important to the emotional impact of that scene. Without it...the scene barely pulls a heartstring. Also, the intro to each episode, "Theorizing that one could time travel..." is much louder than the actual episodes. It's annoying. I have to keep turning the volume down at the beginning of an episode. The picture is okay. They didn't clean it up too much, but it's better than VHS.

All in all, I'm EXTREMELY disappointed. I guess I'll go online and spend $100 bucks on the complete unedited bootleg version. The quality might not be as great, but at least it's the ORIGINAL.

These movie companies better watch out. I'm sure these bootleggers, seeing that the music issue is a problem (if not now, I guarantee it WILL BE SOON), will start selling the studios' high quality picture versions, replacing the generic music with the ORIGINAL MUSIC and selling THAT online. These movie studios are so stupid. They are not in touch with what fans really want. I KNOW for a FACT that people would dish out more money for the UNEDITED VERSIONS, especially fans of Quantum Leap.

I'm just very depressed about this...my favorite show...butchered. I only cringe to think of what they'll do to Season 3. No more "Imagine" by John Lennon in the "Leap Home: Part 1" -- they'll have to cut the whole scene. Oh, and just think of other series..."The Wonder Years" is IN TROUBLE!

Please, to all fans disappointed in this release, go to www.universalstudios.com/...ontact_us/ and voice your opinion.

I give this season 2 DVD one star...I added another star because it's QL and the episodes are still worth watching.
 
Very well said!

Don't worry, we've been discussing how to go about this for the past few days. I can guarantee you Universal will be hearing from a LOT of angered consumers who demand answers and solutions very soon (if they haven't already)! They're not going to get away with this, if we have any say in the matter!

Damon
 
Considering all the times you mentioned bootleg in the review, I doubt if Amazon is gonna post that.
 
False Advertising?

A question - By Naming the set "The COMPLETE Second Season," coupled with giving NO warning or labeling on the outside of the box that the episodes have been changed and edited, isn't this a clear example of misrepresentation and False Advertising (in the legal sense, I mean)? Something to consider when returning your item...:protest

I've been a fan of the show since the original broadcasts, and this is an extremely disappointing situation. I'm not buying Season 2 in anticipation of Universal pulling the same stunt with Season 3 (which has my favorite episode , "Private Dancer," which will no doubt be stripped of the songs in the way "Another Mother" apparently has been.:banghead

Something else annoyed fans can do - go to Amazon.com and post your complaints in the review section with 1 star - The "5 star" rating the set got was from fans who posted before the set was even released - enough low ratings will eventually pull the overall average rating down.:evil
 
QL DVD FIGHT

In response to Dman176 -- I totally agree. We have to right this wrong, ASAP!

In response to Nightmaregod -- If they don't post my review because of the word "bootleg" I'll just go in and edit the review. They will hear my opinion one way or another.

In response to GaryA530 - I agree that this IS INDEED false advertising. It is by no means "COMPLETE".

Well folks, I also contacted my local news station with an e-mail. I asked that they investigate this matter for consumers. Right now, I don't think the majority of people know about this issue. I urge you guys to do keep complaining. If we make a big enough fuss -- someone has to listen.

:shoot
 
Re: QL DVD FIGHT

I haven't recieved my copy yet from Amazon. I am wondering should I cancel and inform Universal that I did so and why?

Not only due to change in music but the so called Bonus features that are not there.

Maybe if people make a big enough fuss they will have to redo the set.

Does anyone know if Debra Pratt, Don Bellasario, Dean or Scott are aware of what is being put out.

Maybe a complaint from them added to ours will force Universal to do something about it. After all their names are on this piece of junk.

Great idea contacting the press!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Azrael:realmad >:
 
Oh by the way before I wrote my previous reply I watched the piece from MIA.

What was that? I only listened to the couple of seconds and couldn't stand it.

They have taken one of the most beautiful gut wrenching scenes in the 5 years of QL and turned it into garbage.

Azrael>: >: >: >: >: >: >: >:
 
Letter to Universal

New here.
Was very much looking forward to Quantum Leap - Season 2. I want to write to Universal in protest. I've written my letter, but I can't find a mailing address on Universal's website. (I'm not surprised.)

Can anyone help?
 
Letter to Universal

Here's my letter by the way. Any comments / corrections?

Dear Sir or Madam:
I recently purchased a copy of ?Quantum Leap: The Complete First Season.? I was looking forward to this release and I was happy that Universal has begun to put Quantum Leap on DVD. I was planning on purchasing all five seasons of this program on DVD as they were released.

However, it has come to my attention that ?Quantum Leap: The Complete Second Season? has been released with major music edits, yet it has been advertised as complete. Additionally, bonus materials were not only advertised in print media, but are advertised on the box itself. This set contains absolutely no bonus material.

I?m sure there are rights issues that created problems with using certain songs (most notably and most regrettably Ray Charles? ?Georgia?) but by removing these songs you have destroyed a good deal of the impact and enjoyment of this series. But regardless of personal feeling, you are advertising and selling a product that claims to be ?The Complete Second Season? of Quantum Leap, which this set is not.

