Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (67-70) : Any chance of DVD?

I would like to see it released in season volumes. It seems a long shot
with all the music guests, but that's why I'd like to see it. If SNL
can do it maybe they can pull it off as well.

I still don't get the problem with music licensing. First they have to
get permission I guess. Well to me if it is still in the context of
it's original usage (part of an old show) it shouldn't be necessary to

philcycles...

There are 2 seperate issues here: Song rights and performing rights.
Let's take a real example. As far as I remember Jimi Hendrix did Wild
Thing on the show. You're have to secure the somg rights from the
writer-whose name I don't remember-and performance rights from the
Hendrix Estate and I'd be willing to bet there wouldn't be much profit
after you paid theHendrix Estate. The Who were also on and there the
writer and performer are intertwined but I'd be willing to bet the
estates of Keith Moon and John Entwhistle would be involved.
Get the idea? Complicated and one wonders how much profit would remain
after all those payments.
Phil Brown

Well you could cut out the music-not ideal but a thought

philcycles...

Some of the skits were funny but today the music would be the reason to
watch the show.
Phil Brown

Well to sit through 45 min of bad skits just to see Cream do "Sunshine" you
can see that a million places now in that time period. Now if you want to
Tom and Dick do their stuff plus the musical guest then you have something.

get permission. As to fees I don't know if there is a standard or if it
varies. But it seems they had no problem at least on TV of showing
music clips until around the year 2000. Then it all but ceased. At
least for archival stuff.

PBS in the last few years during their pledge drives has locked into
this format of "Oldies" concerts. Which they show endlessly. I'd much
rather see these people in their prime in old clips than trying to
warble their hits in these geriatric concerts. Which gets to my
question of why does it seems easier for there to be recent concerts by
old acts seen on TV or available on DVD than anything archival?

To me the old clips should be viewed by the artists as promos for their
music catalog. Much like music videos a la MTV. MTV originated showing
music videos because they were free to use.