Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[Beany Malone]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

A cooking program that one would imagine would be more entertaining and educational than it actually is upon viewing, IMO.

I've been watching the Food and Cooking Channel a lot lately and I have to say there are actually very few of these shows that I could see myself getting into on a regular basis.  Some I liked better than others (I kind of like Ina Garten and Valerie) but most of the others while they had their moments, were mostly kinda annoying if you watch too many episodes!  One show I do like (and is new to me) is Good Eats, with Alton Brown. So here's another unpopular opinion - I like Alton Brown 😊.

[DoctorAtomic]

Oh, I didn't mean that I cared to know what it actually was though. 

[Blergh]

15 hours ago, Bastet said:

Neither does Ree Drummond.

Caroline Ingalls would have likely agreed with you! 

[Shannon L.]

I was flipping through the channels today and saw that a tv show was coming on where they were going to count down the top 10 best sitcoms of the 70s. I'm sorry, but in what world is Alice better than Barney Miller and WKRP in Cincinnati?

[Mabinogia]

13 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I'm sorry, but in what world is Alice better than Barney Miller and WKRP in Cincinnati?

Not in my world! WKRP in Cincinnati would be pretty high up on my list. I watched Alice but mostly "because it was on" rather than "ooh, I have to get home because Alice is on!" I have never seen Barney Miller. No reason, really, just never did. 

[Shannon L.]

2 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Not in my world! WKRP in Cincinnati would be pretty high up on my list. I watched Alice but mostly "because it was on" rather than "ooh, I have to get home because Alice is on!" I have never seen Barney Miller. No reason, really, just never did. 

I've only seen a few episodes of Barney Miller, but I could tell that it was a better show than Alice.  Did you know that policemen at the time said that Barney Miller was the best representation of what police work was really like.  It was the better than all the other shows that had been produced up until then.

[Katy M]

25 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

id you know that policemen at the time said that Barney Miller was the best representation of what police work was really like.

That's interesting.  I literally don't remember ever seeing them outside their precinct.  They'd go out on a call, we wouldn't see them, and then they'd come back.  Usually with people they'd arrested.  But, I haven't seen it in eons, so I could be misremembering.

[Shannon L.]

Another one:  I'm really enjoying Hunters.  I know some people are upset the the number of liberties it took from the true story, but that happens so much that I don't let it affect my enjoyment of the show.  I also think it's beautifully shot. 

[Raja]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

That's interesting.  I literally don't remember ever seeing them outside their precinct.  They'd go out on a call, we wouldn't see them, and then they'd come back.  Usually with people they'd arrested.  But, I haven't seen it in eons, so I could be misremembering.

In the early years we saw Barney and Fish's homes. Almost everything else was in the detectives squad room. I think Wojo took a retired hooker girlfriend home too.

Edited February 29, 2020 by Raja

[magicdog]

18 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I'm sorry, but in what world is Alice better than Barney Miller and WKRP in Cincinnati?

Ditto!  I LOVE Barney Miller in particular - my dad was in NYC LEO at the time and in many ways was a real life "Barney" (and a Captain to boot!) and verified that BM was very accurate about police work (all that paperwork!), names and terms (The Tombs, Manhattan South), and other details that even today's police dramas tend to overlook.  L&O (especially the early seasons) was the next closest. Still a very affecting series which is saying something about a show that ended nearly 40 years ago!!

 

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

I literally don't remember ever seeing them outside their precinct.  They'd go out on a call, we wouldn't see them, and then they'd come back.  Usually with people they'd arrested.  But, I haven't seen it in eons, so I could be misremembering.

In the earliest episodes, the intent was to show Barney in both his home and workplace (the original title and pilot were called, "The Life & Times of Barney Miller") and how he operated in each environment.  Eventually, the majority of the show was limited to the squadroom (like a stage play) but when the writers were thinking of potential spinoffs, they would try to mine for material in the characters' home lives (hence, seeing Fish's apartment, and later Wojo's place with his ex hooker girlfriend, etc.).  Fish was the only one to get a spinoff and it didn't even last more than a season.  I really liked Barney and Liz as a couple and hated that she got trimmed out as the show went on.

