TvshowsonDVD.com Review

www.tvshowsondvd.com/sitereviews.cfm?ReleaseID=3860

Well I am surprised to say this but I won't be buying the DVDs. A month ago I joined Netflix, an online DVD rental service. I have been cutting down on the number of DVDs I have been actually buying as a result. But QL was one of those releases I was going to actually buy, no question. But seeing the product...I will save my money. I will be getting the disc through Netflix, so I will be able to judge it with out buying it.

I agree with the review. I am really not that surprised either. This music rights issue is a problem for the whole industry. I am not sure what is going to change that anytime soon... But even still Universal has the absolutely worst track record when it comes to releasing shows on DVD! Their shows are overpriced and have few if any bonus features.

From what I understand it not just a issue of price but of approval. If one of the rights holders objected to the use of one their songs for some reason, they can't use it. It is similar to how actors have to give permission for their likeness to appear in a movie or TV show. To give an example I just saw a movie called "Interstate 60" from Bob Gale who was the writer of "Back to the Future". In this movie one of the characters is watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on TV. It is the scene at the end when Richard Dreyfuss is getting on the spaceship. In the audio commentary Gale mentions that Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss both had to give approval for him to use that clip. They gave it. BUT John Williams would not give him approval to use his musical score for the scene. So the scene appears with a generic imitation done by Gale's own composer.

So if they first get the approval then it becomes an issue of price. Which can addup to thousands if not millions of dollars for the rights to a whole season of a shows songs! It is really insane. I would think having "Georgia" on QL, for example, would be seen as a good promotion for the song by its owners. Leading to people buying Ray Charles CDs. Meaning they would let them use it for a reasonable price. But that is not how the world works I guess...

Re: Re: TvshowsonDVD.com Review

In the audio commentary Gale mentions that Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss both had to give approval for him to use that clip. They gave it. BUT John Williams would not give him approval to use his musical score for the scene. So the scene appears with a generic imitation done by Gale's own composer.

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Well, see, I can sort of understand that. But even that is a bit different... at least, that's how the film was originally; they didn't change anything for the DVD, if I'm reading your post correctly.

I would think having "Georgia" on QL, for example, would be seen as a good promotion for the song by its owners. Leading to people buying Ray Charles CDs. Meaning they would let them use it for a reasonable price. But that is not how the world works I guess..

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Well, this is what we need to TELL everyone concerned in these letters/petitions/etc. Very nicely, we need to explain that "Georgia" holds a very special place in our hearts, and that by omitting the song, it takes away all meaning that that scene had. Let's face it... I would bet there is not a single Quantum Leap fan who hears "Georgia" and doesn't immediately think of Al and Beth's "holographic" dance. Dean's superb acting was greatly diminished by the fact that "Georgia" is not playing when it should. Al reacted according to how much he knew Beth loved that song, and how it made her feel about HIM. Without the song, his reaction makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Even if it had something to do with Ray Charles' family and/or estate not approving the song for whatever reason, we need to plead our case to them as well. They need to watch the scene for themselves, if need be, and realize how much both it and Ray's music affected our lives. I mean, I knew of Ray Charles before QL, but after I saw "MIA" for the first time, I became much more familiar with his music and learned to appreciate it (and him) a whole lot more.

After hearing that quite a few other episodes on this DVD were affected, I'm more and more convinced that this is the result of some idiot working at Universal who took it upon him or herself to cut corners financially and not go through the appropriate measures to ensure that the proper songs would be secured for the DVD releases. Helen said it elsewhere that most of us would probably have GLADLY paid a bit extra if it meant keeping certain details untouched. Quantum Leap is not the only Universal show affected, apparently. Someone has a lot of explaining to do to the fans. The way I feel about this right now is that we should just keep sending petitions (to Universal, to Ray Charles' estate, AND Don Bellisario himself) through snail mail AND e-mail non-stop until they provide us the answers and/or give us what we requested in the first place. The movie and music companies always keep winning and get away with it, and quite frankly, I'm fed up with it how they treat us now. Hell, I could have EASILY put these DVDs together 100% better than the so-called "professionals" have, and they could have paid me much less for the work I did. But no, keep on hiring morons who don't care or know what they're doing! Hmmph...

Damon

I agree Completely!

Your right that example is different but regardless of whether the songs were on the episodes in the beginning they still need new approval and clearance and also give new payment to their owners. Because the original contracts only covered them being used when the episodes are broadcast. The music industry knows a lot of money is made in DVDs so they want a part of it.

But I do agree with you that this a ridiculous situation and we have every reason to be unhappy about this! I just hope everyone realizes that this is not an isolated incident to just Quantum Leap or to just shows from Universal Studios. There are fans of many other shows that are just as pissed off and angry as we are. So we should all send letters. I am definitely going to and I will say that they lost money from someone who would have otherwise bought the DVDs. The real problem I am afraid is there are a lot of casual fans who will not know about any of this ahead a time. So Universal will still make money off of this. I hate to sound pessimistic but I can't imagine them redoing season 2, until the next home video format comes along. >: If our letters have an effect and hopefully Don and Deborah will get involved the rest of the seasons sets might not have these problems. But I don't see Universal recalling season 2 or doing a second version of it.

Re: I agree Completely!

My question is, did Universal even give notice that the music was going to change? It's very disturbing that it has to be done period, but to not even let us know about it...

I recently read on TVShowsonDVD that the same thing is happening with the opening theme of "Married With Children's" season 3 set, but Sony actually sent out memos about it.

No Notice on Change

No there was no early notice on these changes at all. That is really not that uncommon in these cases. But normally there is a small notice of song changes on the package though. Some studios even try to sell song replacement as an improvement by saying on the covers "Featuring New Exciting Songs!". At least even in those cases people know things have been changed. The thing that really upsets me is the way they tried to sell a overall sub par set with no publicity. Normally there would have been a press release when the cover art was released as to what the bonus features were going to be. If they were not planning any normally a studio would say so. But they released no info on bonus features, one way or the other. Then the actual package actually says it has bonus features! By not releasing any of the specs for the set, they were hoping no one would notice or care.

If it was just the Ray Charles estate, that would be the only song missing. It sounds like Universal just went on the cheap and didn't spring for the majority of the music. Kung Fu Fighting and Georgia are probably not held by the same companies, as an example. So, unless all of these disparate groups decided independently of each other to hold out for a ton of money, I think Universal just decided to take the easy way out. I won't support that.