"Far Beyond the Stars" is DIFFERENT on Netflix

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

ok.
Well, I'm about to go to bed, so I'll finish the episode tomorrow.

I recorded this episode when it first aired. I also once had the 6th season box set.. until it was stolen. Both of those versions were the same.

However, the version streaming from Netflix is different. At the end of the first act, Benny arrives at his apartment and puts on his radio so he can write. The music choice is similar but definitely different in the new version. More subtle, at the beginning of the second act, Benny is doing a little do-wop with some boys while walking to the diner, but I couldn't hear the finishing bop-bop-bop-bop that is sung rapidly by the boys as he separates from them.

I believe the music in the diner is different as well.

I'll update this thread soon when I finish the episode some time tomorrow.

My theory: This sometimes happens, particularly with copyrighted music. It changes across platforms. Star Trek usually doesn't use such music so this never comes up. Sometimes, however, it's so strange. One of my favorite short films, The Wrong Trousers, an animated feature starring Wallace and Gromit, features a scene where Gromit opens his birthday card - and the card does a little jingle. On my VHS tape of the film, it was the tune "Happy Birthday." This changed on the DVD release, perhaps a combination of the fact that these films originate in Britain, and also because we all no that "Happy birthday" is under copyright (which is why they never sing it at birthday parties in those crazy faux-Mexican restaurants). The DVD's jingle is "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." The point: this type of "music change" is something I've seen (er..heard) before.

 

[Trek Survivor]

Yes, this happens quite a lot. There's a UK show called "Only Fools & Horses", whose DVD releases have not only some background music replaced/removed, but some SCENES completely edited out because of the music involved.

I believe it also happened with the DVD release of the Voyager episode "Lifesigns".

I read that it's all down to the royalties paid: BROADCAST rights and VHS/DVD (and presumably Netflix, though being a dinosaur I have no idea how this work) rights are often negotiated separately.

 

[Avon]

i've noticed that older repeats of Top Gear often have bland, generic background music too

 

[Dion]

I believe Dawsons Creek had to change it's theme tune for DVD release (at least in some regions) and for reruns as well.

Good thing this is a problem that doesn't usually prop up with Star Trek.

 

[toughlittleship]

Married... with Children could only use "Love and Marriage" for a few DVD releases.

 

[sonak]

it's OK, the original version still exists. It's real. It's in your miiiiiiiiiiiiiiind.

 

[Crewman6]

Paramount is especially stingy regarding music clearances in their DVD releases.

They ruined a handful of Cheers episodes by doing the same thing.

A shame.

Next thing you know, they'll have to change "Nightbird" in TNG's "second chances" and "Malor Famigal" in "Unification."

Cheap ass bastards.

 

[JoeD80]

Often the licenses for the music are short-term and they may have expired by the time the DVDs are produced. If the music company has licensed that song for other uses at that time there's nothing the studio can do about it.

 

[bbailey861]

Doesn't anyone find it strange that when they are licensing songs for these TV shows, that the right to use it lasts in perpetuity for whenever that show is aired. If I was producing a show, I can't imagine buying a song without having the right to continue playing 'that song in that episode' all the time - be it on TV or on DVD or whatever. Maybe it's just me, but I find it strange.

 

[Harvey]

That would be more expensive, and most shows don't have a life past their initial broadcast, so it would be money wasted. It wasn't until relatively recently (DVD) that a market for old shows on home video became viable (there were, of course, some exceptions on videotape, but those we mostly popular programs).

 

[Vanyel]

That would be more expensive, and most shows don't have a life past their initial broadcast, so it would be money wasted. It wasn't until relatively recently (DVD) that a market for old shows on home video became viable (there were, of course, some exceptions on videotape, but those we mostly popular programs).

Right.

Buying the rights to a song is far too expensive. Leasing them was, and is, the best option, as the lease could - in most cases - be renegotiated for reruns. Now shows are leasing the songs for reruns,and DVD/BuRay sales. It's older shows that really suffer. WKRP In Cincinnati is a classic example. We will most likely never hear an episode with the songs that were originally played. Although I think the owners of WKRP are being short sighted, I'm sure there is a large enough market of people who'll pay a little more for the episodes with the songs that were played when the series originally aired. I know I would. Unless I had to buy them iTunes.

