The use of the I Love Lucy theme

[Ireneparalegal]

I had posted the question in a post but I guess it didn't get noticed. Maybe making it a thread will make it stand out more.

Why is it in some instances -such as in the Jimmy Smits movie, MY FAMILY, as a scene is showing I Love Lucy playing on the television, the I Love Lucy theme IS NOT THE ACTUAL THEME being played? Are there restrictions on who can or can't play the actual theme?

[Madame X]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

I had posted the question in a post but I guess it didn't get noticed. Maybe making it a thread will make it stand out more.

Why is it in some instances -such as in the Jimmy Smits movie, MY FAMILY, as a scene is showing I Love Lucy playing on the television, the I Love Lucy theme IS NOT THE ACTUAL THEME being played? Are there restrictions on who can or can't play the actual theme?

That is interesting. I've never had an opportunity to notice that. When Blanche and Rose were watching the ILL marathon, I don't recall whether the theme played.

I wonder what kind of permission someone had to get to make that terrible "Disco Lucy" song?

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by Madame X

That is interesting. I've never had an opportunity to notice that. When Blanche and Rose were watching the ILL marathon, I don't recall whether the theme played.

I wonder what kind of permission someone had to get to make that terrible "Disco Lucy" song?

Wasn't that song just horrible? My gosh.

For those who don't know, the ILL theme was written by Harold Adamson and Eliot Daniel. I am trying to find info regarding the use of the theme song but can't find anything that answers my question.

[batcat24]

Good quiestion I don't know.

[Elvis Fonzie Dean]

A DISCO I Love Lucy theme?

Gotsta to get freaky to that.

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by Elvis Fonzie Dean

A DISCO I Love Lucy theme?

Gotsta to get freaky to that.

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

I had posted the question in a post but I guess it didn't get noticed. Maybe making it a thread will make it stand out more.

Why is it in some instances -such as in the Jimmy Smits movie, MY FAMILY, as a scene is showing I Love Lucy playing on the television, the I Love Lucy theme IS NOT THE ACTUAL THEME being played? Are there restrictions on who can or can't play the actual theme?

This is most likely due to current copyright laws. I'm guessing CBS owns the copyright to the theme and would probably charge an arm and a leg to anyone who wants to use it. So they just make up their own theme. There was some biography type show -- can't remember what it was -- that would do episodes on various TV series. They would always come up with some music that, in an odd way, sort of sounded like the theme music for the show they were covering, but was still different enough that they couldn't be sued. Personally, I prefer no music to hearing these odd concoctions they come up with. It's kind of sad that the laws have gotten this way. As a result, shows like "The Carol Burnett Show," which used music from a lot of popular songs on each show, could not be produced today because it would be too expensive to pay off all the people they would need to pay to use those songs. You may have heard about the recent DVD release of "WKRP in Cincinnati," which played a lot of pop tunes. They had to take all that music out of the episodes in order to be able to afford to release the DVDs (typical TV series DVD revenue would not have been enough to cover the costs involved in paying copyright owners for use of their songs). I would think that having to take out all those songs would really spoil the episodes.

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by NOVARick

This is most likely due to current copyright laws. I'm guessing CBS owns the copyright to the theme and would probably charge an arm and a leg to anyone who wants to use it. So they just make up their own theme. There was some biography type show -- can't remember what it was -- that would do episodes on various TV series. They would always come up with some music that, in an odd way, sort of sounded like the theme music for the show they were covering, but was still different enough that they couldn't be sued. Personally, I prefer no music to hearing these odd concoctions they come up with. It's kind of sad that the laws have gotten this way. As a result, shows like "The Carol Burnett Show," which used music from a lot of popular songs on each show, could not be produced today because it would be too expensive to pay off all the people they would need to pay to use those songs. You may have heard about the recent DVD release of "WKRP in Cincinnati," which played a lot of pop tunes. They had to take all that music out of the episodes in order to be able to afford to release the DVDs (typical TV series DVD revenue would not have been enough to cover the costs involved in paying copyright owners for use of their songs). I would think that having to take out all those songs would really spoil the episodes.

I see. I wasn't sure who owns the ILL theme. It irks me to see that scene in MY FAMILY and hear that imitation theme. The scene could have been done without the theme, I mean, once you show a snippet of ILL on a television, I am sure the whole world will know what the people in the movie are watching. ILL is universal.

I don't have WKRP on DVD but one of the reasons is because I don't think I could stand to hear "fake" songs being played rather than the original songs in the scenes. It really is a sad state of affairs when owners of songs are thinking "deep pockets" rather than "Hey, if this DVD sells 2 million copies, even if I only charge $_____ for the use of my song, that is still a lot of money."

[Benno123]

I know that the publishing rights to the ILL theme and a couple of other original songs did, at one time anyway, belong to Paul McCartney through his MPL Communications. I just did a music search on the webpage, and I found the theme to ILL and "Nobody Loves The Ump" listed, though there may be more Lucy-related songs with licenses available from MPL.