Season 3 DVD Music Edits

[Eric Paddon]

Unfortunately, it's looking like there are more music edits in this set than we were hoping to see, given how in S2 only one piece of unobtrusive background music got changed. The verified ones gone are:

1-Oscar and Felix both doing a line of "Cocktails For Two" in "I Gotta Be Me", and this unfortunately leads to the loss of the tag's closing punchline where Oscar shuts Felix in the closet.

2-In "The Odd Monks" as Felix ruminates on clouds and the monks start leaving to join Oscar's dice game, he starts singing "Look For The Silver Lining." The singing is gone and there is an awkward jump-cut.

3-Felix's singing of "Peg O My Heart" to his fern in another episode has been altered so that instead we hear Felix honking from his sinuses.

Any more there is to report would be appreciated.

[sbeamish]

Arrrgghhhhh!!!!

I just got my disks today, so I haven't had the chance to watch any episodes yet.

But this is not good news.

[Skywalker]

The Ides of April - The part where Felix starts singing the song "Friendship" has been cut.

Oscar's Birthday - The part where Majorie Marshall tap dances to music that Murray plays on his ukulele has been cut.

[Skywalker]

Originally Posted by Eric Paddon

1-Oscar and Felix both doing a line of "Cocktails For Two" in "I Gotta Be Me", and this unfortunately leads to the loss of the tag's closing punchline where Oscar shuts Felix in the closet.

Out of all the cuts on the season 3 DVD, this one is the worst, IMO. The other cuts don't bother me too much but "I Gotta Be Me" is one of my favorite episodes and that tag scene at the end was hilarious.

[Jack1000]

Originally Posted by Skywalker

Out of all the cuts on the season 3 DVD, this one is the worst, IMO. The other cuts don't bother me too much but "I Gotta Be Me" is one of my favorite episodes and that tag scene at the end was hilarious.

What is the last line in this episode?

Jack

[Eric Paddon]

After Felix says, "I sing better than you do," which is where the DVD freezes, he then starts singing "Cocktails For Two" as he puts his coat in the closet. As he's inside the closet, Oscar without saying anything, closes the door on him. Freeze.

[Eric Paddon]

One other edit to report that annoys me, is in the final episode "The Murray Who Came Home To Dinner." No longer there is Oscar, complaining about the odd hours Murray keeps suddenly breaking into the opening line of "I Want The Sun In The Morning And The Moon At Night" and Felix picks it up, going, "I thought you wanted to sing".

If there's any pattern to detect with these cuts, it's as if Paramount is willing to (1) leave alone extended singing that constitutes a full-blown musical number performace. On "Hawaii Five-O" they left intact two episodes with multiple singing performances by guest stars, and the Richard Fredericks rendition of "If Ever I Would Leave You" in S2 would also fall in this category. And (2) they'll leave in a random line of singing if it can't be edited cleanly or covered in a way where only the diehard would realize something is missing. All the cuts I've seen, I will grudgingly admit happen in a way where the discerning eye might not pick up on the edit, except for the loss of "Look For The Silver Lining" in "The Odd Monks" where the cut is very abrupt and noticable.

So, I think with that in mind, we shouldn't worry about seeing *big* music performance bits in the final two seasons like "Laugh Clown Laugh" or the performance bits by Paul Williams, Martina Arroyo, Roy Clark, Jaye P. Morgan etc. cut. What we have to start worrying about for S4 and S5 are those isolated moments with a random line or two of singing by Felix and if we can envision an edit being done unobtrusively.

For "A Different Drummer" I'm not worried about "Stumbling All Around" being cut because it's too prominent in the episode. But I wouldn't be surprised if the final chorus of "Sweet Sue" by Felix and Monty Hall gets cut, since I can easily envision them freeze-framing things after Felix goes "Hi, Mom!" in the tag before Monty starts that final singing bit.

[Jack1000]

Originally Posted by Eric Paddon

One other edit to report that annoys me, is in the final episode "The Murray Who Came Home To Dinner." No longer there is Oscar, complaining about the odd hours Murray keeps suddenly breaking into the opening line of "I Want The Sun In The Morning And The Moon At Night" and Felix picks it up, going, "I thought you wanted to sing".

If there's any pattern to detect with these cuts, it's as if Paramount is willing to (1) leave alone extended singing that constitutes a full-blown musical number performace. On "Hawaii Five-O" they left intact two episodes with multiple singing performances by guest stars, and the Richard Fredericks rendition of "If Ever I Would Leave You" in S2 would also fall in this category. And (2) they'll leave in a random line of singing if it can't be edited cleanly or covered in a way where only the diehard would realize something is missing. All the cuts I've seen, I will grudgingly admit happen in a way where the discerning eye might not pick up on the edit, except for the loss of "Look For The Silver Lining" in "The Odd Monks" where the cut is very abrupt and noticable.