[Zella]

I originally wouldn't watch reruns of Barney Miller because it looked too dated, and I just assumed it was a cheesy run-of-the-mill 70s cop show. Then I happened to catch a random episode, and I laughed my ass off and then didn't miss an episode when the reruns were on. Enjoyed it so much I talked a relative into buying me the box set. In addition to being a more realistic work at policework (according to what I've read), it managed to be delightfully quirky without feeling forced.

[Stats Queen]

On 2/28/2020 at 10:11 PM, Shannon L. said:

I was flipping through the channels today and saw that a tv show was coming on where they were going to count down the top 10 best sitcoms of the 70s. I'm sorry, but in what world is Alice better than Barney Miller and WKRP in Cincinnati?

WKRP one of the best episodes of any show ever

 

 

[Brandi Maxxxx]

I don't know how it happened but I've actually been enjoying the current season of Modern Family.

[Annber03]

My dad worked in radio for 30 some years or so as a DJ, and he always joked that "WKRP" wasn't so much just a comedy as it was a documentary :p. Johnny Fever definitely reminds me of a few people my dad worked with over the years, for instance :p. But yeah, agreed, that's a good show. 

And I've seen the occasional episode of "Barney Miller" here and there and liked what I've seen of that one, too. My mom always thought Barney was rather nice-looking ;). 

[DoctorAtomic]

1 hour ago, Stats Queen said:

WKRP one of the best episodes of any show ever

This isn't even debatable. This is why television was made.

33 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Johnny Fever definitely reminds me of a few people my dad worked with over the years, for instance :p. But yeah, agreed, that's a good show. 

The actor (Hessman?) has said on a special about the show many years later, that in addition to the writing, he knew lots of 'Johnny Fevers' and incorporated them into this character. 

 

 

[Beany Malone]

8 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

This isn't even debatable. This is why television was made.

I used to belong to a message board that, annually (as in around Thanksgiving every year) there would be a thread about that episode and there were always a fair number of people expressing horror that anyone could find the death of turkeys amusing.  

[Katy M]

12 minutes ago, Beany Malone said:

I used to belong to a message board that, annually (as in around Thanksgiving every year) there would be a thread about that episode and there were always a fair number of people expressing horror that anyone could find the death of turkeys amusing.  

And they were probably watching/posting as their turkey was cooking in the oven.  

But, yes, in real life the senseless death of dozens of turkeys (they wouldn't have been able to eat them) would not be funny.  But, it's not real, people.

[Beany Malone]

3 minutes ago, Katy M said:

But, yes, in real life the senseless death of dozens of turkeys (they wouldn't have been able to eat them) would not be funny.  But, it's not real, people.

And the deaths weren't what made the episode funny - as anyone who's actually watched it will know.  But the righteously indignant would try to make those of us who love this episode feel like we were terrible people.  

[Shannon L.]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

I wonder how much of the original music has been stripped out of it (if any) for its syndication run?

There are several movies from back in the 80s that I would have loved to have owned on DVD, but they aren't being made due to copyrighted music issues.

It's too bad, too, because IMO, WKRP is probably the best sitcom ever made.  At the very least in the top 5 (for me, it would be up there with the 1st few seasons of Designing Women, the 1st few seasons of Frasier and most of MASH.  Of course, these are shows I watched regularly-there are probably some that I never saw that were just as good, if not better).  We have the whole show with the original music*  and introduced it to our kids a few years ago when they were still in high school and to their friends and they all loved it.

Turkey's Away is definitely one the best comedy episodes either, but honesty, there are other episodes from the show that I love just as much that it's hard for me to pick a favorite.  That whole cast had great comic timing, worked beautifully together and the writing was excellent all the way through. 

*I found the show online for a decent price and was excited because I thought that they'd finally released it with the original music. When we got it, it was obviously bootlegged and there was no way to return it.  I was horrified.  I still feel a bit guilty about it.  I don't know why it never occurred to me that that may be the case.

