The Wonder Years on DVD: costly music licensing

June 24, 2007 / Filed under: DVD, Legal, Music, Television

Photo of The Wonder Years

How come The Wonder Years is not out on DVD yet?

The nostalgic, coming-of-age series that aired from 1988-1993, featuring the familiar narration of Daniel Stern has yet to be released in any digital format.

This is beyond disappointing for millions of fans, who wish to reclaim a part of their lives with the television show that was as profound as life itself.

The Wonder Years was my adolescence - in so many words.

The reason is the music licensing. The Wonder Years borrowed some 300 uncut, undistributed songs for it's vast array of episodes - songs that will never see the light of day under current digital rights regulations.

Back then, music licensing was as may have been as foreign as an iPod, so the creators of The Wonder Years didn't hold back. They freely selected any music that "fit the mood," and the mood is what the show was all about.

The only way this series will be released (any time soon) in a digital format is without the music.

This is sad news for fans, who are only hoping for a completely intact series to have in their own collection. You can't just remove or replace the music, and have the show be as effective as it was. The music is what resonated across adults and children alike. Every age could probably find a part of themselves in The Wonder Years.

It makes me wonder why the creators didn't realize this as they were doing it. I mean, it wasn't that long ago. They had to have had at least some notion that the music licensing would come back to haunt them.

The creators must be kicking themselves now, because not only have they possibly eliminated a source of revenue, they did a complete disservice to the fans of the show. By not allowing fans to once again see the episodes as they were presented is just wrong.

But then again, without the music that was used, the show wouldn't have been as great as it was.

So I digress.

Sources and other information

  • The majority of information for this post was collected from articles on the web. But let me tell you, even with Google, it wasn't easy finding information. I had to do a Google News archive search to find articles from years ago.
  • The most informative article was this one from the Denver Post, from July 2006, titled "Pricey nostalgia." This is where I got most of my information.
  • The web site TVShowsOnDVD was also helpful, with this news release also from last July, linking to the same Denver Post article.
  • To be fair, there has already been two DVD releases of The Wonder Years (The Best of the Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years: The Holiday Episodes), but both are incomplete collections with different music.
  • Beverly Hills, 90210 is in the same boat as The Wonder Years. The "official" DVD release finally came from FOX in November 2006, but as you probably guessed, with entirely different music.
  • FOX is also behind the potential release of The Wonder Years.
  • It's hard to believe The Wonder Years started airing almost 20 years ago.

Comments/Mentions

# Robert Thompson at 7/9/2007 9:01 pm cst

I completely agree with everything you mentioned. The Wonder Years, in my opinion, is the most enjoyable & fulfilling show ever produced. The stories presented in each episode do their part of reaching into your memories and enabling a wonderful sense of nostalgia to occur. But the music is what brings it home. The music is the common bond between the characters & the viewer. The creators of each episode always seemed to find the perfect song to fit each important scene. Most of the time, the songs used were appropriately from the same year or period the story occured. But every so often, they would venture out of that period of time in order to have the perfect song to fit the mood of the scene or because the lyrics conveyed exactly what they wanted to get across. Example: In the episode "The Accident" Bob Seger's "We've Got Tonight" was used to convey Kevin's emotions that he had, for a slightly injured and recently 'drifting away' Winnie Cooper, as he peered through her bedroom window the night she was brought home from the hospital. The song was not released till the late 70's but fit so well in the scene that, if you did not get emotional while watching it, you should've checked your pulse. If the Wonder Years is to ever be released without the music, I will not buy it. Instead, do as I do and record the episodes (currently shown on the ION channel) and burn them yourself on to DVD. Anything less is just that, less.

# Shon at 7/15/2007 4:49 pm cst

I was shocked when I started searching for it also. I didn't realize the music problem. I found a link for a set:

http://www.tvaddicts.tv/movie/drama/TheWonderYears.html

but then I realized that this one would probably have edited music also. Is there any way to find out? Should I wait on the fox release? Why does everyone have to care so much about money. =/ hah. Email me back if you get a chance.

# Matthom at 7/15/2007 4:59 pm cst

Shon, that link looks good. It does say unedited, so perhaps they converted the TV shows to DVD, and kept the original music. Although I'm not sure what license they're selling this under. I'd be curious to find out more about that box set. At $74, it's not a terrible price...

# JonPaul at 8/16/2007 5:31 pm cst

Yes, it is unfortunate about the liscensing, but I disagree with you when you say that the show writers did the fans a disservice by including the music in the show. The music was part of what made the Wonder Years a truly great show. Also, you said that when the show was made that music liscensing was an issue that was as foreign as an ipod then you go on to say that the show's writers should have somehow known that this was going to be an issue. Also, to call the writers inconsiderate for their lack of forsight as far as merchandising is concerned is just nonsense. The quality of the show as a whole shows that they always had the fans in mind. If you create a show with merchandising in mind then you end up with 99% of the crap that passes for television these days.

# Matthom at 8/20/2007 8:04 am cst

@Jonpaul - You're right. If the creators exercised a little foresight, they may have avoided the current DRM battles, but at the same time, the show probably would not have been as good as it was - if they had been thinking about how to sell it later.

The mere fact that DRM was not on their minds is what resulted in the most creative freedom, which is what made the show so successful.

Also, when I said that music liscensing was as foreign as an iPod - I realized that was worded wrong. I don't know how "foreign" it was to them back then, so I changed my wording to say, "may have been as foreign as an iPod."

Thanks for pointing that out.

But..., in hindsight, I am just curious what the creators are thinking now. That's what I was getting at... If they could do the show again, would they have changed the music? Probably not, but it was just a thought.