I will not be purchasing ?Quantum Leap: The Complete Second Season? or any subsequent releases of this series, since I am not interested in an edited collection. Additionally, I will be sure to tell everyone I know to avoid all Universal releases as it is impossible to trust a company that relies on false advertising and produces inferior products.
 
Re: Letter to Universal

There may be a reason for the "Georia on My Mind" song being cut but it is still no reason for the music they did put in.

Universal is releasing "RAY" They have to hold some rights maybe QL would overshadow it. OR maybe due to his death there was a problem with the estate.

Last night I cancelled my order. I had really hoped with the 2 month delay that something good was going to come out of it.

Azrael
 
UNIVERSAL LETTERS

I just called their television distribution office and left a message about the DVD and asked for the correct mailing address for DVD complaints. I DO have this address:

Universal TV Distribution
100 Universal City Plz # 3030
Universal City, CA 91608

I don't know if this group specifically handles the QL DVD -- but I'm going to find out. If I get a better address I'll post it.

You can also e-mail them on the Universal website...

:protest
 
Re: UNIVERAL MAIN ADDRESS AND NUMBER

Vivendi Universal Entrtnmnt
(818) 777-1000

Address:
100 Universal City Plz
Universal City, CA 91608
 
Re: UNIVERAL MAIN ADDRESS AND NUMBER

Thanks for the addresses!!! That was step 1 I needed to get something organized!!
 
Re: UNIVERAL CONTACT

Here is a copy of the letter I have just emailed to Universal.
Scifi.com emailed me a newsletter with a link advertising the second season, which gave me a link "Contact US" to Universal studios. I have included the url here for anyone who is having trouble navigating through these growing threads to find the contact details.
homevideo.universalstudio...ldId=35020
(click on link at top ?Contact US? to send your own message of complaint)

To Whom It May Concern:

As an avid and long time fan of ?Quantum Leap? I was absolutely thrilled to learn that the entire series was being released on DVD. I immediately began saving my money, and eagerly counted down the days until the first season became available.
Although I am a British fan, I couldn't wait, and pre-ordered a region 1 version as soon as I could. It arrived in time for my birthday last summer, and I spent a wonderful day with a friend watching the episodes, and the introductions by Scott Bakula, and the little Easter eggs. I loved every minute of it, and was thrilled to have my all time favourite series at last in a quality format.
I was so impressed, I even asked for a region 2 copy which is currently sitting beneath my Christmas tree.
I was equally delighted to learn that Season 2 was to be released so soon, and looked forward to it being as wonderful as the first.
Unfortunately, I have learned from my friends and fellow fans in America that this is not the case.
It seems that Season 2 has poor picture quality, none of the promised bonus features, and worst of all, much of the original music has been replaced with sub-standard generic noise (I won't dignify it with the term music.) This may be little more than an annoyance in many instances, but in the case of the climax to the episode ?MIA?, when the holographic Al (A major character!) dances with his wife Beth to 'their' song ?Georgia on my Mind? by Ray Charles, it is nothing short of sacrilege to remove the original soundtrack. The scene loses much of its dramatic impact without the haunting strains of that song playing. (And yes, I have been able to see and hear the scene with the substituted music, so I am speaking from an informed position.)
I appreciate that there are various factors to be considered when releasing a series to DVD, and that copyright issues and music rights have to be taken into consideration. However, I have not yet talked to a fan (and I am in contact with a good number of them) who does not agree with me that however tight our finances, we would rather wait longer and pay more, to have the complete series as advertised and as we remember it. If you thought we wouldn't notice, you insult us! If you thought we wouldn't care, you underestimate us!
?Quantum Leap? fans are among the most loyal and dedicated people in the world. Witness the lengths we have gone to in order to keep the series alive in our hearts and minds, with brilliant discussion sites on the Internet such as
www.quantumleap-alsplace....sageboard/
and even the ?Virtual Seasons? where fan fiction has extended the original five seasons of television episodes to (currently) 11.
www.quantumleap-alsplace..../main.html
(Here I must boast that I personally have contributed two stories to virtual season 10, and have one due to air in January for season 11).
With all due respect, whilst many fans will still buy the DVD's feeling that any ?Quantum Leap? is better than no ?Quantum Leap?, it is under protest that we do so with season 2 (I myself will be waiting for the region 2 release, in the faint hope that this issue may have been resolved by then). At best, we would ask that the original musical score be restored to the episodes, and that Season 2 be re-released in a format to rival the excellent first season. At least, we fans deserve a proper explanation as to why this did not and cannot happen.
I look forward to your prompt reply on this issue and remain
A Disappointed but devoted ?Quantum Leap? fan.

Helen Earl
(Aka leaper1/leaper8757)
 
While I sympathise with your arguments and agree that the changes made to the DVD's are deplorable, I'd quite happily settle for even a inferior collection of episodes. As a resident of Australia, I doubt I'm ever likely to see the collection released for Region 4. And the more complaints that are made about it, the less likely the release will be expanded to other regions.
The chances of Universal re-releasing the collection in your preferred form are zero. They aren't going to spend a single cent on re-aquiring music liscences for a long defunct TV poperty. The only thing you do by complaining is make the studio think the whole project isn't worth the trouble.
I love Quantum Leap and it is currently not being broadcast on ANY channel in Australia, so this DVD (however incomplete the complete collection may be) is a dream for me. Please don't ruin the dream for others. Be grateful that you have SOMETHING!!
 