Edited March 1, 2020 by Shannon L.

[selkie]

1 hour ago, icemiser69 said:

I wonder how much of the original music has been stripped out of it (if any) for its syndication run?

 

 

The Shout Factory DVD release from 2014 got the rights to more than 90% of the original music and a lot of the content that was edited for shorter syndication run time and is as close to the original as we're going to get.

[katha]

I don't think Carrie Bradshaw was supposed to be a super sympathetic character, at least for most of the show. "Sex and the City" was always at its strongest when it delved into the delusions and false narratives Carrie (and the other women to some extent) told themselves.

In the same vein, "Girls" was often an obnoxious mess. But I did like Dunham's idea of how people view themselves as the heroes of their own stories, versus the selfish/cruel way they actually behave. And how there's often no rhyme or reason, just random stuff happening. And I liked that the characters didn't stay friends for the most part, they'd been drifting away from each other for ages.

Connected to that: Of course it stayed all about Hannah in the grand scheme of things, but I thought it was cool that she gave other characters a real place to shine. Driver is a great actor and she catered to that, but I thought some of his strongest work in the show was actually away from Hannah and his relationship with her. And Jessa and Adam seemed a logical progression tbh (is that also a UO?) and tied nicely into their character development (good and bad). Marnie was annoying, but got that very moving episode with Charlie. Shoshanna got the Japan arc. I guess I liked that "Girls" and Dunham didn't go full "Carrie Bradshaw in Paris", is what I'm saying.  😉

And I don't know if they intended that, but Rory from "Gilmore Girls" floundering personally and professionally always made perfect sense. A passive character like that who gets sheltered and smothered basically through her whole childhood, teenage years and into her early twenties...of course she's helpless the moment she has to fend for herself. So even though it wasn't pleasant to watch, I had no issue with her development.

[Blergh]

IMUO, the most positive thing about Sex and the City was that it had a very catchy theme! 

Edited March 1, 2020 by Blergh
clarity

[Katy M]

48 minutes ago, katha said:

nd I don't know if they intended that, but Rory from "Gilmore Girls" floundering personally and professionally always made perfect sense. A passive character like that who gets sheltered and smothered basically through her whole childhood, teenage years and into her early twenties...of course she's helpless the moment she has to fend for herself. So even though it wasn't pleasant to watch, I had no issue with her development.

I agree to a certain extent.  I agree with the floundering and the inability to cope with things.  But, I don't necessarily think that it was a natural development for what was basically a nice girl to steal a yacht, sleep with a married man, not speak to her mother for like a year due to a disagreement and totally flaunt her grandparents' (I think perfectly reasonable) rule of no sex in our house (she wasn't paying rent or anything).  But, yeah, being a total failure professionally and not quite knowing how to handle it was not all that out there.

In sort of the same vein, I think Michelle on Full House was absolutely raised to be an entitled brat and she acted like an entitled brat.  But, the thing is that I don't know if the writers were aware of either thing.  I think they just thought the adults were a little indulgent and that Michelle was just the most adorable kid ever and could do no wrong.  But, that's not how I saw it.

[Beany Malone]

4 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

I wonder how much of the original music has been stripped out of it (if any) for its syndication run?

I haven't seen WKRP in syndication in years but if they have stripped the original music I know I won't be watching if it ever does come back to a channel near me.  A few years ago we bought the first season when it was released on DVD and it was just sad.  Sure a lot of the humour was still there, of course, but the  music they replaced the original songs with were jarring and took you right out of the show.   Maybe if someone was new to the show it wouldn't have mattered but for a die hard fan, well, it mattered!

[Bastet]

A lot of times, we're talking about shows produced when syndication on TV was a given, but releasing a show on tape (later DVD) would have been a bizarre thought - that was for movies.  So the original music license accounted for first run, so many reruns, and so many rounds of syndication.  A new contract re-licensing the music for a later DVD release is where things get held up, and the cost is why DVD releases of music-heavy shows often have substitute music (e.g. The Wonder Years) or just don't happen (e.g. Murphy Brown [beyond season one, which didn't sell enough to justify future releases]).

