THEY ARE FIXING THE FUGITIVE!!!!!

I don't believe this is really happening but CBS/Paramount, after bastardizing The Fugitive and stripping out the entire underscore, has gone back and fixed it. Wow, that is such great news.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Fugitive-Season-2-Volume-1-Replacement-Information/11337

 

Every once in a while, we win one. Now, here's hoping the rest of the seasons are done correctly.

 

According to Tvshowsondvd.com, the 2nd half of Season 2 is correct, and based upon this replacement program, and what it had to cost them to do so, I would expect that they have learned how important the music is to these releases.

I, for one, give a hearty THANK-YOU to CBS / Paramount for this effort.

 

This is outstanding news, and I can't wait to hear what they've done to fix the situation and restore the proper music.

From what I understand, Season Two, Volume 2, due out this spring will also feature original music as much as possible.

This is a win-win situation. A win for the fans who complained vociferously, and a win for CBS/Paramount who've boosted their reputaion in the eyes of fans for doing the right thing.

Harry

 

I've revised my Amazon review based on this news, but can't seem to update the star rating I orginally gave it (one star). I'd like to update that - anyone know how?

Harry

 

Very cool. Now if CBS would only go back and fix the last three or four seasons of Cheers. The finale is even edited!

 

Of course, CBS/Paramount's "win" is tempered by the huge amount of money they spent to re-score, apparently for nothing.

I wonder how many folks will hold on to the re-scored set for collector purposes. You know there will be at least a few.

 

A hearty thank you to the folks at CBS/Paramount who are doing the right thing here and working to restore their product (and brand) integrity.

 

In the words of Casey Stengel, AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING. So I guess sometimes, you can fight City Hall.

 

Nice to hear about this, makes buying future DVD volumes a lot easier to swallow!

 

Heyes' new score apparently is still being used in some scenes where the original music rights are still in question.

Probably a lot, since you don't have to mail back the old discs - just the proofs of purchase.

The replacement program also only has until Sept 1, 2009 to operate. After that, there may still be S2V1 sets on the shelf that won't get replaced.

I'm betting though that this will be like the Beatles CAPITOL ALBUMS VOLUME TWO set, where replaced discs and original "wrong" discs will exist side-by-side on shelves for years.

Harry

 

This is great news !!!

 

I'm glad I stuck to my guns and did not buy the 2nd season!
I love this show!

 

Good news. I never did my review of this set because of the uproar about the music - why bother to review a flawed product like that? Now I can go ahead and do it once I get the corrected discs...

 

I returned my set to Amazon. So I guess I have to rebuy it and then send for the rebate. Call me untrusting but I still want to see a review of the new set first by someone who knows the show well.

 

Why?, cause...it's a benefit for those who didn't know about the flawed product they bought or were intending to buy...

 

Oh.

Reviews don't have much value to me if they don't mention such alterations. I'd rather they tell me or take a pass on reviewing it like you did. Evidently it's still compromised though per HGN2001's note.

 

How compromised is something we will hopefully be hearing about in the coming days. I'm sure they aren't fixing those two Janis Paige songs that were butchered.

 

That remains to be seen, but it's a concern. From what I understand though, the songs were written for THE FUGITIVE, so their inclusion, as songs, should be OK. But what if there's a performance issue with whoever actually sang the songs for Ms. Paige?

Complicated issue.

Regarding the continued use of Heyes stuff, hopefully it's limited to a few scenes here and there to cover for the Capitol Music cues that are in question. The vast majority of music in THE FUGITIVE is the repetitive use of the library of cues done by Pete Rugulo. It is those cues that are being restored, from what I understand. If so, then the heart and soul of the music will be OK.

If they have to use the Heyes stuff for a few scenes, I'm OK with that, as long as the Rugulo cues are intact.

But I can understand a purist-type who has to have everything as it originally appeared on network television still being upset. These are the people who will complain about a missing bumper or promo, etc.

Harry

 

That's correct, and I thought about that. I actually started to watch it but stopped after one disc because of all the negative comments. This set wasn't high on my "must watch immediately" list, so by the time I would've finished, it would've already been on the shelves a while, and I figured anyone who would CARE about the alterations probably already knew.

So it got backburnered! I also figured I wouldn't pursue future volumes if they were to be altered as well. Now I'll go ahead with it and do S2V2 when it hits, too...

 

Ms. Paige was a singer so I would say there is not reason to believe she didn't sing the songs herself.

 

You got me there. I wasn't aware of her musical career.

Given that info, she probably DID sing on the FUGITIVE show.

As it happens, I finally decided to view a portion of "Ballad For a Ghost" this morning. I watched through the first act where Ms. Paige is practicing in the early morning hours and awakens David Janssen from his sleep. As he enters the room where she's practicing, he stops and listens to the song she's singing and humming.

When the scene finished, I dug out my old VHS tape with the soundtrack intact to compare the two. Though some of Ms. Paige's singing was indeed cut out on the DVD, it was done rather well, and the song was definitely different. But it kept to the spirit of the original and the show wasn't damaged (at least for me) by the omission of a few bars of the song.

I'm guessing (it's been a long time since I saw this whole episode) that there's another instance of a song being cut?

My feeling is that if it's handled professionally (as the first act song was, IMHO), then it's no great loss even if it IS missing. The show isn't really about music, so if it has to go because of some rights issues, then so be it.

I surely wish these didn't have to be altered in any way, but that's not the reality of the situation, apparently. I think I'll be happy if the Rugulo cues are restored.

Harry

 

This is pretty much the way I feel about it too. I remain cautiously optimistic, but will reserve judgment until I can actually view the restored set. I still have 'trust' issues with CBS/Paramount based on what they've done and the vague, disingenuous statements they've made and disclaimers on their packaging.

What I'd like to see now is a consensus of informed opinions from those who have viewed the 'new' restoration and made comparisons with both the original reruns or tapes and the botched first issue.

Of continuing concern: I don't have a problem with the occasional use of Mr. Heye's composition in incidental ways if it's unobtrusive, but I do have a problem with the fact that it's synthesizer music rather than orchestral scoring suitable to the period. Then there's the issue of placing Mark Heye's as a composer in the original closing credits. This is just offensive to place Heye's derivitive composition on the same level with Rugolo's; maybe removal is cost prohibitive, but I'm not willing to yield that point yet based upon the trust issues I mentioned above.

I don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water, but I can't help wondering what were CBS/Paramount exec's thinking when they allowed this to happen in the first place?


Cat

 

We don't know, nor will we ever know, what they were thinking. My guess is this - the Capitol Music Library apprarently has been defunct for decades. Hard to trace ownership on a company that's long out of business. CBS has some nervous lawyers who basically felt that if they couldn't find the owners and properly clear the music, then they would be putting themselves at risk by including those cues. Of course that seems very silly, since these things were done as a "work for hire" and clearance is most likely unnecessary. And because they couldn't find the paperwork on a 45 year old show which has changed ownership a few times, they did what lawyers do and overreacted. Never mind the fact that it would have been very easy to bring in a couple of experts on the show. That would have meant acknowledging that there might be people who aren't in the industry who know more than they do and they could never do that. So instead they just bastardized the show and stripped out the entire underscore, making their DVD release completely worthless. Thankfully, the fan base was outraged enough to rise up, grab the torches and revolt.

 

Is this the movie with Harrison Ford or the tv show with Tim Daly?