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Retconning: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly


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An excellent example - the reveal about Joshua really helped to subtly shed some light as to why Lilimae was quite so enamored with Chip, especially since he and Joshua generally shared similar appearance (although they also hinted there was something almost romantic on Lilimae's part, another very interesting aspect of that story). 

 

Continuing in this vein, Adam's kidnapped existence fit wonderfully into the already existing world of DYNASTY and they didn't do too badly with Amanda as well (in terms of how she could exist, etc.).

 

I've never seen WKPR, but from a quick search I did, it sounds like a nightmare what they had to do for the DVD releases. Did it turn out better than it sounds?

 

Having said that, I would still rather have KNOTS LANDING on official DVD with good picture quality, even with edits.

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The deletion of the original music from TV series, when they are released on DVD, is egregious. It kills the tone, effect, and quality of the episodes, and makes buying the discs an aggravating (if not infuriating) experience. The original commercial release of WKRP was poorly received because by removing the music, the eps ended up being hacked to death. Fortunately, Shout! Factory later acquired the rights and released the show again on DVD, this time with most of the original music intact. I wish the same company would re-release Tour of Duty and Beverly Hills 90210, two long-running programs whose musical soundtracks were integral and necessary to the episodes. Both ToD and 90210 had almost all of their music removed, and the results were horrific. 90210 was more of a favorite of mine, decades ago, so seeing how it was ripped to shreds drove me nuts. I had had the entire series on home-made discs, recorded from TV, but had shucked those discs in favor of buying the commercially-produced boxset. Biiiiig mistake. My home-made set had all the original music!

 

Married With Children being released with its signature theme song (Love and Marriage, by Frank Sinatra) removed, Life Goes On with its original theme music cut out, Dawson's Creek being released with a new theme song...all annoyed buyers to no end.

 

For some unfathomable reason, when Little House on the Prairie was originally released by a Canadian company which owned the exclusive rights, they cut off both the opening/theme (with the Ingalls sisters running down the hill) and the closing credits of most of the eps. The episode were also missing major scenes, and some eps were out-of-order. Soooooooo annoying!

 

Fortunately, when Lion's Gate bought the rights to LHotP and manufactured their own DVD releases of the show, they fixed all the problems.

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Joshua as Lilimae's son was a retcon that worked, because, outside of a few basic facts and flashbacks (like the one where Lilimae turned away Val, who was running from J.R.'s goons, because they were trying to kidnap baby Lucy), not much was known or seen regarding Lilimae's life.  Ergo, there was nothing to rewrite or (more importantly) ignore.

 

Conversely, to this day, for some reason, I have a hard time accepting that Ben Gibson was once a spy.  Even though that part of his life occurred before he ever stepped foot in KL, it just seems too incredible to be believed.

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well, to me, not too well. there were whole scenes that had to be edited or cut out because of the musical rights issues. the only way to watch it now is on tv. if something can be worked out I'd love to see it unedited on DVD one day. I already have the first season. and PLEASE, watch it. you will fall over LOL.


Tour Of Duty. watched that EVERY Saturday night. wondered why is wasn't on DVD. thank you for that and telling me about Shout! Factory. do their WKRP releases improve on the originals?

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From what I have heard, Shout! Factory did a much better job retaining the original music used on "WKRP."  They couldn't keep EVERY piece of music, because some cuts were just too expensive.  However, as one Amazon reviewer said, it's better than nothing.

 

I think a full-series DVD release for KNOTS might be possible one day, even with all the music left intact.  However, I would expect to pay a fairly steep price, should that day ever arrive.

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The re-releases of WKRP from Shout! Factory are infinitely better than the atrocious, butchered original DVDs. Shout! was unable to secure the rights to some artists' material (like the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, who wanted too much money to be feasible), but DID get the rights to dozens of other songs which had been deleted from the original DVDs. It is said that about 90% of the original tunes are restored for the Shout! versions. Reviewers generally agree this is the best version of WKRP we will ever get.

 

https://consequenceofsound.net/2014/09/wkrp-in-cincinnati-to-be-reissued-with-most-of-its-original-soundtrack/

 

ToD has been released on DVD, but the sales tanked because the music had been removed and the episodes sliced and diced. As a fellow fan, you know how important some of those classic songs were to the integrity of the show. I don't know if the awful original ToD boxset is still in print, but I do not believe that it has ever been re-released in a "restored" version.

 

Oh, and speaking of all this, I bitched for years about China Beach not being available on DVD. Music rights held that up too. BUT! When the series was finally produced commercially, it was excellent! A couple of artists, who would not agree to be featured on the discs,  have been replaced, but the DVD producers just chose different singers singing the exact same songs, so the changes were insignificant.

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The show was written with zero care for details under Sheffer/Pissy...lest we forget the miracle of Jack falling into a river in Illinois and waking up in Missouri, seeming to forget the Mississippi river.. 

 

I always took "beautiful baby boy" as a badly written red herring. 

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How about Opal on AMC revealing that she had an African American son that she'd given up?  The acting by Jill Larson was great, but it was just as bad as the Nazi Paintings hidden by Palmer in the basement.

 

Also on AMC, Damon being revealed as Tad's child by Hilary was a huge stretch because it was out of character for Hilary to keep a child's paternity a secret (she dumped Tad for him lying and keeping secrets).  

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Yeah, I had a hard time getting past Damon's paternity reveal as well.  In fact, I'm still not even sure how it was possible for Tad to have fathered a child with Hillary, since Hillary was around for awhile after Tad's departure.  (I'd come closer to believing Damon was her kid by Mitch Beck.)

 

Opal revealing her own secret child wasn't as big of a stretch for me, though, considering that she was married to Ray Gardner at the time, and Ray wasn't the type to take kindly to his wife cheating on him and having a baby by another man, let alone a man who was African-American.

 

Speaking of..., you know what's ONE retcon I would have loved to see happen on AMC?  Opal or somebody else revealing to Ray that his precious little girl, Jenny, wasn't really his daughter.  Just imagine the impact that secret might've had on Ray, on Opal, on Tad, on Jenny and Greg, on just about everyone connected to them.

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I think Krystle asked Tad how that was possible.. and he said it was years after Hilary had left town.. and they hooked up when both were single.  It made no sense whatsoever and to add insult to injury.. the show never had Hilary make a visit at all (and the actress had said she was willing to make an appearance if asked).

 

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