For a while now, a licensing cost should the show be released on DVD has been included in the original contract (at a lower rate than it would cost later, because it's bundled), so this is a diminishing issue as time goes on.  (It's why Cold Case ticks me off, because they should have taken care of it at the time.)

[Shannon L.]

4 hours ago, selkie said:

The Shout Factory DVD release from 2014 got the rights to more than 90% of the original music and a lot of the content that was edited for shorter syndication run time and is as close to the original as we're going to get.

I've never understood this.  It was a half hour show then and it's a half hour show now.  Do some networks need more advertisement sales to stay afloat?  Is that it?

[Katy M]

3 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I've never understood this.  It was a half hour show then and it's a half hour show now.  Do some networks need more advertisement sales to stay afloat?  Is that it?

Back in the day half hour shows had 25 minutes of show, 5 minutes of commercials.  Now, most shows have 20 minutes and 10, some have 18 and 12.

[Beany Malone]

14 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

I've never understood this.  It was a half hour show then and it's a half hour show now.  Do some networks need more advertisement sales to stay afloat?  Is that it?

My understanding on this (and I am open to correction) is that part of the problem is the stations need to sell more advertising space because they are losing viewers.  I wonder if this is actually true though as it doesn't make sense to me - it's like cable channels are punishing the viewers who've stuck with cable by mutiliating their shows and subjecting them to excessive amounts of commercials.  Which would, one would think, only encourage more people to dump cable,

[Katy M]

1 hour ago, Beany Malone said:

My understanding on this (and I am open to correction) is that part of the problem is the stations need to sell more advertising space because they are losing viewers.  I wonder if this is actually true though as it doesn't make sense to me - it's like cable channels are punishing the viewers who've stuck with cable by mutiliating their shows and subjecting them to excessive amounts of commercials.  Which would, one would think, only encourage more people to dump cable,

It does make sense.  You're an advertiser.  There used to be (making up numbers here) 1 million people watching a given show.  You would therefore pay $1 million for a 30 second commercial.  Now, there are 250K people watching a given show.  You will now pay $250K for a spot.  TV show still costs as much to make. Therefore you sell more ads.  Thus increasing revenue and possibly decreasing cost a bit by not filming those extra 5 minutes.

[Enigma X]

I am late to the game, but Barney Miller is one of the best sitcoms ever, and the turkey episode of WKRP is the funniest ever.

[slf]

I'm watching The Americans. Very critically acclaimed and while I usually love spy shows/movies this one is taking some real effort from me. In part because, unpopular opinion: I don't like Philip for Elizabeth. My issues with him begin in the series premiere. Their first night in America sixteen years prior, they barely even get checked into their hotel room before he's stroking her hair. She makes it clear she's not willing to sleep with him just yet and he gets huffy, "We're married", and then makes a few woe is me comments that I guess are supposed to make her pity him enough to drop her drawers. Flash forward to the current timeline and he comes up behind her and kisses her neck. She tells him no, to stop, several times and he doesn't. It takes her whipping around on him with a knife for him to back off, but just like their first night in America he huffs that she's his wife. Then a few episodes later, he gets insanely pissed that she had a relationship with a man early into their fake marriage.

Am I supposed to find this charming? Romantic? He's her KGB spy partner, her fake husband she's barely tolerated for a decade and a half. She doesn't owe him feelings and intimacy just because he's wanted to make their pretend marriage real right from the jump. 

And he's out here acting like a) they have a real relationship that she betrayed, b) that she should just have sex with him because she's his "wife" regardless of the fact that she doesn't want to.

