Today was My 3 Sons day, I watched "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year" ep. 1.11. First I watched my Canadian TV Land version because I like the original music and I thought the Canadian TV Land broadcasts were uncut. I learned differently. In the Canada TV Land version near the end of the episode, the epilogue, the scene of Rob saying goodnight to the hot and young Judy (from Lost In Space) he goes in to give her a peck and off camera he yelps in pain. Next thing, it cuts to a side view of Rob looking at his face in the mirror (you still don't see his face) and Steve asks how'd it go, Rob yelps in joy now and hops up the stairs.

But that break between Rob trying to kiss Judy outside her home and then suddenly there he is at home in the hall looking at his face, it just seemed like it was too abrupt a change and I suspected some Canadian TV Land editing had been at work. As usual I was right. I learned today that the Canadian TV Land showings ARE edited.

So's I next got out the ME TV version and sure enough, that end scene was cut on Canada TV Land. Here's how it really happened from Me TV showing, Rob goes in to give Judy a fast kiss and yelps in pain, sure enough, BUT then the scene changes to the Douglas home and from the camera point of view from outside an open kitchen window we see Bub as he is looking out and talking to Steve in the kitchen about how Rob is doing out on his first date with Judy or as she's called in the show, "Pig". They talk a while about it then they hear the front door open and quietly spy out the kitchen door and that's when the scene goes to Rob looking at himself in the hallway mirror, the rest plays out the way it did on Canadian TV Land. So this scene was definitely edited out on Canadian TV Land.

Now the further news on this episode is that ME TV did their own version of editing too. How? In the TV Land version there was a very thoughtful and quiet moment of dialogue between Chip and Rob in the bedroom late at night and both being up in bed when the room was dark. It takes place after Rob & Judy have been having a hard time, Judy's mad at him and he doesn't understand why. This scene was shot from outside the open window of their bedroom and the moonlight was shining brightly on Rob & Chip sitting up in bed from behind the camera. Chip says to Rob something like "It sure is bright outside." Rob and Chip are both looking out the window and Rob says sort of sadly, "I wish there was a way to turn off the moon at night." Or something like that, anyway, the scene was a very touching and quiet little moment you never see in any sitcom of today. Now this very nice scene WAS edited out of the ME TV version, so they edited out the quiet Rob & Chip scene but left intact the complete version of the ending of the show. You takes a little and you gives a little.

By the way, even in the original TV Land version, the music used in the background was not typical My 3 Sons music, in fact, I didn't recognize any of it. So in the new music ME TV version, the music they used was really just as good or bad as the, shall we say, bad non-My 3 Sons music used in the original. Why it was decided originally for this one episode that they would not use My 3 Sons music is anyone's guess. This was one case where the new music version is just as good or bad as the original non-authentic My 3 Sons music.

So in the case of this episode, sounds like the best source is the CBS DVD.

On my Canadian TV Land set, 1-11 is "short", running only 24:24. (Episode 1-3 also runs short, but that's because the end credits are missing.) The rest of the episodes appear to be full-length--the only problem (that isn't really a problem--just turn it up) is slightly low audio levels.

Just as a brief follow-up, this week I watched the next episode, 1.12 "My 3 Strikers". I didn't even bother wasting time on the phony music ME TV version, I went straight to my vintage TV Land version. And, yes, in this episode the good old familiar background music is heard again, (for some unknown reason the familiar music was not used even in the original previous episode) and in 1.12 this included hearing my favorite harmonica background original sound. I begin to think now that I wasted a lot of discs recording the ME TV b/w seasons 1 & 2 as the new music just ruins it for me.

MeTV is in season 3 now, and the original music sounds "right." The video looks better this time around, probably because I finally hooked up a new TV.

It occurs to me to edit the TV Land version and the MeTV version together (where there isn't a music issue), but even this isn't possible due to the mismatched volume.

CBS/Paramount is terrible with music licensing. They ought to hand over their operation to a studio that can do it right. Shout got their act together in the last few years, but now they're off into weirdoland and they don't seem to do any mainstream DVDs anymore.

Right, there was never a problem with background music in a sitcom before, Shout released Dennis The Menace, Hazel, That Girl, etc etc and all the original glorious music was heard. No problem. Suddenly My 3 Sons comes along and background music, of all things, is suddenly an issue.

It seems to me that the people who did these shows way back when, were paid to do their jobs, they did their job for a studio that hired them. The shows themselves STILL belonged to the studios that made them, not the people in the credits. Just because you're one of the people listed in the credits doesn't mean you're entitled to be paid thruout eternity and that you can hold up the release of DVDs of a show that the studio, not a credit, still owns and can therefore do with it as they please.

I've heard of actual real songs being an issue (for example, real popular songs are heard in 77 Sunset Strip and I believe that's the reason that show isn't on DVD, rights the authors of those original popular songs still have) but a person employed doing BACKGROUND music for a show, was someone doing his job for a show that was not owned by him but by the studio. Therefore he deserves nothing but the money he was originally paid when he did his job. Too bad a good lawyer working for CBS or whoever owns My 3 Sons couldn't get this point made in court. It only is common sense.

Wouldn't it be nice if all of us could be paid in perpetuity for any job we did 30, 40 and 50 years ago.

IMO there are some paranoid idiots over at CBS. Producers back in the day used that John Seely generic music because it was CHEAP. That's why it's heard on so many programs. But it's good because it FITS. That end of program flare tells you THE END.

As you say a lot of the same music is on DTM, Hazel, etc. Shout probably didn't give it a second thought, and I'll bet they had no problem.

Now when they start using "real" songs that weren't composed for TV, is when they run into trouble. I listened very carefully to the Bachelor Father episodes that Antenna TV didn't show, and virtually all of them had music performances of real music. Like I said in another thread John Forsythe seemed to spare no expense at Bachelor Productions. But some x number of years date probably passed, and maybe the original contracts expired.

I'm hearing some of that John Seely music on Father Knows Best right now. It's an eerie one that's on Sea Hunt a lot. I'll bet if I pulled out my FKB S4 DVD it would be on there, too.