Moonlighting Complete Series is it possible?

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

BTW, I bought the book above and read it last week. It's AMAZING.

Enough time has finally passed for everyone to be open and honest about what happened - the highs and the lows.

Nobody comes off like a villain, but the reasons for the show's downfall are explained clearly, for the first time, in tremendous detail.

The book also has whole chapters on the show's most iconic episodes. Obviously, there was the Atomic Shakespeare episode, that chapter was excerpted in Vanity Fair, but there are chapters on my favorite episode, Big Man on Mulberry Street, on the B&W episode, and on the 4-episode arc with Mark Harmon, which is the show at its absolute creative pinnacle, but was also apparently when all the personal relationships finally combusted.

Anyone who loves this show MUST read and own this book, and no, I don't work for the guy who wrote it, haha.

Thanks for posting your mini-review/review of this Moonlighting book. It's on my list of TV reference books which I want to get (which includes a book about thirtysomething).

[BluRayTim]

Originally Posted by meremortal

Never seen it, but Bruce Williams was arguably fairly underrated as a comedic actor.

It’s Bruce Willis, not Bruce Williams. And, believe it or not, his name is actually Walter Willis.

Bruce is his middle name, which he chooses to use as his first name. He must think Walter is an ugly name (and I don’t disagree).

[meremortal]

Originally Posted by BluRayTim

It’s Bruce Willis, not Bruce Williams. And, believe it or not, but his name is actually Walter Willis.

Bruce is his middle name, which he he chooses to use as his first name. He must think Walter is an ugly name (and I don’t disagree).

Of course.

[hasslein]

Originally Posted by JediJones77

A new book on Moonlighting just came out this month and Vanity Fair published an excerpt. The author said something about the current unavailability of the show. First my comments...if Disney is going to attempt to force everyone to buy into their streaming model and phase out home video releases, then they CAN'T be stingy about paying for the rights to put all of their content out. You can't simultaneously say the show is too expensive to release and then take away our ability to pay for it on disc directly. Clearly the demand was there to produce it on DVD 15 years ago and sell out every copy made. If you've destroyed the home video market by forcing the streaming model on us, then you can't hold content hostage from going on your streaming services that was already proven popular enough to sell on disc.

As for Quantum Leap, I looked at a thread on that, and it looked like someone documented that over 50 songs had been replaced in the DVDs of seasons 2 through 4, and maybe more in season 5. It sounds like the music was possibly restored in foreign DVD releases by 2012. And then apparently almost all of it was restored for the 2017 U.S. Blu-ray release. And this was a Mill Creek release, so not even a major media conglomerate. The idea that Disney can't afford the music rights for Moonlighting is preposterous (or likewise, NBC for more full Saturday Night Live season releases past 1980).

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood...ic-shakespeare

"By the way, if you’re curious about where you can watch, or rewatch, Moonlighting, the series can currently be found…just about nowhere. Incredibly, it’s not on a streaming service, the DVDs are out of print, and it was never released on Blu-ray. When Moonlighting was on the top of the Nielsen ratings, TV series didn’t lock up long-term contracts for the use of songs. Today, it would cost a great deal for Disney, which owns the series, to secure all the necessary music rights. For now, the book will have to suffice, unless your local library has those out of print DVDs—and you kept your DVD player."

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I'm grateful to learn about the book.

Here's the info:


https://www.amazon.com/Moonlighting-...dp/1949024261/

Thanks for the info. Just ordered from the target B2G1 sale. Can't wait to read...

[jra166]

This remains my holy grail in HD, on Blu-ray. Dallas used to be right up there, but now there is evidence that this is being worked on. Makes me wish Moonlighting was a WB property.

I sure hope this isn't being withheld due to Bruce Willis's politics...

[DawnShadow]

Originally Posted by jra166

but now there is evidence that this is being worked on.

What evidence?

[jra166]

Originally Posted by DawnShadow

What evidence?

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=336618

Two different sources, one of which is George Feltenstein. check out the linked thread

[DawnShadow]

Oh sorry, I thought you were referring to Moonlighting, your post could be read both ways

Dallas is pretty exciting too though!

[WonkaBedknobs83]

Disney can afford a lot of things that they don't actually put up the money for.