 

[Balrog]

Music licensing is screwing up releases for period shows like "The Wonder Years". I don't think they will ever be able to afford to release that show on DVD. And releasing it with a "generic" soundtrack would be a travesty.

I was surprised when "Freaks and Geeks" was released on DVD with its original soundtrack. They are showing it in reruns on IFC and they've had to replace some of the songs for licensing purposes.

Other DVDs are being released with different music. My wife is a big Beverly Hills 90210 fan (Ugh!). It's only redeeming quality was it's play of REM's "Losing My Religion". It was replaced on the DVD release with some insipid pop track.

Thanks, music industry!

 

[Harvey]

When Freaks and Geeks came out with the original soundtrack, it was a key advertising point on the DVD box set. That's still a great box set all these years later.

At least The Wonder Years is streaming on Netflix.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

The movie "Where the Buffalo Roam" (with Bill Murray playing Hunter S. Thompson many years before Johnny Depp) was literally built around its great 60s/70s-era classic rock soundtrack. Every single song was stripped out for the DVD release and replaced with bland 80s-era instrumental cues. It literally ruined the movie.

That still pisses me off.

 

[Alpha Romeo]

Just watched this for the first time. Benny's rant at the end brought tears to my eyes. GReat acting!

 

[ALF]

It amazes me that music licensed for broadcast and for eventual home release isn't always one and the same.

Those Married With Children DVDs without the theme song are a travesty.

Interesting to note the change of DS9 on Netflix, though. I wonder what other changes there are?

 

[Deckerd]

Just watched this for the first time. Benny's rant at the end brought tears to my eyes. GReat acting!

Far more realistic and worthy than the petulant bias he showed for not participating in the great Vic Fontaine scam (albeit that episode was a perfect example of how utterly degraded the show had become in the final season).

 

[Sci]

Doesn't anyone find it strange that when they are licensing songs for these TV shows, that the right to use it lasts in perpetuity for whenever that show is aired. If I was producing a show, I can't imagine buying a song without having the right to continue playing 'that song in that episode' all the time - be it on TV or on DVD or whatever. Maybe it's just me, but I find it strange.

The issue is not perpetuity, it's platforms.

Each platform has to be separately licensed. If they got a license to use it on the air, that doesn't mean they have the license to use it on VHS; if they have it for VHS, that doesn't mean they have it for DVD; if they have it for DVD, that doesn't mean they have it for Blu-Ray; if they have it for Blu-Ray, that doesn't mean they have it for online streaming.

Each platform has to be separately licensed and negotiated. When "Far Beyond the Stars" was produced (early 1998), Netflix was less than a year old and hadn't yet established its website, let alone established an online streaming service. I doubt anyone involved even knew that online streaming existed at the time.

 

[Vanyel]

Doesn't anyone find it strange that when they are licensing songs for these TV shows, that the right to use it lasts in perpetuity for whenever that show is aired. If I was producing a show, I can't imagine buying a song without having the right to continue playing 'that song in that episode' all the time - be it on TV or on DVD or whatever. Maybe it's just me, but I find it strange.

The issue is not perpetuity, it's platforms.

Each platform has to be separately licensed. If they got a license to use it on the air, that doesn't mean they have the license to use it on VHS; if they have it for VHS, that doesn't mean they have it for DVD; if they have it for DVD, that doesn't mean they have it for Blu-Ray; if they have it for Blu-Ray, that doesn't mean they have it for online streaming.

Each platform has to be separately licensed and negotiated. When "Far Beyond the Stars" was produced (early 1998), Netflix was less than a year old and hadn't yet established its website, let alone established an online streaming service. I doubt anyone involved even knew that online streaming existed at the time.

And that's why the older a show is, the harder it can be to get the licensing rights for the new platforms that exist now, but didn't then.

 

[Caretaker]

When Freaks and Geeks came out with the original soundtrack, it was a key advertising point on the DVD box set. That's still a great box set all these years later.

Which made it well worth the $120 price they asked for the set when it first came out.