Great News re: Frank's Place DVD!
Check this out..
http://www.TVShowsOnDVD.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=10853
Yes, on balance VERY good news.
I remember thinking it had the best juke box on TV - Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, all the genuine rhythm & blues classics as opposed to the current "R 'n B" marketing ploys.
Not sure how much was actually relevant to New Orleans, but so what...
Yes I'd miss the music but YES I'd buy the DVD - I was happy enough to buy WKRP and am disappointed I'll have to rely on bootlegs for the rest of that.
And it's irritating that the music rights are probably now owned by sharp operators four or five times removed from the original writers...but that's show biz, I guess!
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/122629810510710.xml&coll=1&thispage=3
" A DVD release of "Frank's Place," the New Orleans-set sitcom that aired on CBS in 1987 and 1988, is apparently growing closer. No timetable is set, but star and co-creator Tim Reid said he has convinced CBS to allow him to release the show's 22 episodes on DVD. However, purchasing rights to the music used in the series is still prohibitively costly...Set in a restaurant based on Austin Leslie's Chez Helene, the series came as close as anything ever filmed to capturing the languid pace and perplexing social codes of life in the Crescent City, even though the show was shot entirely on a Los Angeles soundstage.
Starting with the opening theme -- Louis Armstrong's "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" -- "Frank's Place's" quirky soundtrack was vital to its verisimilitude. Reid said his current plan is to "re-create the mood of the music, the original stuff" with a newly written score performed by musicians who can accurately render New Orleans music. "We have to redo that style," Reid said. "It could be done quite nicely, I think. "To re-create the sound of New Orleans, you just can't grab stuff done by any artist. It has to be done in the style of (Allen) Toussaint and all the other people who've made New Orleans music. "It has to be in the mood of the show or I'd rather not do it.""
Stupid greedy record industry...
WKRP in Cincinnati had the same situation. The lack of the original music really had an effect on the DVDs. Sigh.
I really liked this show when it came out and still remember some of the episodes. I'd buy the DVDs if they ever released them.