Crime Drama segment


I don't understand why none of these episode clips can show any of the opening titles and/or include original theme music. To show Mannix, Hawaii Five-O (especially), Police Woman, Mission Impossible, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. and The Rockford files without their theme songs in the background? Low rent approach Producers.

I know they can't show clips of all the crime dramas but only a nod to Honey West, Baretta and was there even a mention of Ironside?

I thought it was a good tribute to ground breaking shows like I-Spy, Mission Impossible and Dragnet.

Overall Grade C+ Could have been better.

Phantom Fan

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[deleted]

Great post -- I agree with that.

A one-hour show is just not enough time to cover the western and crime drama genres adequately. If they're going to try to do that successfully, they need to trim the times devoted to certain series and also limit the era covered to the TV "pioneers" period -- which means Rosey Grier in a 1970 ep of Daniel Boone would not make the cut as far as pioneering westerns, and neither would pre-TV film scenes of Barbara Stanwyck.

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I completely agree jps1935.

Phantom Fan

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It's all about copyrights. The theme music is a separate entity entirely from the show, even the opening title sequence.

The music is under a separate contract, and it has its own rules and regulations. Sometimes it is impossible to track down who owns the copyright, or it is more trouble than it's worth.

Have you ever purchased old episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, for instance, and watched the opening titles? You've no doubt noticed the theme music has been replaced by a poor substitute. Some titles of the series have fallen into the public domain, but the theme music has not.

It's a similar story with clips from other shows. It is relatively easy to track down the copyright holders of the original show. Usually it is the original network, CBS, NBC, etc.

Unfortunately when the original show was produced, they didn't consider that the shows would have much of a lifetime after the original run. This was long before home video rentals and DVD sales. The contracts with the musicians and theme song writers didn't cover any future usage after the original run.

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