MovieChat Forums > Just the Ten of Us Discussion > Official DVD

Official DVD

posted 15 years ago by Moondog-6
15 replies | jump to latest

I know a person who works in the television industry, and we were talking about old TV shows coming onto DVD. Just The 10 Of Us came up and she explained that the show most likely will not get an official release due to the many musical segments. As most of you know when shows come onto DVD they often have their music changed or eduted out from the original broadcast version. This is because the company leased the rights to the music and does not want to pay for the rights to the music again (home video rights are often renegotiated from broadcast rights). That's why shows like The Odd Couple, That 70's Show and Tales From The Darkside have their music edited out or changed. The problem with Just The 10 Of Us is that whole episodes relied on musical selections, and the company doesn't believe DVD sales will be worth the time and expense of paying for the many musical copyrights. So unless the situation changes, Just The 10 Of Us on Official DVD is just a pipe dream.

[–] UGLYINTHAMORNING 15 years ago

I know Many many people say the same thing when coming to theses forums, that some dvds will never have an Official release blah blah blah & within a three year span they are release.

and soon after that the postee is never heard from again.

I recalled some postee once said that they knew people in TV Industry saying that Friday The 13th the series would never have a Offical Release & within five years it on it's 2 second season release & it's working on it's third Official rlease.

So your claims hold NO Water what so ever.

I will be picking up my Offical copy of pipe dream when it hit the store, in the near future.

[–] Moondog-6 15 years ago

Well good luck with that buddy. Write back in here when you find an offical DVD. My guess is we won't be hearing from YOU anytime soon (which is too bad, since you seem to have all the answers).

I posted this so that people might have an idea as to why this show isn't out on DVD right now, and why it may not ever be available.

The only thing I heard was holding up Friday the 13th - The Series was conflicts with use of the title (which is why it was re-run under the name 'Friday's Curse') I never read that it wouldn't come out - only that it might be released under it's re-run title.

BTW - the woman I know doesn't not work for the company that owns Just The 10 Of Us. She and I were discussing our favorite shows and why they weren't on DVD, and her explanation seemed (and still seems) valid. As I pointed out many shows get their soundtracks re-dubbed for legal reasons, but Just The 10 Of Us relied heavily on copyrighted music sung by the lead characters, so re-dubbing would be impossible (and deleting the sequences outright would be insane and cripple entire episodes). Background music is easily re-dubbed; episodes based on characters singing copyrighted music is not.

The show MAY come out on DVD, but the film company would have to pay license fees for use of all copyrighted music. If there is enough demand, thay might do it, but right now it would not be worth their time to track down and pay for every musical copyright. They (or any company for that matter) would not do so unless there was a guarentee of potential sales to justify the expense.

As much as we like the show, it was a minor hit in TVs long history. I DO HOPE that we can convince the powers that be to release the show, but as of right now I stand behind the fact that you won't see it in Wal-Mart any time soon.

[–] TheGirl12 15 years ago

There's the story about everything Freaks & Geeks went through to get released on DVD because of the music so I believe Moondog.

[–] TheGirl12 15 years ago

They used a bunch of Beatles songs, didn't they?

[–] Lakemystery3 13 years ago

I believe what both Moondog and UGLI said. It took almost 10 years to get Ally McBeal released on DVD because of all the musical rights involved. I thought it would never happen, and when it did I was the happiest person I know. Now I'm also waiting for shows like Boston Public and Chicago Hope to come out on DVD. BP ended in 2004 and CH ended in 2000, and I'm still hopeful that I'll own them on DVD.

_______
"She flattened a Dear John with a John Deere." - Douglas Wambaugh

[–] millennia0 12 years ago

It's been three years (almost to t he day!). Where is my DVD?

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] VinnieRattolle 15 years ago

There's a lot of shows without DVDs because of the music, and I've had a feeling that was the deal here. Blame the music industry for charging asinine licensing fees.

In this instance, however, there's a way they could test the waters. The first season was a scant four episodes and didn't revolve around The Lubbock Babes and their musical numbers. Pair those with the two-part "Growing Pains" pilot "How the West Was Won" and voilà: 6 episodes that constitute "Just the Ten of Us: The Complete First Season." And if that sells well, they could look into licensing the music from the other episodes. Not that it'll probably happen that way, but seems like a good idea to me.

