It’s been a loooooong time since I posted a TV Title Sequence. Here’s a cool one:

Mmmmm, young Marg Helgenberger… And Robert Picardo with hair! How weird is that?

I can’t recall if I ever actually watched China Beach, or if I was just aware of it through the Vietnam-obsessed zeitgeist of late ’80s television. Even so, I’m tempted to go ahead and spend the $200 Time Life wants for its exclusive release of this series, just to support the effort TL made to license all the original period music used in the show. Yes, that’s a lot of money for a four-season show that only totals 65 episodes, considering most TV series can be had for around $20 or $30 bucks a season these days. And it’s especially spendy for what amounts to a blind buy for me, since I don’t really remember the series. But there’s a principle at stake here that I firmly believe: TV shows that integrated “real” music into their storylines ought to be released intact, as they originally aired, or there’s no point in releasing them at all. Universal did it the right way with Miami Vice; the season sets of that one were a bit more money than other DVD sets, at least when they were first released (you can pick them up cheap now), but true Vice fans were willing to pay a premium to have the show done properly. Fox, on the other hand, dropped the ball badly on its first and only WKRP in Cincinnati release, when the set came out at an economical price point but practically every song had been replaced by generic music, or cut altogether. Even scenes when the characters themselves were singing got cut out. ‘KRP fans rightfully rejected this stillborn disaster, and Fox has declined to do anything else with the property, alas.

Getting back to China Beach, I like to commend Time Life for taking the trouble to pursue the licenses, and the gamble that fans will be willing to pay for. Now, is there anything you can do about The Wonder Years and/or acquiring the aforementioned WKRP from Fox for a second try?