Well, this is entirely unsurprising and also extremely disappointing: reports are surfacing that that the upcoming DVD release of WKRP in Cincinnati — one of my all-time favorite television comedies — has been heavily edited because of music clearance issues. Jaime J. Weinman has the details, but the short version is that pretty much all of the original music from the show is gone. And so are many scenes in which characters explicitly reference the original music, or which only make sense in the context of viewers hearing the music (like the infamous scene in which Mr. Carlson asks burn-out DJ Johnny Fever if he hears dogs barking while a Pink Floyd album plays).
I can’t begin to tell you what a bummer this is; as I’ve written before, the use of real music by real bands was a large part of what made ‘KRP cool. Hearing the actual recording of, say, “Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger, instead of a lame cover or some generic tune lent this sitcom about radio disc jockeys a layer of verisimilitude that was extremely rare in television at that time. The music was such a large part of the show’s identity and success, and many of the most memorable moments from the show — the ones that have stuck in my head for years — are inextricably tied to specific songs. (Les Nessman preparing for his date with sex-bomb Jennifer, for instance, just won’t be as effective without “Hot Blooded,” and the entire episode “The Americanization of Ivan” becomes pointless — and maybe even incomprehensible — without Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.”) After Universal managed to bring out Miami Vice with its original music still intact, I was hoping, really hoping, that WKRP would also get done right. Even a partially edited version would’ve been acceptable, if it was done with intelligence. To quote Weinman:
I felt, and still feel, that you can create a legitimate DVD release of WKRP by changing songs at the margins (songs played only in ten-second snippets; songs that aren’t identified by name or timed to the scene) and leaving in the “essential” songs.
But Fox was either unable or unwilling to do it that way, so we’re ending up with DVD episodes that are, according to Weinman and others, even more heavily altered than the syndication versions that occasionally turn up on television.
Perhaps in the coming years, when the changes wrought by technology have forced a reformation of copyright law and made it easier to deal with these music-licensing issues, ‘KRP will be revisited on whatever video format then dominates. But I doubt it. I have a sinking feeling that this will be it. Fans like myself are going to be faced with the uncomfortable choice of whether to buy an inferior product to demonstrate our support for this series, or ignoring this release and proving to the studio that there is no market for it, and, thus, no reason to pursue it any further. I know I said a while back that I’d prefer to have these shows available in some form than not at all, but I was still hoping at the time that the cuts wouldn’t be so extensive. (Weinman says there’re only half-a-dozen real songs left out of the 50 or so that were heard in the original broadcasts.) And I find I just can’t bring myself to shell out the money for something so far removed from the way I remember this series.
It’s Star Wars all over again. And I guess my solution to the problem will have to be the same. Until some miracle enables me to buy an official release of WKRP in Cincinnati that’s worth my money and attention, does anyone know of a source for decent-quality bootlegs?
