Bosom Buddies - Different themes - What determines which is used?

[Jake1965]

As we all know, when "BOSOM BUDDIES" first premiered on ABC, the opening theme was a cover version of Billy Joel's "My Life". Once the series surfaced in syndication (most frequently on the USA Network), the opening theme was replaced by "Never Gonna Shake Me Loose", which was the vocal version of the end theme. Now, I had always assumed that after the series ended its original network runs (ABC, followed by the brief NBC run), the production company no longer had the rights to use "My Life", leading them to replace the opening theme. However, now that "BOSOM BUDDIES" has reappeared on TBS in the wee hours of Saturday mornings, the episodes still have the original "My Life" theme intact.

Finally, to my question...does anyone know FOR CERTAIN why some airings are allowed to use the original opening theme while others have the second opening theme in use from the very first episode? I considered that perhaps the TBS episodes being aired were the original network masters, leaving everything intact while the USA (and other) airings were the edited syndicated tapes. I discounted this theory right away when there were major edits already seen in the TBS episodes being aired (very noticeable during the end credits when you can see scenes that didn't appear). My only other theory is this: Could both versions be available for broadcast but the episodes featuring the original "My Life" theme have a higher licensing fee attached to them to cover the music royalties, leading most networks/stations to use the episodes featuring the second theme instead at a lower licensing cost? I'd sure appreciate it if someone would post the real answers to this quandry.

Thanks,

JT

[owepar]

Your theory on higher licensing price is a good theory, but that doesn't explain why the "Shake Me Loose" theme appears on the home video version of the show....

When I first saw the show in the late '80s, on a small local station, it was run with the "My Life" theme. Now, if there was a higher fee for that song, you'd think that they would have opted for "Shake Me Loose" and USA would have played "My Life." I like both songs but it all seems senseless to me....

[AKA]

Originally posted by owepar
Your theory on higher licensing price is a good theory, but that doesn't explain why the "Shake Me Loose" theme appears on the home video version of the show....

It actually kind of does. The agreement probably was that they could only use it for television airings. If they were to use it for the vidoes, they'd probably have to go back into negotiation hell with Joelsongs (the publisher), and to be honest, I don't think that - at this point in his life - Billy wants to hear one of his compositions as a television theme song.