# Jim at 8/25/2007 2:12 pm cst

I realize there are different forms of licensing but if they can still play reruns on cable with the correct music they should be able to get it done for the dvd release

# Danielle at 8/29/2007 8:09 am cst

I was wondering if anyone has purchased the dvd collection from the tvaddicts.com link. I was thinking of buying them but was wondering if there was a "catch" since they have not been released by FOX yet.

Also, Dawson's Creek also had a similiar problem (only the first three season have the correct opening song - "I don't want to wait") and that is a more recent TV show. Rather than pointing the finger at FOX and the show writers we should point it at the greedy artists who are standing in the way of us enjoying our favorite TV shows.

# johnnyb at 9/12/2007 12:04 pm cst

The creators did not borrow. They licensed the music and paid for it from the beginning. The terms of their license simply did not allow for redistribution beyond initial broadcast and syndication. There's no lack of foresight here.

Music licensing is a dizzyingly complex morass. Everything is a line item, and different rights are often negotiated on different contracts. The show's creators bought the rights for what they needed and could afford at the time, including initial air and syndication. The licensors probably wanted too much for the hand-wavey futuristic terms that would've covered DVD releases or online distribution, in an age before DVD and Internet were standard items.

It's a common problem. Northern Exposure is an example that comes to mind. Their solution was to replace the original music with buyout music, and the effect is noticeable.

In any case, this has nothing to do with DRM or DVD. It's all in the fine print of documents inches thick. In other words, it's just business.

# Henry Strobel at 9/19/2007 12:20 pm cst

The Wonder Years was and is an excellent show. I have taped the series for my own enjoyment and accidently recorded a few commercials by mistake. I do however remember watching the series as a kid on an old 13 inch Sony TV dating back to the early 70s! Great times. Too bad about the music issues, but it was pivotal to the show. Probably made the younger generation aware of their great music. I actually had a Wonder Years CD at one time. "PS the Sony TV "died" a couple of years ago.

# Karen at 9/27/2007 9:16 pm cst

Be very careful about purchasing advertised full sets of the show!!! I ordered some from a web site last year, TVDVDPlanet, to give as a Christmas gift, and realized after the gift was opened and played that the DVDs were bootlegged, poor quality, and had the ABCFam logo displayed in the corner of every episode. One set was damaged, I sent it back and never got a replacement. What was supposed to be 7 DVD's ended up to be one set of 6, (which was damaged and what I returned), and one DVD case with just one DVD in it (maybe 10 episodes....poor, bootleg quality....for over $75!)

# John at 10/1/2007 8:46 am cst

Sad issue this is and the worse part is we never get any kind of updates as far as progress on this issue. We get a post or story from a fan every year or so it's sad.

# lauren stephens at 10/29/2007 6:25 pm cst

this is terribly, terribly sad. i too found a ton of these boxed sets online but im not buying them. i cant believe they didnt have the foresight to license music as it is not an impossible task. ill bet the stars were counting on the additional revenue, as that was not unheard of at that time. now they have nothing. as a side note, i was at the final taping of the show, which was in whittier california, where i lived at the time. it was so great. the music is indeed important. i bought several of the andy griffith tv shows on dvd and they didnt have the original opening theme. you just dont know how it ruins everything :(

# jennifer at 11/20/2007 10:05 am cst

i purcahsed the series from tvaddicts.com and was over charged and my item NEVER came. i am disputing the charges with VISA. i also ordered it from thedvdplanet.org and am hainvg a similar problem. just stick to watching it on reruns. the kicker is that it was supposed to be a gift and now i have to come up with a new idea.

# Jay McMullan at 12/28/2007 4:05 pm cst

I'm not alone. I love the series too. Can't believe they just can come to an understanding with all the artists. Heck I'd pay big bucks for a complete set of all the seasons - a licensed good quality set. Wake up Fox !! Money - money - money...

# NCaye at 11/10/2008 11:04 pm cst

There's a site:

http://tvseriesondvd.org/wonder.php

that claims to have the ORIGINAL music/soundtrack to the series for about $50(shipping included)....but dont know if it's legit or if it's even trustworthy.

# Jennifer at 11/13/2008 5:41 pm cst

Ncaye- I went to http://tvseriesondvd.org/wonder.php, the picture is the same one that was used on tvaddicts.com, I wouldn't buy it if I were you. I did some research and do to music copy right issues it doesn't look like they will be making any new Wonder Years dvd's or sound tracks. :(

# Chris at 12/12/2008 5:27 pm cst

I am so glad I just happened upon this conversation. I have spent a lot of time trying to track down The Wonder Years on DVD for my niece for Christmas. I found several sites - DVDMediaStar.com, DCMagicBox.com, Myrareshowsondvd.com - all at various prices but all saying they had the complete 115 episodes on 10 DVD's - new and ready to ship. I was suspicious about entering my credit card info and searched reputable sites like Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobels, Best Buy. I called Best Buy and they had never heard about the reputation of these sites. Now that I'm reading these posts, I'm wondering if I would have gotten DVD's without the original soundtracks. Glad I waited to hit that submit button.

# Brian at 4/11/2009 11:31 am cst

hello, dose any one know the name of the song or who sang it. It was the folk song played at the end of episode 16 of season 2 " who's woods are these" If you know please email me at fordlincoln74@yahoo.com been trying to find it. With no luck.

# Cory at 6/11/2010 5:10 am cst

NEVER BUY DVDS FROM THE SITES LISTED HERE!!! There are tons of them on the internet and the proprietors prey on people like us who are fans of TV shows that are not readily available on DVD. Their products are just poor quality tv rips (usually found on the internet for free from torrent sites) simply burned to discs and sent with minimal packaging. There are countless complaints about overcharging, unreceived merchandise, and poor quality. To top it all off, these individuals have no legal right to distribute these items for profit. Do not support these scam artists!