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(More customer reviews)-- UPDATE, 6 July 2009 --
Dear CBS,
I'm very disappointed with your release of Season 2 of THE FUGITIVE, and I'd like to tell you why.
The issue is the music. Yes, I know that you've heard this before, and you might believe that you've already addressed this issue and put it behind you.
But you'd be wrong. The music is still being screwed up.
I happen to think that THE FUGITIVE is one of the finest dramatic series ever produced for American television. Perhaps THE finest. So I was overjoyed when I first heard that CBS was going to release this series on DVD.
And Season One was great. Well, almost great. It would have been perfect if a few instances of background music on radios and jukeboxes hadn't been needlessly replaced in the episodes GARDEN HOUSE and WHERE THE ACTION IS.
But beginning with your release of Season 2 Volume 1, all of that changed. The music was horrible. Absolutely horrible.
CBS finally admitted that they had thrown out the entire musical score and commissioned a brand-new score composed of Crap Synthesizer Music. And all because of a handful of musical cues that had been originally licensed from the Capitol music library, the ownership of which was now in legal limbo.
This was a first-class example of 'throwing the baby out with the bath water'. -- "A few musical cues have got to go, so let's just throw out the entire musical score." This ranks as perhaps the most colossal blunder in the history of television.
Tens of thousands of Fugitive fans wrote letters, wrote emails, boycotted CBS products, and returned their DVDs for refunds. The outpouring of fan rage was unprecedented.
CBS recoiled in shock. Why were the fans so concerned about the music, when CBS had long ago concluded that "The Music Doesn't Matter"?
Fans were livid because The Music DOES Matter.
Let me say that again, CBS.
THE MUSIC *DOES* MATTER. Especially to a show like THE FUGITIVE.
Now, I can think of a great many series whose music is unmemorable. But THE FUGITIVE is different. It's a film-noir series. The protagonist is a tired, lonely, beaten-down guy who is being chased by the police for a crime he didn't commit.
The music underscores his lonely plight. It sets the mood, underscores his loneliness, gets the audience emotionally involved. The music is of primary importance to this series. Which is why any alteration to the music is jarring, changes the mood, changes the impact of the scene, and totally ruins the experience. THAT'S why the fans were outraged.
Thousands of fans returned their S2V1 DVD sets for a refund. This hit CBS where it mattered most, in the pocketbook. And CBS eventually responded by issuing Replacement Discs for S2V1, with the original music restored, and with only those few Capitol cues replaced.
(Personally, I believe that CBS' decision to issue Replacement Discs for S2V1 was primarily due to the embarrassment that CBS suffered when this issue was made public in an article entitled "CBS/Par Can't Escape Fugitive Burn" in the daily film-industry newspaper, VARIETY.)
(CBS has long turned a deaf ear to complaints from fans of other Classic TV shows that CBS has butchered. CBS probably would have ignored FUGITIVE fans too, if not for Jon Burlingame's VARIETY article. Thanks, Jon!)
Having issued the S2V1 Replacement Discs, you probably thought that you had resolved this music-replacement issue and put it behind you, didn't you, CBS?
But the S2V1 Replacement Discs didn't REALLY restore all of the original music (save for those few Capitol cues). A great many of the original cues were STILL needlessly replaced!
As an example, let's take a look at the Season 2 episode ESCAPE INTO BLACK. CBS has publicly stated that, in this episode, there is only one cue in question, a 39-second Capitol cue composed by Nick Carras.
(For proof, Google "The Fugitive Music Debacle: Why It Happened")
So, there is only one cue that had to be replaced in ESCAPE INTO BLACK. And if you pull out your old VHS copy and compare it to the S2V1 Replacement version, you'll find that the original score is intact, save for that one replaced cue, right?
Wrong. I made the comparison, and I found 25 instances where original cues have been needlessly replaced by Crap Synthesizer Cues. Here they are, listed by time index.