[sistermagpie]

10 hours ago, slf said:

I'm watching The Americans. Very critically acclaimed and while I usually love spy shows/movies this one is taking some real effort from me. In part because, unpopular opinion: I don't like Philip for Elizabeth. My issues with him begin in the series premiere. Their first night in America sixteen years prior, they barely even get checked into their hotel room before he's stroking her hair. She makes it clear she's not willing to sleep with him just yet and he gets huffy, "We're married", and then makes a few woe is me comments that I guess are supposed to make her pity him enough to drop her drawers. Flash forward to the current timeline and he comes up behind her and kisses her neck. She tells him no, to stop, several times and he doesn't. It takes her whipping around on him with a knife for him to back off, but just like their first night in America he huffs that she's his wife. Then a few episodes later, he gets insanely pissed that she had a relationship with a man early into their fake marriage.

Am I supposed to find this charming? Romantic? He's her KGB spy partner, her fake husband she's barely tolerated for a decade and a half. She doesn't owe him feelings and intimacy just because he's wanted to make their pretend marriage real right from the jump. 

And he's out here acting like a) they have a real relationship that she betrayed, b) that she should just have sex with him because she's his "wife" regardless of the fact that she doesn't want to.

Philip in the pilot is weird, specifically in those moments. That scene with the knife especially makes no sense--his character is elsewhere pretty clearly aware that he is not entitled to any sex or intimacy from her at all unless she chooses to give it. I don't know what they were trying to go for there. I think in the first season they seemed to want to get Elizabeth more sympathy because of sexism, but they pretty soon focus more on the conflicts between these two individual characters etc. instead of that.

Re; the other relationship, that's not about him being entitled to any kind of sexual fidelity to them. They have trust issues they're working out in the first season and one or the other keeping secrets about major things is an issue. So no, you're not going to be sitting through a husband pawing at her and sulking when she's not up for it. 

So in short, no, none of this is supposed to be charming and romantic, just clunkily working out boundaries etc. 

Spoiler

Ironically, by the end many people seemed to think he should dump her, 

 

Edited March 2, 2020 by sistermagpie

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎29‎/‎2020 at 2:35 PM, Katy M said:

That's interesting.  I literally don't remember ever seeing them outside their precinct.  They'd go out on a call, we wouldn't see them, and then they'd come back.  Usually with people they'd arrested.  But, I haven't seen it in eons, so I could be misremembering.

I adore Barney Miller and have seen every episode.  In the 1st season, you see Barney at home some of the time, but after that, it almost never leaves the precinct.  Which worked out brilliantly because you see how much of their day revolved around the paperwork.

Plus the theme music is brilliant.

On ‎02‎/‎29‎/‎2020 at 11:25 PM, Annber03 said:

And I've seen the occasional episode of "Barney Miller" here and there and liked what I've seen of that one, too. My mom always thought Barney was rather nice-looking ;). 

Hal Linden was an attractive man in his prime, 70s mustache not withstanding.

On ‎03‎/‎01‎/‎2020 at 9:32 AM, icemiser69 said:

I wonder how much of the original music has been stripped out of it (if any) for its syndication run?

A good bit of it.  I know they couldn't get the rights to use "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" from Gigi during its most recent syndicated run, and that completely ruins the joke at the end of the episode where Mr. Carlson's wife tells him she's pregnant.

On ‎03‎/‎01‎/‎2020 at 11:08 AM, selkie said:

 

The Shout Factory DVD release from 2014 got the rights to more than 90% of the original music and a lot of the content that was edited for shorter syndication run time and is as close to the original as we're going to get.

That's good to know.  Unfortunately the above mentioned song wasn't part of the 90%, I guess.

 

[Shannon L.]

1 hour ago, proserpina65 said:

A good bit of it.  I know they couldn't get the rights to use "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" from Gigi during its most recent syndicated run, and that completely ruins the joke at the end of the episode where Mr. Carlson's wife tells him she's pregnant.

So much of that show was tied to the music that even when it's not part of a joke, if you're familiar with the show, it's just not the same to see it with a different song:

Can you imagine Mama Carlson (the original actress) strolling through the office, singing anything other than "Someone to Watch Over Me?"

Can you think of another musical phrase that the Russian defector could say to Bailey that would equal "Hold me closer tiny dancer"?

