Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The One Where the Dad Has a Beard

Season 2 of Family Ties is on the schedule, but I wouldn't get too excited until we find out which episodes Paramount has cut up for music-related reasons. And when they get to the later seasons, the results will be horrific; I'm not saying "At This Moment" is a great song, but I can't imagine this episode (from season 4) without it:



Something to note about all this music-licensing business is that whether you actually like a particular song has very little to do with whether it works in the context of a show. I've seen some shows where I thought the showrunners must have appalling taste in music, but nonetheless, it's their show, they used the song for its emotional or thematic value, and it's entirely possible for a very good scene to be built around a mediocre song.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Extraordinary how potent cheap music is"
-- Noel Coward, Private Lives

Anonymous said...

Based on how well the first season of WKRP in Cincinnati has reportedly sold (Fox stated that they were "very pleased"), it would appear that most folks either don't know or don't care if the sitcoms they buy on DVD are musically edited, which is depressing, because that gives video companies no incentive to try to come to agreeable terms with music publishers.