TVSquad

(S04E04) "I pitched a fly rod right in my waders." - Denny Crane

In case you were confused about David E. Kelley's political leanings, the opening scene should have cleared it up for you. Let's see...Bush lied, the military is intolerant of homosexuals, got it. Sounds like a left wing to me. The scene also asks an important question...where the hell has Sam McMurray been? He was my favorite cast member on The Tracy Ullman Show. Unfortunately, he's one of the few who didn't go on to work on The Simpsons and I, for one, think he should be on TV more.

I don't really know what to make of the young matador. David E. Kelley seems to be hell bent on doing two things this season...pissing off the right wingers and pissing off PETA.

As most people know, there is very little about being an alcoholic or a drug addict that is funny. For most people who suffer from addiction the best they can hope for is to live "one day at a time" and do their best not to screw up their life and those around them. However, in the world of TV comedy, the addict is often the funniest person on the show. Many characters throughout TV history have given us all a belly laugh while they were under the influence. Here is my list of the funniest of those with this particular problem.

1. Jim Ignatowski (Christopher Lloyd) - Taxi
What could make a young Ivy League undergrad from a rich, influential family become a burned out reverend/cabbie with questionable judgment and a terrible memory? I doubt that even Jim could compile a complete list? At least his driving isn't any less safe than most New York cabbies.

Over at his cool pop culture blog Something Old, Nothing New, Jaime Weinman posts a list of the changes coming to that long-awaited WKRP in Cincinnati DVD set, and the changes aren't going to make fans happy. Not at all. In fact, it's worse than we could have imagined.

Almost all of the songs are being replaced, even ones that you might have heard in the butchered syndicated episodes several years back. Even songs like "Jailhouse Rock." But that's not even the worst news. As Weinman reports, because they haven't separated the dialogue track from the music track, they are going to actually cut out whole scenes so the music (that they couldn't get the rights to) isn't in the scene. That, fans, is barbaric.

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.