Johnny, after giving the baby up to the adoption agency, playing "In the Long Run", and Andy running in exclaiming "It's a hit!  He's playing a hit!" then continuing his excitement down the hall for others to hear. Any song from that era would work, but him saying that he met someone that taught him an awful lot in such a short time and that now she's making other people happy and he hopes she has a good life, followed by "I used to hurry a lot, I used to worry a lot....." was touching.

What about when Carlson walked in on Johnny, who was sleeping, while the song from Dark Side of the Moon was playing and asking "Do I hear dogs howling?" and Johnny's response "I do."?  Wouldn't be the same without it, nothing else would work, and they'd probably have to edit out a cute moment. 

[proserpina65]

1 minute ago, Shannon L. said:

So much of that show was tied to the music that even when it's not part of a joke, if you're familiar with the show, it's just not the same to see it with a different song:

There's a shot of Johnny Fever grooving along to a song in an early episode right after the switch to the Rock format, and it would never look right to be if it wasn't set to Van Morrison's Caravan.

[Blergh]

Considering how much WKRP got downright butchered due to the squabbles over the original songs (and it was well known that this happened), I consider it a thoughtless fail by Cold Case PTB to insist on having Original Top Ten Songs played in the background of every case which, in addition to not always applying to the individual perps' or victims' likings , also ensured that that show can't be so easily released either! 

Edited March 5, 2020 by Blergh

[Katy M]

I have what I think are two very unpopular opinions regarding school sitcoms.

1. I liked the first season of the Facts of Life the best, with all the girls living in a dorm.  I liked Cindy best, then Sue Ann, and they didn't keep either of them.  Regardless of my preferences, I think they should have either kept Cindy or Molly so that Tootie had someone closer to her age.

2. I liked A Different World best the first season.  I liked Denise there.  I think it lost something when she left.

[auntlada]

On 3/4/2020 at 10:41 AM, Blergh said:

Considering how much WKRP got downright butchered due to the squabbles over the original songs (and it was well known that this happened), I consider it a thoughtless fail by Cold Case PTB to insist on having Original Top Ten Songs played in the background of every case which, in addition to not always applying to the individual perps' or victims' likings , also ensured that that show can't be so easily released either! 

The show didn't start until 2003. They should have known by that time that they needed to get rights for the songs for syndication/video/whatever.

[Bort]

3 hours ago, auntlada said:

The show didn't start until 2003. They should have known by that time that they needed to get rights for the songs for syndication/video/whatever.

Syndication, yes, and Cold Case is syndicated with its music intact. But full season video/DVD releases weren’t really a thing when that show first came out. Some shows were doing it, like The X-Files (which was NOT a music licensing nightmare so it had an easier time getting released), but it just wasn’t the norm. Not yet. And by the time it was realized there was a market for full series releases, several seasons were in the bucket and it was too late.

[festivus]

I think that's what happened to Ed which was around that time. Unfortunately, it is not being shown. 

[Blergh]

15 hours ago, auntlada said:

The show didn't start until 2003. They should have known by that time that they needed to get rights for the songs for syndication/video/whatever.

EXACTLY! And the woes of WKRP over being hobbled over music rights had long since been public knowledge by the time Cold Case premiered. Morever, since WKRP was an occasionally dramatic comedy about a radio station, it had made perfect sense for that show to use music to make relevant points re plots and characters. Whereas there was truly no pressing need for a dramatic crime show to use Top Ten songs on even an occasional basis much less than the constant basis it did. 

[Mabinogia]

2 hours ago, Blergh said:

Whereas there was truly no pressing need for a dramatic crime show to use Top Ten songs on even an occasional basis much less than the constant basis it did. 

IDK, part of what I loved about Cold Case was the music. I get that it hurts their DVD sales, but I saw the whole show in reruns (never watched it when it first aired) and the music really helped to give me a sense of the era in which the cold case happened. It's actually one of my favorite procedurals because of the music and the history. But it's not something I would buy a DVD of so I'm not as bothered. I would buy a Cold Case companion CD though lol

 

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, Blergh said:

Whereas there was truly no pressing need for a dramatic crime show to use Top Ten songs on even an occasional basis much less than the constant basis it did. 