So, I think with that in mind, we shouldn't worry about seeing *big* music performance bits in the final two seasons like "Laugh Clown Laugh" or the performance bits by Paul Williams, Martina Arroyo, Roy Clark, Jaye P. Morgan etc. cut. What we have to start worrying about for S4 and S5 are those isolated moments with a random line or two of singing by Felix and if we can envision an edit being done unobtrusively.

For "A Different Drummer" I'm not worried about "Stumbling All Around" being cut because it's too prominent in the episode. But I wouldn't be surprised if the final chorus of "Sweet Sue" by Felix and Monty Hall gets cut, since I can easily envision them freeze-framing things after Felix goes "Hi, Mom!" in the tag before Monty starts that final singing bit.

The main issue though is that it's not Paramount that is volunteering to do the edits. The copyright holders either want one of several things:

1.) They are happy with the money given to them to give the song notoriety.

2.) They will allow about 10 seconds of a song to be sung or hummed but that is all. (I heard that they did this for The Mary Tyler Moore Show in Season 1 for "White Christmas." Irving Berlin's estate people wanted too much money for the whole song.)

3.) Or the copyright owners will be so stubborn and say, "no reproduction of the song," or offer up such a large sum of money that to get the rights cleared, the DVD company would have to charge something like $65.00 for an otherwise $30 disk. SCTV had to go through so much red tape to get music rights that the disks I heard are Best of volume sets, running about $70-$80!

Having said that, I think Paramount did the best they could do. Although why, Oscar's explanation for Murry's long hours was cut remains a mystery. That's some great lines there!

But the alternative is 22 minute syndicate or TV Land prints so what can you do? They will have to get full rights for later music episodes such as "The Paul Williams Show, and Laugh Clown Laugh" because the DVD's tragically will be undoable without those songs!

Jack

[sbeamish]

It must be reason number 2, because in The Murray Who Came To Dinner, although they cut the initial reference to that song, Oscar can be heard mumbling the lyrics as he enters the apartment with good news for Felix.

[Eric Paddon]

If it was choose one or the other for 10 seconds, I wish it had been the earlie scene because in the cut scene the song is used for a funny joke. Oscar sings it because he's going nuts and Felix joins in. Collectively, I don't think that added up to ten seconds!

[treky]

Originally Posted by Jack1000

The main issue though is that it's not Paramount that is volunteering to do the edits. The copyright holders either want one of several things:

1.) They are happy with the money given to them to give the song notoriety.

2.) They will allow about 10 seconds of a song to be sung or hummed but that is all. (I heard that they did this for The Mary Tyler Moore Show in Season 1 for "White Christmas." Irving Berlin's estate people wanted too much money for the whole song.)

3.) Or the copyright owners will be so stubborn and say, "no reproduction of the song," or offer up such a large sum of money that to get the rights cleared, the DVD company would have to charge something like $65.00 for an otherwise $30 disk. SCTV had to go through so much red tape to get music rights that the disks I heard are Best of volume sets, running about $70-$80!

Having said that, I think Paramount did the best they could do. Although why, Oscar's explanation for Murry's long hours was cut remains a mystery. That's some great lines there!

But the alternative is 22 minute syndicate or TV Land prints so what can you do? They will have to get full rights for later music episodes such as "The Paul Williams Show, and Laugh Clown Laugh" because the DVD's tragically will be undoable without those songs!

Jack

yes; I've heard all this too. Shame that people are so greedy.



It's like my brother says "The entire world runs on the allmighty dollar".

[faraj]

Originally Posted by sbeamish

It must be reason number 2, because in The Murray Who Came To Dinner, although they cut the initial reference to that song, Oscar can be heard mumbling the lyrics as he enters the apartment with good news for Felix.

You mean the sun in the morning and the moon at night song? coz I just saw that ep. on DVD the other night, and I noticed that singing was left out too.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Originally Posted by Jack1000

The main issue though is that it's not Paramount that is volunteering to do the edits. The copyright holders either want one of several things:

2.) They will allow about 10 seconds of a song to be sung or hummed but that is all. (I heard that they did this for The Mary Tyler Moore Show in Season 1 for "White Christmas."

Jack

Actually White Christmas is cut from the dvd, even though 10 sec is only actually sung in the original episode....it does appear uncut on the VHS release without copyguard.

[sbeamish]

Originally Posted by faraj

You mean the sun in the morning and the moon at night song?

Yep.