Sunday, August 17, 2008

How Can You Laugh When You Know I'm Down?

I'm not going to be posting all the episodes from WKRP season 1, since those are on Hulu -- albeit in the butchered version -- and apart from the difficulty of posting them, it's more iffy to material that's already online in an official version. ("A Date With Jennifer" is an exception because the online version is missing so many scenes, apart from musical ones.) But I do want to at least re-introduce some of the musical material that is missing from those Hulu episodes. So from the season 1 episode "Preacher" -- the third episode produced, but for some reason held over and aired after the regular season was over -- here is the original opening, where Johnny Fever plays "I'm Down" by the Beatles. I believe this was the only time in the first or second season that the Beatles were used; they were really expensive even with the reduced licensing costs for taped shows. On the DVD/Hulu version this song is replaced with a generic instrumental, leaving you with the question of why they're pausing for 30 seconds to let us listen to nothing.



3 comments:

VP81955 said...

And "I'm Down" -- Paul McCartney's ultimate tribute to Little Richard -- is simply one of the greatest "B" sides known to man. (That, Wanda Jackson's "Funnel Of Love" and a few things by Creedence Clearwater Revival.)

Anonymous said...

I Love That Song Is Better, No Replacement Not New Song Is Bad-Nice Better Old Song By WKRP In Cincinnati Radio On Music The Cars - Just What I Needed/The Beatles - I'm Down Remember The E! Channel. Thanks Christopher!

Anonymous said...

I hope you upload the part of Turkey's Away with the Pink Floyd segment. What they did on the DVD was beyond travesty. Chris, I'd love to see the "Dogs" scene. I refused to buy the DVDs as I want to watch the show as it aired. The scene where Pink Floyd's "Dogs" was used was only time I heard a Pink Floyd track on a US TV show. I think sales of the Animals album increased due to that segment.