Cold Case would not have been anywhere near as good a show without the extensive use of popular music to set the right tone in jumping back and forth between years in each episode.  I wish they'd ponied up for DVD rights in the original licensing contract.  But I'm very happy they didn't use less, and less-expensive music in the original, reruns, and syndication airings.

[GaT]

22 hours ago, auntlada said:

The show didn't start until 2003. They should have known by that time that they needed to get rights for the songs for syndication/video/whatever.

 

4 hours ago, Bastet said:

I wish they'd ponied up for DVD rights in the original licensing contract.  

I don't think people want to spend the money to secure the rights to the music until they know the show is going to have some success & actually get to DVD. The original "Charmed", which debuted in 1998, used the song "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths as it's theme song for all 8 seasons (ended in 2005). When the show finally was shown on reruns & then streaming/DVD, the theme song was just some random song. They either never got the rights to the song, or they didn't renew them & it was really strange not hearing the song which had become identified so strongly with the show.

Edited March 7, 2020 by GaT

[Irlandesa]

Some shows have tried to go back and secure music rights they didn't think to get originally (or didn't know to get) and not only can it be expensive but sometimes they don't know who to contact for music rights.  They'll get a piece of music from a band, arrange to use it for their show but then can't locate the band when they try to get the rights for DVD/streaming.  That doesn't make it out of copyright, though.  If they go ahead and use it anyway, they're setting themselves up for a lawsuit or a case and desist later if the band doesn't want to license their work.

[Dani-Ellie]

On 3/7/2020 at 1:57 PM, Mabinogia said:

IDK, part of what I loved about Cold Case was the music.

I love me some Cold Case, and the music is exactly what hooked me. I didn't watch a lot of it first run (mostly because I had conflated it with Without a Trace, which I didn't like) but I happened to catch a syndicated ep of a case set in the 60s. My oldies-loving self adored the soundtrack and I never looked back.

I love that StartTV airs it now, music intact. I try to catch it anytime I'm home in the afternoons.

[Anduin]

Yes Minister. No, I'm not saying it's bad. Just that when I was younger, I saw it as a fun satire of politics and bureaucracy. As I've gotten older, it now resembles a horrifying documentary. It's just not fun any more.

[Hiyo]

Actually, what I always watched Cold Case for was to see the ghost of the victim of the week giving their head-nod of approval at the end once the killer was finally arrested.

[Jack Shaftoe]

Not sure how unpopular this opinion is but I have been binge watching Agents of SHIELD lately and I have to say it has some of the worst written romantic relationships I have ever seen. If there is an annoying trope about romance on TV, it's probably been used there. Multiple times. Just what is it with the Whedon brothers and their hatred of happy couples? At least Joss used to allow the couples in his shows some time to enjoy being together before breaking them up or killing one of the people involved. Jed seems to be all about contrived angst and obstacles when he is writing romantic relationships.

This makes me dislike even romantic relationships between characters whom I adore (Fitz and Simmons, for example). The writers were so desperate for melodramatic angst that they had Simmons hook up with some guy when she was marooned on a freaking planet many light years away from Earth. Because apparently Fitz getting brain damage and Simmons being, you know, marooned on another planet for months, was nowhere near tragic and angsty enough. I wonder what the writers will think of next, maybe one of the characters will sleep with the other's evil twin because all other dumb tropes have been used by now. Oh, wait, they already used this trope with May and Coulson already (well, they didn't sleep together but came pretty close).

[festivus]

47 minutes ago, Jack Shaftoe said:

melodramatic angst

 

I don't watch AoS but that shit right there is why I hate how most romance is portrayed on TV. I very rarely ship because of it. See: Leslie/Ben (P&R) Jake/Amy (B99) and David/Patrick (Schitt's Creek) for romantic relationships done right.

I don't hate all romance plots but I'm much more interested in a good friendship on my TV shows, which I guess is a UO.