Reeves and Mortimer/Shooting Stars DVDs

I was disappointed when I found that The Smell Of Reeves and Mortimer DVDs had scenes cut and that the broadcast versions also had the same scenes missing compared to the VHS releases. I wonder why the BBC cut certain scenes from Series 1 of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer? Was it beacuse they found some of the scenes a bit too weird?

The BBC should give The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer a better release? I wonder if the VHS (ie uncut) versions are still in the BBC vaults and why 2Entertain chose to release the broadcast versions.

I am surprised as well that Series 1-5 of Shooting Stars, which to me were much funnier that the recent series, have never been released. As Shooting Stars was Vic and Bob's most poular show, I just don't get it why the BBC hasn't released the earlier series by now.

If the cut scenes had music in them, that could be a reason to cut them. The BBC may not want to pay the rights for the songs so they either have to edit the music out and replace it, or cut the scene entirely.

The 'Butterfield Karaoke' sketch is cut from the The Peter Serafinowicz Show DVD for this reason. And the 'The Omen' music has been changed on the OFAH DVDs when Rodney looks at Damien.

Or maybe it's something else entirely.

Quote: DougWonnacott @ April 27 2012, 4:23 PM BST

If the cut scenes had music in them, that could be a reason to cut them. The BBC may not want to pay the rights for the songs so they either have to edit the music out and replace it, or cut the scene entirely.

The 'Butterfield Karaoke' sketch is cut from the The Peter Serafinowicz Show DVD for this reason. And the 'The Omen' music has been changed on the OFAH DVDs when Rodney looks at Damien.

Or maybe it's something else entirely.

View original

The cut scenes in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer didn't feature music, they just appeared to be cut for no real reason, other than possibly space. However, I suspect there might have been other reasons because a series of sketches called the British Information Board Films with Patrick Allen's voiceover all had their endings cut. The VHS versions end with the voiceover being revealed as a bizarre character (a person with a spring onion head in one, for example) but the sketches fade quite abruptly before these scenes in the broadcast/DVD versions.

Quote: DougWonnacott @ April 27 2012, 4:23 PM BST

If the cut scenes had music in them, that could be a reason to cut them. The BBC may not want to pay the rights for the songs so they either have to edit the music out and replace it, or cut the scene entirely.

The 'Butterfield Karaoke' sketch is cut from the The Peter Serafinowicz Show DVD for this reason. And the 'The Omen' music has been changed on the OFAH DVDs when Rodney looks at Damien.

Or maybe it's something else entirely.

View original

It's not even as simple as that anymore. A lot of work was done a few years ago to smooth out music rights issues: hence the now complete releases of The Two Ronnies and The Morecambe & Wise Show, for example.

Quote: Aaron @ April 28 2012, 1:25 AM BST

It's not even as simple as that anymore. A lot of work was done a few years ago to smooth out music rights issues: hence the now complete releases of The Two Ronnies and The Morecambe & Wise Show, for example.

View original

I wasn't aware of that. Is that just a BBC thing or some rule change?

I forget the detail, but I was lead to believe it was a number of agreements across the industry.

Quote: Aaron @ April 30 2012, 1:39 PM BST

I forget the detail, but I was lead to believe it was a number of agreements across the industry.

View original

That's good news. Not a comedy, but I bought The Equalizer season 1 and had to wait 3 years for season 2 to come out due to a problem with music rights. Quite frustrating.

I too am annoyed that they haven't released the original Shooting Stars on DVD. If they released a box-set of the first five series, I would buy it the day it came out. I did, however, recently download all eight series and every special (Minus the long lost 2002 summer special, which nobody seems to be able to find anywhere) but the quality on some episodes (Particularly in series three and five) seems too bad to be able to put on a DVD, plus it wouldn't really be the same anyway. At least I can watch them all on my laptop. We should start a petition to the BBC asking them to release a DVD box-set, as I believe that if enough people signed up, we could actually make it happen.

The loss of the 'summer special' is compounded by the fact that it wasn't.

It seems that the oft-quoted 6/10/02 was misread by an American at some point - there was indeed an hour long special, but broadcast on 6th October, NOT 10th June.

Quote: Aaron @ May 16 2012, 12:38 AM BST

The loss of the 'summer special' is compounded by the fact that it wasn't.

It seems that the oft-quoted 6/10/02 was misread by an American at some point - there was indeed an hour long special, but broadcast on 6th October, NOT 10th June.

View original

This is an interesting fact. I wonder if the hour-long special is on YouTube?

Good point, Aaron. I never knew that! Anyway, it's still virtually impossible to find on t'internet. Have you any idea where I can find it?

We really want to see those DVDs. I would love a box set release of the Shooting Stars series. Just watched the Comedy Connections and Inside Story docos on it. I don't understand why current shows are released as soon as they finish their TV run (or even before). Surely it is the older shows that warrant the DVD release. New shows can wait their turn.