TVSquad

I wasn't a Melrose Place person (my nighttime soap was Knot's Landing), though I did watch that episode where it blew up. Now The CW has a new version of the show, and it's filled with a few characters from the old FOX show and many new faces. Oh, and if you were wondering, there seems to be an abundance of sex, drugs, parties, fast cars, loose women, backstabbing, affairs, and loud music. Here's an extended preview.

I remember when MTV first launched, way back in 1981. I was in high school, and it instantly became THE MOST IMPORTANT TV STATION IN OUR LIVES. Looking back I guess that seems sort of silly, but when you're a teenager and you can come home from school and see your favorite songs all day long in video form, that's pretty cool.

I have no idea what MTV is like these days. I've watched it only a few times in the past several years, and even that was something like The Real World or maybe some special. People have been complaining for years that the network hasn't been showing videos like they used to. I don't know how true that is now, but if you're looking for a station completely devoted to music videos (and not reality programming), then check out MTV Music, the new web site that houses a bunch of videos old and new.

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.

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.

(S02E05) I always wanted to be in a band. Sure, I thought it would make me much cooler to girls, but I also imagined myself as someone who can bring pure musical joy to others. And then, of course, I woke up.

Earl had pretty much the same idea, but at least he took the big step of actually getting on stage and performing. OK, so Phish Tahko didn't exactly set the world on fire, and Earl and the band suffered the same fate that most bands that didn't make it suffered from--women and booze. Of course, in Earl's case, things got a bit messy.

A critic who reviewed this show said that there's nothing quite like it on television. I'd have to agree. It manages to be both a romantic, funny, likable, light comedy/drama and an edgier comedy with pointed barbs, quick and clever one-liners, and sharp pop culture/news references.

Is it like the moved Ed to New York City? Yeah, it actually is. Tom Cavanagh handles the Ed part (duh), it has the mix of comedy and drama, it has the pop/rock soundtrack, and Jason Priestly and Tom's sister even fill the Mike/Nancy roles (the marriage stuff, and he's even a doctor!). But it's just different enough too.