[–] hutsman 14 years ago

I'll be happy if Warner Bros. resumes releasing "Growing Pains" on DVD, with the two episodes that spun off "Just the Ten of Us" intact in Season 3 where they belong. Hopefully, the first box set of JTTOU would be for the first and second seasons together, leaving only the third season hanging in limbo. I'd rather have the first two seasons than nothing at all, but obviously the complete series would be best.

I have hope, since Warner just realeased the third season of "Night Court", which all of us fans of that show had pretty much written off as dead years ago. After all, it took 4 long years between the first and second seasons of that one, but only 1 year between the second and third. Still too long, but a huge step in the right direction.

[–] sammy105 13 years ago

It's... times like these when my patriotism is seriously challenged... Some Americans laws just rub me the wrong way! Why should anyone ever own 'rights' to certain music? For cryin' out loud... I love this show almost more than most other 80's/ early 90s shows I've ever seen, and I can't enjoy it 'cause it has too much music in it? We need a change in this country...

[–] RonaldMcdonaldMiller 13 years ago

It's... times like these when my patriotism is seriously challenged... Some Americans laws just rub me the wrong way! Why should anyone ever own 'rights' to certain music? For cryin' out loud... I love this show almost more than most other 80's/ early 90s shows I've ever seen, and I can't enjoy it 'cause it has too much music in it? We need a change in this country...

Well the original U.S. copyright laws were never intended to be used like the politicians have them today. The original US copyright law allowed protection for 14 years. This way the copyright holders could make good money on their work as they deserved to but after a period of 14 years the initial copyright was up and the work could go into public domain and anyone could do whatever they wanted to with that work.

What ended up happening though was throughout the years copyright holders including current media companies bribed politicians by donating millions and millions in political contributions. Of course these politicians then passed laws to allow longer and longer copyright terms to where now these companies have almost an indefinite copyright hold. Even more disturbing is these companies attitudes where they think they are justified to have a copyright hold forever. The original copyright law was never intended to give them indefinite protection. It was only supposed to be "a limited time." as James Madison put it. The original intent behind the law has been abused. Personally I think the U.S. needs to get back to original 14 years. There is also no excuse for other countries throughout the world to allow this to happen either. Just because the US allows it doesnt mean others should too.

[–] helydr 12 years ago

I've never understood why people think they have they should have a "right" to use something that someone else created.

Why shouldn't people own the rights to music indefinitely? I don't see anything wrong with it. If I write a piece of music (or write a book), it's my intellectual property and should be mine to own, sell, lease, give away, whatever I want to do with it. Why should the public be able to claim it as their own, no matter how much time has passed? That's like if I build a house, it's mine. I don't give it to whoever wants it after 14 years.

Am I missing something?

[–] RonaldMcdonaldMiller 12 years ago

I've never understood why people think they have they should have a "right" to use something that someone else created.

Why shouldn't people own the rights to music indefinitely? I don't see anything wrong with it. If I write a piece of music (or write a book), it's my intellectual property and should be mine to own, sell, lease, give away, whatever I want to do with it. Why should the public be able to claim it as their own, no matter how much time has passed? That's like if I build a house, it's mine. I don't give it to whoever wants it after 14 years.

A house is a physical object. A song is not. A song is an idea. Why shouldnt people on a TV show be allowed to sing a song you wrote. Its not preventing you from going out and selling CDs or performing the song yourself.

[–] dippy_in_dc_1 12 years ago

Disney has been the standard bearer for each of the new laws further extending the time for copyright "protection".

It has pretty effectively suppressed the use of nearly everything since early in the 20th century. A gross display of the abuse of power by legislators from the pay offs of special interests.

[–] MaxwellHorse 13 years ago

I can believe that music rights are the reason for no "Ten of Us" release. I've read of this many times before messing up other series being released.

I just don't really understand the logic. I mean, I can completely understand how music owners hate file-sharing, etc, because it really does cripple their business. And I can kind of see how, say, an original recording of a Frank Sinatra song being used for the opening credits of "Married with Children" might fall into that category. (Barely.)

But this really isn't the same thing. If characters on a TV show sing a snippet of a "real" song, I don't understand how that in any way cuts into potential profit for the original recording. If anything it really can be argued that it promotes the original (however negligibly).

What's also confusing is that I have Seasons 6 and 7 of Three's Company on DVD and there's quite a few instances where characters sing copyrighted songs. Larry Dallas practically belts out full length versions of some of them.