Why do US box sets of their own classic TV series suck so much?

Not in the UK. The UK releases of TOD had the proper soundtrack from the off. It was the US release that had all the music removed - just like Fall guy, equalizer, Hunter, TOD, Quantum Leap etc. Just odd how outside of the US these classic series are given far better treatment. What music is missing from only fools and horses? Sometimes I can understand them removing one or two tracks that would clearly demand ludicrous royalties (like Led Zeppelin, or Beatles or something) but it seems in the states they don't want to pay for anything at all. Miami vice being the exception.

Massive oversimplification.

If the costs of the music makes it impossible to turn a profit of course they won't do it. Would you if you would lose money?

I think the main reason is differing copyright laws. It may be much cheaper to get music from the US liscenced in another country, in some cases they might be able to get away without purchasing rights at all.

For example my brother lives in Panama, and most everything video related complete bypasses copyrights altogether. It's all bootlegs of some type or another. So if it's available there its pretty much as seen on tv.

Holders of the rights to various music may think well if it's for sale in the US them we can ask more, and make it to difficult for distributers to not just lose money. Our even just to risky that they might.

I am guessing distributing old shows poses considerable risk. It has to be difficult to have a good idea of how well shows like this will sell. Kind of hard to know how large of a cult following there is for long canceled shows.

Keeping costs of things like music, packaging, dvd options etc. down allows smaller dristibuters to take a risk and at least bring a show to the market, where otherwise you might not get it at all.