I have noticed several cheap collections of eps from various 60s sitcoms, and about five DVD eps from early in the 2nd season are included, including Never Name a Duck and Bank Book 6565696. Someone once mentioned that these eps are somehow in the public domain. How did these eps end up in the public domain while the other 150+ eps did not? These cheap sets often include various B&W eps of The Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, and Petticoat Junction and color eps of The Lucy Show from the last three years when the show was set in LA rather than CT. I've bought cheap collections of Petticoat Junction and Beverly Hillbillies eps, and I'm watching The Giant Jackrabbit ep of BH, which is still the highest-rated 1/2 hour show of all time back to 1960. I don't know how the BH owners let that one slip into public domain. One characteristic of all these cheap collections is how the shows are missing their opening theme songs. The Petticoat Junction eps were played w/ some banjo music, and the Beverly Hillbillies eps have a theme w/ banjo music which in parts sounds like the show's theme song, but the words are not heard. Have all these shows fallen into some loophole where anyone can take the eps and put them on a tape for free as long as the theme music is not played? It would be interesting to know.

Yes, Jehobden,
Any creative work that's in the public domain is considered public property, and can be used (or sold) by anyone. Theme songs often written and copyrighted separately from the series they are used for, so in most every case the theme song is still the property of it's creators.
A few episodes of TDVDS, probably as many as 10, are in the public domain.
This unfortunate circumstance happened to many great (and not so great) TV shows of that era. In rare instances, the episodes may not have been originally copyrighted. More often, the original copyrights were secured but were not properly renewed.
TDVDS is somewhat fortunate, however. In the case of Andy Griffith there are 16 episodes, Bonanza has 31 and there are many others, like "The Lucy Show," 28, and the "Beverly Hillbilly's," 55.

Steve

This is an interesting topic, fellas. Thanks! I remember a few years ago a local religious station was showing "Bonanza" but they didn't call it that and it was minus the theme song. I thought it might be a publc domain issue. But why some episodes and not others? Don't they use the same procedure to secure rights to all episodes?

JudgeGarth,
The history of Copyright Law is very detailed and boring. One misstep, especially under the old laws, could cause you to lose control of of your work forever. The old laws were from the turn of the previous century, and didn't take into account many of the changes that were going on in entertainment and technology. Add to this that the only way you could remember to renew, or to even file for copyright protection in the first place was by a secretary and a folder-based filing cabinet system (not a computer-based schedule or filing system, as we have today), and you can see how things could get lost in a shuffle really quick. If a key secretary left your employ, or a file got misplaced, poof!
The laws have been revised as of the late 70s, and offer much better protection.
Here's a really boring link for when you're having trouble falling asleep some night, Copyright Basics (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wwp)

Steve