Moonlighting FINALLY Coming To Streaming on Hulu!

[Wendy]

Starting on Tuesday, October 10th.

TV Line has an article detailing the music issues and what will remain and what won't.

[vetsoapfan]

Nowadays, before I buy anything on DVD, I always investigate the release's music rights, and see if they have been secured for the DVDs. I've been burned in the past, and left AGHAST at the atrocious butchering of some shows, whose music has been hacked out of the episodes.

Beverly Hill 90210, Tour of Duty, WKRP in Cincinnati, St Elsewhere and the first version of Roswell are the worst offenders I know of. (WKRP, after having its music deleted and replaced on its first/cheap release, was later re-released by another company--Shout Factory--with most of the music restored, but cases like this are rare.)

Because I had China Beach on both VHS and Beta tapes (two separate, complete runs of this fine show), I was okay with series not being released on DVD because of all the copyrighted music involved. The soundtrack was ESSENTIAL to the quality, tone, and effect of the drama. After YEARS of not being available, Time-Life somehow pulled off the impossible feat of releasing the show on DVD and Blu-ray, with an astonishing amount of the precious music intact.  The (few) substitutions the manufacturers had to make to the soundtrack were perfectly chosen and did not diminish the quality of the show at all. I was thrilled.

It's depressing that all the music-based problems are affecting streaming rights too.

[Wendy]

And this is why I still have physical media: I have a region-free DVD/Blu-Ray player. I bought the German DVD edition of the TV series, Hunter, which has the ORIGINAL music, not the replacement crap on the US DVD set/streaming. (The show LOVED The Rolling Stones!) Bought it at the German Amazon branch, Amazon.de.

Replacement music on any given show is usually very hit or miss. So if I can have a show as broadcast from elsewhere, why not?

[kalbir]

Also be on the lookout for cut syndication episodes vs. full original broadcast episodes. I think The Golden Girls DVDs had some cut syndication episodes and not full original broadcast episodes.

[vetsoapfan]

I will NEVER abandon physical media. Films and TV series are wont to disappear from streaming sites for a variety of reasons, but when you have your own, physical copies of your favorites, you can cherish them forever. Plus, all the special features and commentary soundtracks can be a blast!

I've been thinking of buying an all-region player, and you're giving me more incentive to take the plunge and do it!

I've never seen Hunter, but I do remember hearing about it when it was being produced. Certain pearl-clutching conservative types wanted it taken off the air because the actor's pants were supposedly too revealing.

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God, YES!

A French-Canadian company (Imavision, I believe) originally had the rights to release Little House on the Prairie, and their DVDs' quality was atrocious. First of all, they cut out the opening and closing credits of the episodes (WHY???), sped up the film (WHY???), and then on top of it all, offered butchered, syndicated cuts of many, if not most, of the shows. Each one should have had a running time of about 46-47 minutes, but huge chunks of some eps were missing, leaving their running times at 37 minutes. Imavision had a disclaimer on the INSIDE of the packaging, claiming that "every effort has made to include all existing scenes." So you had to buy and open the DVD sets before finding out the eps had been butchered. Of course, years later, Lion's Gate re-released the entire series and had the full-length episodes intact and remastered, so Imavision's spin about complete eps being hard to find was bullsh*t, borne out of laziness, cheapness, and/or dishonesty. 

The first season of Rhoda had primarily syndicated versions as well, cutting out a lot of the funniest material.

[Wendy]

Do it. You'll never regret it. And it opens up avenues for shows released overseas but not in the US.

[Soaplovers]

I think I only got season 1/2 and 3 on DVD... the best seasons and didn't opt to buy season 4 or 5 because of the sub-standard quality of the episodes.   Turning into a soap in season 4 was not a good mood when the best part of the show were the cases and how either David or Maddie would figure out that one element that helped them solve the case.

And I did love the Agnes Dipesto focused episodes

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[vetsoapfan]

Yes, that's a main reason why I ever considered getting an all-region player: because there have been some shows and films I wanted which were only available in other countries.