E-mail campaign to Lion's Gate for apology!

[ActorRod]

Hey people;

Everybody, here's the addres to write to Lions Gate;

[e-mail]

I think we, the loyal fans of Moonlighting, owe it to our show to have Lions Gate issue an apology and to send reissues of the disc containing the episode "The Lady in the Iron Veil" in it's original form with ALL the original music to us loyal fans! It is a destruction of the directors original creative vision to take out the Willliam Tell Overture in the chase scene. E-mail them and tell them to fix this problem. Tell them they need to include the original version in the release of season 3, at the very least! Let's all get on this now before they mess up any other episode!!

[todd]

Hello,

This is my first post, but I feel I may be able to shed some light on why Lions Gate may have taken out the music. Recently, I graduated from a university where I have my degree in Video Production. There, among other things, we learned about copyright and things of the sort.

When they originally had the William Tell Overature on the original and syndicated broadcasts, they must have the bought rights from the orchestra who performed it to put it in the show. However, when they made the DVD, that deal likely did not count here. When they made the Moonlighting DVD, they likely had to go to each of the owners of all the performed music used in the episodes and pay to use it again (since it is another medium they are using to sell their product). My guess is that perhaps the orchestra who performed the William Tell Overature may have wanted too much money and Lions Gate (or whoever else may have helped produced the DVD) didn't want to/have the means to pay for it.

This happens often on television DVD releases. I know, for instance, that on the Quantum Leap DVD seasons 2 and/or 3, it has has a small disclaimer on the box which says something to the effect that 'Music may differ from original broadcast' (I know it reads something different, but I don't have the box in front of me).

I hope this helps. Again, my best guess was that the producers' hands were tied when trying to get the music.

[genmaximus110]

I never saw the original broadcast of Moonlighting. Was there anything else, besides the music change, in this episode that was different?

[elvira]

The thing I don't understand is this: sure, it might have been too difficult to get the exact same recording of the William Tell Overture. However, the actual composition of the William Tell Overture is in the public domain, since its composer died in the 1800s. So what was stopping Lion's Gate from acquiring the rights to another recording of the William Tell Overture? It isn't as if a different recording would have sounded that different. Or, they could have even resorted to hiring an orchestra to make a new recording. Why not get some little-known orchestra from Hungary or somewhere, and pay them? I don't know the ins and outs of this, but surely, somewhere, they should have been able to acquire an affordable recording of the William Tell Overture. I simply don't get it.

[genmaximus110]

I guess it's best I never saw the original and got hooked on it, because I hate when people misuse serious classical music for something silly. I'm sick of hearing the William Tell Overture for little kids running around the room, etc. And Bugs Bunny getting hunted by Elmer Fudd by Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. It's best TV shows and movies compose their own music for such things.

[elvira]

Hm, well, I understand what you're saying, but I've got a different take on it. I'm a pretty big Classical music fan, and I think that using Classical music in films (even for silly/trivial scenes) introduces the music to people who otherwise wouldn't hear it. It can serve as a "gateway" to further exploration of Classical music. Some examples that come to mind are Jean Sibelius's "Finlandia" in "Die Hard 2," Howard Hanson's 2nd Symphony in "Alien," not to mention "2001." I never get offended at hearing Classical music used—no matter where—as long as it's not sacreligious or something. The more exposure these pieces get, the better!

[bluemoongirl]

Hi, just thought I'd throw in a "me too" here. I enjoy having classical pieces in scenes - even if if they are funny. And I just rewatched this episode. And I must say that it's extremely annoying that the Overture in missing because if you really look at how the chase is cut together - it's cut to the Overture. The music they put under it in the dvd release is sub-par filler. It's sad that for whatever reason they decided not to use that music. I hope they realize now that they better pay for the original music, or they're going to hear more about it. Not just ML, but from fans of other shows/movies that have been and will be released in the future.

~blue moon girl

[tobiagorrio]

By all accounts, Lion's Gate didn't make that music change; Disney apparently sent them a master tape of the show with a different score.

The interesting question is, where does this score come from, and when was it added? Listening through headphones, it's in mono, so it clearly wasn't added recently, and it probably isn't stock music -- so who wrote it and who added it, and when? Because it has nothing to do with copyright issues, obviously.

I sent an e-mail to the website of Alf Clausen, asking him if he knew anything about this, but I didn't get a reply. I don't know if he saw the e-mail.

My best guess is that maybe the episode was re-scored after Clausen re-used some of the music from the episode for another episode ("Witness For the Execution"). But that wouldn't explain why the William Tell Overture was changed. I guess it'll always be a mystery, but I don't think we can blame the DVD company.