[questrider]

Everybody's talking about Bruce Willis, so why can't we watch Moonlighting?
https://ew.com/tv/bruce-willis-why-c...-moonlighting/

[James Luckard]

I've always been curious what the show's music licensing situation really is.

It ran in syndication on Lifetime around 1995 and then on Bravo from about 1999-2001. I videotaped the entire run of it when Bravo showed it, and the music was entirely unaltered.

Whatever the music deals were, they clearly included syndication that was 15 years after the first episodes had been produced.

Yet, at the same time, Anchor Bay tried to release the show, and ran into the music licensing issue. In the end, they were only able to release a standalone disc of the pilot, because it had no pop songs. That DVD was released in 2000, while Bravo was still airing the show, so the broadcast/syndication rights to the songs were clearly separate from the home video rights at that point.

In 2005-2007, at the absolute height of the DVD market, Lionsgate finally licensed the show from Disney and also paid to license all the songs for home video. Those are the OOP DVDs, which I have.

The songs must have been massively expensive. every episode was absolutely filled with HUGE pop songs - Rolling Stones, Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Temptations, Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra, etc.

My understanding is that streaming is contractually the same as broadcast, at least in most cases. For example, Universal was able to stream Quantum Leap on Amazon with all its music unaltered back in 2005-2006 when the DVD was released with all the music replaced. However, it was impossible to buy the episodes at that time. They could only be streamed, not saved.

Perhaps the broadcast/syndication rights to the songs used in Moonlighting have also expired.

One last note. There's one episode on the Moonlighting DVDs that actually does have the wrong music, but it has nothing to do with pop songs. The episode "The Lady in the Iron Mask" had a first score written for it that was rejected, and then a second replacement score also written, which was used for the broadcast. That version ran in syndication too. I have it taped off Bravo with the correct music. However, Lionsgate was given the wrong video master for their DVD, and the DVD has the original, rejected score, which is hugely inferior to the broadcast score. The Moonlighting scores were jazzy/mysterious, they were often Bernard Herrmann homages, with frequent nods to Vertigo and Taxi Driver, in particular. The first/replaced score for that episode is way too far over the top and plays as a campy parody, The second score fits the episode to a tee. It's a shame that version is completely unavailable.

[david_blu]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I've always been curious what the show's music licensing situation really is.

It ran in syndication on Lifetime around 1995 and then on Bravo from about 1999-2001. I videotaped the entire run of it when Bravo showed it, and the music was entirely unaltered.

Whatever the music deals were, they clearly included syndication that was 15 years after the first episodes had been produced.

Yet, at the same time, Anchor Bay tried to release the show, and ran into the music licensing issue. In the end, they were only able to release a standalone disc of the pilot, because it had no pop songs. That DVD was released in 2000, while Bravo was still airing the show, so the broadcast/syndication rights to the songs were clearly separate from the home video rights at that point.

In 2005-2007, at the absolute height of the DVD market, Lionsgate finally licensed the show from Disney and also paid to license all the songs for home video. Those are the OOP DVDs, which I have.

The songs must have been massively expensive. every episode was absolutely filled with HUGE pop songs - Rolling Stones, Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Temptations, Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra, etc.

My understanding is that streaming is contractually the same as broadcast, at least in most cases. For example, Universal was able to stream Quantum Leap on Amazon with all its music unaltered back in 2005-2006 when the DVD was released with all the music replaced. However, it was impossible to buy the episodes at that time. They could only be streamed, not saved.

Perhaps the broadcast/syndication rights to the songs used in Moonlighting have also expired.

One last note. There's one episode on the Moonlighting DVDs that actually does have the wrong music, but it has nothing to do with pop songs. The episode "The Lady in the Iron Mask" had a first score written for it that was rejected, and then a second replacement score also written, which was used for the broadcast. That version ran in syndication too. I have it taped off Bravo with the correct music. However, Lionsgate was given the wrong video master for their DVD, and the DVD has the original, rejected score, which is hugely inferior to the broadcast score. The Moonlighting scores were jazzy/mysterious, they were often Bernard Herrmann homages, with frequent nods to Vertigo and Taxi Driver, in particular. The first/replaced score for that episode is way too far over the top and plays as a campy parody, The second score fits the episode to a tee. It's a shame that version is completely unavailable.

