TVSquad

Last month I told you that WKRP In Cincinnati was being released, and now it's (almost) official.

A retailer has given info to TVShowsonDVD.com about the first season set. It will be released on April 3 and will include several extras, including two different commentaries (on the pilot and the "Johnny Comes Back" episode) by cast and crew members, a "Making Of" feature, a feature on Dr. Johnny Fever, and a behind the scenes look at the classic Thanksgiving episode where Mr. Carlson thought turkeys could fly.

This is very cool news. Hopefully they've cleared up most of the music rights issues that were holding up the release of the set. And it's good to see the cast actually doing some commentaries. I've been watching some sets lately (Magnum, P.I., Kate & Allie) that are good but have no commentaries from the cast, and that's a shame.

No, this is not a joke. WKRP In Cincinnati is really coming out on DVD. There are flyers in the new DVD release of the Pamela Anderson sitcom Stacked (I knew that sitcom was good for something).

The show has been held up for a very long time because of rights issues concerning the music. There was a lot of music used on the show, and getting the rights to use the songs again on DVDs is very hard for a TV show. Or even in syndication. Fans of WKRP will remember that when the show was shown in syndication, almost all of the rock songs were replaced by other tunes, and many of them didn't even fit the scene they were used in. It was very irritating.

So how have they solved that problem? Well...in some cases, they haven't. The people putting together the DVDs have used the original music when they can, and when they can't, they've spent time trying to find music that is different but fits the scene anyway. Sure, I'd love to see all the music stay intact, but this is better than nothing.