02:32 - flashback: Kimble sees one-armed man
02:41 - flashback: one-armed man in headlights
05:34 - amnesiac Kimble struggles to remember
06:01 - doctor interrogates Kimble
08:05 - Ruskin confronts Towne
08:24 - Ruskin argues with Towne
08:49 - Ruskin discusses Barlow case
09:02 - police want fingerprints
09:23 - Ruskin talks to Barlow
13:53 - Lascoe takes Kimble's fingerprints
14:01 - Kimble being fingerprinted
14:58 - Ruskin leaves hospital room
15:08 - Ruskin takes Kimble's file photo
35:49 - Kimble grabs Towne's lapels
44:40 - flashback: Kimble on train
44:48 - flashback: train wreck
46:10 - flashback: one-armed man runs from house
46:18 - Kimble talks to Ruskin
46:41 - flashback: Kimble runs to house
46:56 - Kimble apologizes to Ruskin
47:09 - Ruskin warns Kimble
47:14 - Gerard recognizes Kimble
47:20 - Gerard chases Kimble
47:45 - Kimble watches train recede
47:50 - (cue inserted where none existed)
The explanation is obvious. CBS did NOT start with the original score, and then replace that single Capitol cue. Instead, CBS started with the Crap Synthesizer Version from their first S2V1 release, and then sprinkled a few original cues back in, leaving a great many Crap Synthesizer Cues remaining.
CBS *could* have restored ALL of the original music, save for that single Capitol cue, but CBS chose to cut corners to save a buck, sacrificing quality in favor of cost-cutting expediency.
CBS probably thought that the fans wouldn't notice. But CBS has continually underestimated the intelligence of the fan base. First of all, the fans know every note of music, and will notice even the slightest change. Second, fans are able to communicate this information to each other by means of the Internet.
I have watched every episode of Season 2, and ESCAPE INTO BLACK is a pretty typical episode in terms of replaced music. I'd estimate that the S2V1 Replacement-Version episodes have an average of 60% original cues and 40% Crap Synthesizer Cues (in terms of number of cues, not necessarily running time).
It's worse for S2V2. I would estimate that the average S2V2 episode has 50% original cues and 50% Crap Synthesizer Cues.
This isn't remotely fair, CBS. We're already paying you double for these dvds, because you've split the season into two half-season sets. And what do we get for our double payment? We only get about half of the original musical cues! We're getting ripped off TWICE.
C'mon, CBS, charging us double for only half of the music is low-down and dirty. You really need to fix this.
Those CBS executives who thought that this music-replacement issue had already been resolved are sadly mistaken. This is still a huge issue to a huge number of FUGITIVE fans, and CBS is going to continue to lose sales until this issue is properly addressed.
This touches on the broader issue of Needless Music Replacement. CBS is guilty of editing and replacing the music of several tv series, among them GOMER PYLE, THE ODD COUPLE, and MY THREE SONS.
Why is CBS the only major dvd company that routinely replaces music? The answer seems to be that CBS is waging its own war against the Music Industry. Ken Ross, CBS' VP and General Manager, actually BOASTS about saving money by replacing music rather than paying music licensing fees.
With all due respect to Mr. Ross, I'd like to ask him to PLEASE STOP waging this war against what he perceives to be excessive music licensing fees. Fans of Classic TV would rather have the original music, even if it means that the dvds cost a little bit more.
Listen carefully, CBS. Waging war against the Music Industry by replacing music only serves to alienate your core dvd customers. IT'S NOT WORTH IT.
Put your customers first, Mr. Ross. Just PAY THE LICENSING FEES and give your customers the Classic TV that they're asking for. PUT YOUR CUSTOMERS FIRST, not your pocketbook or your ego.
If you're still not convinced that replacing music is a bad idea, CBS, let me illustrate with an example.
For my example, let's look into the bowels of CBS/Paramount, where an audio-video engineer is preparing an episode of GOMER PYLE for DVD release. Our engineer, Skippy, has just deleted a one-minute segment in which Gomer sings a song.
Skippy is proud of himself. "If I had kept Gomer's song intact, CBS would have had to pay $2000 to license that music. That would have driven up the unit price by 5 cents, and we would have overshot our Price Point. Besides, those stupid consumers will never know that I deleted Gomer's song."
Wrong, Skippy. It turns out that the Cost Model used by CBS fails to take two factors into account. First, consumers are not the stupid morons that CBS believes them to be. Second, in this age of global Internet communications, consumers can instantly communicate with each other.
So here is what actually happens. As soon as the DVDs are released, a sharp-eyed consumer realizes that Gomer's song has been deleted. That person communicates this information to other...Read more›
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The Fugitive: Season Two, Vol. 2Dr. Richard Kimble is accused of the murder of his wife. The night before his execution, he escapes. The only chance to prove his innocence is to find the man who killed his wife. Kimble, persecuted by the Lt. Gerard, risks his life several times when he shows his identity to help other people out of trouble.
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