A different tune for 'WKRP'

If you've ever wondered whatever became of "WKRP in Cincinnati," the much-loved TV show that once was deemed virtually unreleasable on DVD is coming out Tuesday in a first-season set.

That's the good news for fans of the 1978-82 sitcom about a rock radio station in Ohio. The three-disc set (Fox, $30) includes commentary on two episodes and two retrospective featurettes.

The bad news? Most of the familiar songs that punctuated each episode have been cut or replaced with generic music.

Blame that old bugaboo, music licensing. The rights to songs aired originally on the show -- including tunes by Pink Floyd, Ted Nugent, Elvis Costello and the Beach Boys -- must be renewed for DVD release, which could have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode.

"No one knew what a DVD was then," show creator Hugh Wilson explained last week. "You bought the rights to a song for so many plays, and I guess our plays were up."

Although there are logistical challenges to renegotiating the rights, cost was the biggest obstacle. Disappointing sales for another classic sitcom that Fox released on DVD, the Minneapolis-set "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," also caused the company to balk, said Peter Staddon, a marketing executive for Fox Home Entertainment.

"Everyone's heard of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show,' and everyone thinks, 'Oh, that will sell really well,' " he said by phone from his Los Angeles office. "But not everyone is going to run out and buy it, as they might run out and buy a copy of 'My Name Is Earl,' which is contemporary and new and fresh."

The numbers back him up. The first-season DVD of "My Name Is Earl" has sold 330,000 copies since its release in September, according to Home Media Magazine. The first four seasons of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" have sold about 375,000 total, including 150,000 for Season 1, said the publication's research director, Judith McCourt.

Rights to even a short music clip can cost $30,000 to $40,000 to renew, Wilson said by phone from his Virginia home. Multiply that by several songs in each of the first season's 22 episodes, and you see Fox's dilemma.

According to Staddon, "We dance a little jig, which is: This is the product that we can bring out. Is that better than not bringing anything out? In our estimation, it is."

In fact, music issues dogged "WKRP" before the show aired, Wilson said. The original production company, MTM (co-owned by Mary Tyler Moore) balked at the cost of using real songs, but producers used a loophole in the music-licensing agreement that allowed significantly lower rates for shows that were videotaped instead of filmed. That's why the show used that lower-quality format.

Fans upset with changes

All of this is inside baseball to fans, many of whom have viciously criticized Fox in Internet forums. The alterations were revealed in a late-March posting by Jaime Weinman (www.startribune.com/a2626), a journalist in Toronto who received an advance copy of the "WKRP" DVD.

"People were really looking forward to this release, and now they don't want to buy it because they won't be able to watch an episode without hearing some bad piece of replacement music, or finding that a scene has been hacked up," he said by e-mail.

Some of the changes:

• The Ted Nugent rocker that DJ Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) plays when WKRP changes from an easy-listening format has been replaced by an unknown guitar-driven piece.

• A running gag in which the doorbell of high-maintenance secretary Jennifer Marlowe (St. Paul-born Loni Anderson) plays "Fly Me to the Moon" is gone now that the brief melody has been replaced.

• A conversation in which boss Mr. Carlson (Gordon Jump) and Johnny discuss the merits of Pink Floyd was cut along with the band's song "Dogs."

Wilson said he likes to think that he created a show with likable characters and funny scenes that can withstand any music alterations. Still, he confessed, "Every time we could do a joke with music, we sure did it -- like [nerdy newscaster] Les Nessman jumping around to 'Hot Blooded.' "

Told that that hilarious scene now featured a generic song instead of the Foreigner hit, Wilson said: "What? Aw -- oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my. I didn't know that. They told me they were going to keep a lot of the music."

Weinman echoed fans' complaints: "This isn't about removing music per se; it's about removing chunks of comedy from every episode."

Fox's Staddon said he understands that sentiment: "Some fans are going to look at this and say, 'Well, this isn't the show I saw on television.' It's not, but it's the only show we could bring out on DVD."

Wilson apologized to fans, but said Fox is ultimately right: "I wish they could be the shows that they were. On the other hand, it always disturbed me that 'WKRP' disappeared, so now at least it's back."

rasalas@startribune.com • 612-673-4542