This thread needs a bump. Somebody get this done, with all the rubbish put on both Blu Ray and 4k at this point, this classic tv show needs some attention.

[david_blu]

Originally Posted by questrider

I am absolutely loving my revisit of this series for the first time since it aired and am nearly finished with season two. Usually when binge watching a series I skip the main titles and end credits but with Moonlighting I can't help but watch them both each and every time because of the nostalgia involved with the theme song. (And maybe because my memory of the original broadcasts is that an announcer would talk over the end credits so it was rarely enjoyed with the song intact.) Nothing is sweeter than that refrain at the end when Jarreau croons "Who just met on the way!"

In searching YouTube for the complete theme song I discovered there was a video made back in the day that I never knew existed.

Al Jarreau - Moonlighting (Theme Song) [HQ/1080p] - YouTube

This also needs a bump just because how cool it is

[fredreed]

No that's not true because they are slowly releasing lots of TV series on Blu-Ray it just takes time and if you can't see It then you all must be really stupid. Take a look at the A-Team they just released that on Blu-Ray. They will be releasing more TV Series on Blu-Ray just be patient.

[Canuck21]

Originally Posted by poisonmail

Rewatching the Lionsgate DVDs and it’s quite staggering how much high-profile music is in each episode. It’s quite lucky that we had that brief window in which putting something like this together was actually profitable, though it’s too bad they’re so long out of print. Thinking about ripping my copies to a hard drive just to be safe!

I hope you did eventually ripped the DVDs because my season 5 set stopped playing. Physically there was no scratch whatsoever but still it wouldn't play. Since Moonlighting is one of my all time favourite TV shows, I couldn't stand not having the complete series so I spent CDN$ 78.74 for another copy. I make sure to rip everything now.

Originally Posted by BluRayTim

It’s Bruce Willis, not Bruce Williams. And, believe it or not, his name is actually Walter Willis.

Bruce is his middle name, which he chooses to use as his first name. He must think Walter is an ugly name (and I don’t disagree).

On the show, it seems that David Addison thought it was a bad name too when he met Walter Bishop.

Originally Posted by fredreed

No that's not true because they are slowly releasing lots of TV series on Blu-Ray it just takes time and if you can't see It then you all must be really stupid. Take a look at the A-Team they just released that on Blu-Ray. They will be releasing more TV Series on Blu-Ray just be patient.

Maybe true for shows of other studios, but I don't expect any old TV shows owned by Disney to be released on BD any time soon if ever.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by fredreed

No that's not true because they are slowly releasing lots of TV series on Blu-Ray it just takes time and if you can't see It then you all must be really stupid. Take a look at the A-Team they just released that on Blu-Ray. They will be releasing more TV Series on Blu-Ray just be patient.

Nobody here is stupid. (BTW, it's also not nice to say that about people you're trying to engage in conversation with)

This show was famously one of the most difficult to release even in the DVD era, at the height of home video, due to the GARGANTUAN number of major pop songs throughout every episode.

I don't think they'll ever release it without the songs, so the question is, will anyone pony up the huge amount of money to license all those songs again, in a home media market that's vastly different and smaller from the one the DVDs were released into, nearly 20 years ago?

[david_blu]

Originally Posted by fredreed

No that's not true because they are slowly releasing lots of TV series on Blu-Ray it just takes time and if you can't see It then you all must be really stupid. Take a look at the A-Team they just released that on Blu-Ray. They will be releasing more TV Series on Blu-Ray just be patient.

Still waiting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmZa-uK7M58

[Thomas Crown]

Glenn Caron's twitter page is hinting a something new being announced this week. Streaming? Blu Ray release?

https://twitter.com/GlennGCaron?ref_...streaming.html

[DawnShadow]

Originally Posted by fredreed

No that's not true because they are slowly releasing lots of TV series on Blu-Ray it just takes time and if you can't see It then you all must be really stupid. Take a look at the A-Team they just released that on Blu-Ray. They will be releasing more TV Series on Blu-Ray just be patient.

And how many of these have come from Disney? That's right, none. No, Chip n Dale does not count.

[whiteberry]

Originally Posted by Thomas Crown

Glenn Caron's twitter page is hinting a something new being announced this week. Streaming? Blu Ray release?

Deadline thinks they will announce a reboot