No offense, but most QL fans will not settle for something inferior. Universal is going to be hearing from so many angered consumers no matter what we do or don't do. (They already have, and after the holidays, I'm predicting they will be hearing from a lot more.) By the time all the complaints/demands/boycotts come in, Universal's main concern is going to be that they don't go out of business; because at the rate they're going, they will if they don't clean up their act. (It's not just Quantum Leap... there are a LOT of DVD releases that they've screwed up.)

If the fans had not continually pestered NBC and caused their offices to overflow with campaign letters back in 1991, Quantum Leap wouldn't have lasted as long as it did, and that's a fact. It was literally cancelled halfway through the 3rd season, and the fans brought it back from the dead because NBC just simply could NOT ignore the multitude of letters they got. The same applies here. 99.99% of the time, money is always the issue when things like this happen. I dealt with it one too many times myself working at a printer company where rich cheapskates were running the company. They refused to spend money to get up-to-date computer equipment that would actually make the graphic designers' jobs a lot easier, and not experience a dozen network crashes every day. And then, they get on your case when you bill them 8 hours for a 2-hour job. Guess what? I don't work there anymore, because I don't want to work for a company that is going to go bankrupt. Once the multitide of consumers start sending the sets back and demanding their money back, Universal will very likely be losing a LOT of money off of this debacle. At that point, even a moron would realize, "Oh crap, I'd better do something to make the consumers happy, otherwise, I'm out of a job!"
 
Get yourself a region free player, and import the sets from the USA. Problem solved.
 
Still need to write...

I have not really had the time lately. Also it is nice to have some of the ones posted here to give me some idea on were to start. I am not much of a letter writer!

My sister has been watching my season 1 DVDs the last couple of days and I have watched with her. I think I am even more upset about season 2 then I was. Not a single song was changed in the first set. There is a Elvis song, Hank Williams, the song "American Pie", almost every episode has a few songs! Even though I have been posting a lot about the "music rights issue" and while it is still a real problem I think Universal used that as justification for not doing the work needed to get the songs in season 2.
 
Still need to write...

This all seems to me like another classic example of a cheap company/corporation doing what ever it takes to cut costs and save money. Nike did it by laying off American workers in Michigan and opening new factories in Indonesia for a fraction of the cost to produce in the U.S., other companies lay workers off to cut back on expenses, etc.

If Universal Studios could find a cheap loophole for having to acquire rights to songs all over again by using generic music, they will surely do it. I think it's all a business decision. The higher-ups usually don't care what is morally right; their job is to cut costs any way possible no matter what.

I don't know what the case was with the season 1 set, but obviously Universal did what they had to do to and paid for (or got permission to use) each original song (perhaps the short length of the season had something to do with it by having less songs to buy than the 22 episode season 2). But now with season 2, there are 14 more episodes with multiple songs each, so that's a lot more money to spend.

They are looking to make money on this, not spend thousands or millions on this set and make back a fraction of their expenses from what is considered a "cult" following series. Perhaps if it were more mainstream like Sex and the City or The Sopranos, Universal would put the effort into paying for every original song knowing that sales will go through the roof.

In "M.I.A.," one song, "Heard It Through the Grapevine" was preserved because Sam sings along with it in my opinion and they needed to keep it to make the scene make sense. Universal went out of their way to pay for that song, therefore they were just too cheap and lazy to do the same for every other song. :shoot
 
Re: Still need to write...

This really does sound bad.

Surely, if the Ray Charles song was unclearable, rather than replace it with what a previous poster has described as "sub-standard generic noise" to at the very least used a clearable cover version of the song (maybe even going to the expense of *recording* one).

It is a point to bear in mind, however, that some things are unclearable for DVD use at any price. At the moment, for example, songs sung by The Beatles are unclearable at *any* price. Maybe this Ray Charles recording is the same.
 
Re: Still need to write...

But, that's the thing... it's not just "Georgia On My Mind"; it seems to be just about every single song that is not directly mentioned by any of the characters. I ended up receiving the set for Christmas (as I suspected I would), and I've just been watching the first disc. The generic "disco" crap they replaced in "Disco Inferno" sounds more like a cheesy porno riff than the actual disco music that you would have heard playing in 1976. It really takes away from the humor of seeing Al "doing the hustle" when "Do The Hustle" is not actually playing. I like to consider myself somewhat of a music afficianado myself, and trust me, I can almost always tell when something doesn't "sound" right. This is all very likely a result of someone trying to cut corners, who found themselves pressed for time because they didn't go through the proper channels, and then decided, 'Ah, screw it! No one's gonna care!'

I noticed another huge problem on one episode... I'm going to post separately on that one; it was so bad, I couldn't watch it! A VERY clear indication that someone royally screwed up when they transferred the film to digital.