It's been a while since we mentioned the DVD release of WKRP in Cincinnati. As you may recall, there was a problem because the original show contained many "needle drops," that being a cute Show Biz term meaning that they played a record. Jaime J. Weinman has been studying this problem and has a report on what has actually been changed for the DVD. The answer is, sadly: "A lot."
Let me toss one caveat in here, which I think I mentioned before: It's very easy to presume that the villainy in this all is that the folks who own the music want "too much" for its inclusion. That may indeed be the case. It may also be the case that the releasing company thinks almost anything over fifty cents is "too much." From the outside, you just don't know. In fact, people who worked on the DVD and are familiar with its finances may even be arguing the point. I've been involved, usually as an interviewee or commentary track person, with more than a dozen DVD releases of old TV shows. In almost every case, I see the people assembling the DVD arguing — sometimes on a friendly basis, sometimes not — over whether they can afford to include certain extras or if the budget can be raised to cover them. Usually, it can't.
This is product and the way you make a profit in this business is to maximize sales and minimize costs. On a lot of these DVD sets, someone is hired to put the thing together — often, happily, someone who cares passionately about the material and about producing a DVD release that has everything included, fully restored and perfect, enhanced with every possible special feature. And then someone else has to make certain they don't spend so much that the project cannot possibly recoup and show a decent return. I don't know anyone who's produced a DVD release of old TV shows who won't, off the record or sometimes on, tell you how frustrating it was that they couldn't afford to do this or that.
Even more frustrating — for them and for us — is that at some levels in some companies, there seems to be a mindset that it's almost preferable to not make the DVD release as fine and complete as possible. By not doing so, you make it more feasible to put out another version of the same material a few years down the road, thereby tempting those who love the material to purchase it again. As I've said here many times, I think the whole premise of Home Video is a sick conspiracy to see how many times they can get me to buy Goldfinger. I'm so looking forward to the Blu-ray release, which I think will make about fifteen, starting with the first Betamax version. That was the first of several that were literally flawed and incomplete from the first second. They cut off the opening note of The James Bond Theme and it wasn't, I think, until the second Laserdisc that it was fixed.
This practice of planning to put out a better version later is annoying above and beyond the monetary penalty that some of us will pay for being devoted fans of something. Not long ago, a home video company issuing cartoon shows on DVD asked for my aid in deciding what to include, how to locate certain missing materials and how to contact certain folks who worked on the shows and should be included in commentary tracks and interviews. I helped with all of this but they later decided not to produce any commentary tracks or interviews. "One of these days," I was told, "we'll do a 'platinum edition' and put in all that stuff." (Beware the term, "platinum edition." It probably denotes a higher-priced release of material you've already purchased…but one that includes something extra that compels you to buy it again. There will also probably not be any platinum in it.)
I pointed out to the folks who'd made this decision that they might consider that several people they might want to interview for the DVD were over eighty years of age. These people might not be available (or as lucid) if interviews are to be conducted a few years down the pike. But we're not going to interview them for the current release because someone thinks the DVD can sell enough without it and wants to save something for another release several years from now. And we're not going to interview them now and bank the material because the cost of that can't be charged to some current budget. So it isn't done…and four years from now, someone at the same home video company is going to call me and ask me a question that starts with the phrase, "Do you know anywhere we can find footage of…?"
I keep mentioning my pal Howie Morris on this site. Howie directed a couple of movies, one of which is out on DVD. There's no commentary track because no one ever had him record one. His other films will be out someday and they won't have director commentaries, either. Nor will many movies and shows he was in, including at least two dozen cartoon series I could name. In the years before we lost him, he was available to do this. If they'd been willing to pay him, as they sometimes are, great. Having been through many a divorce, he could have used the money. But he'd have done it for free, just to do it, just to share the history and anecdotes he knew.
True, "making of" documentaries and commentary tracks may only appeal to a limited section of the audience…but they seem to be cost-effective. In the case of collections of popular TV shows, the extras give fans of the show an extra reason to buy the collections instead of just watching or recording the show off Nick at Nite or purchasing bootlegs. Other alternatives will become more viable in the future so a company seeking to exploit a library in the home video marketplace will have an even greater reason to do special features such as commentary tracks.
Let me put this in simpler terms. I keep getting calls to appear on DVDs and do commentary tracks for releases of shows that I never worked on. I'm asked because I was a big fan of the material and am viewed by some as an expert. That's fine…but the main reason they're asking people like me is because they can't get enough (often, any) interviewees who actually worked on the shows in question and no one thought to record that material when those people were still alive and available. I'd much rather buy a DVD with them on it than one with someone like me. Who wouldn't?