Bosom Buddies-Diff themes-What determines which used?

[Jake1965]

As we all know, when "BOSOM BUDDIES" first premiered on ABC, the opening theme was a cover version of Billy Joel's "My Life". Once the series surfaced in syndication (most frequently on the USA Network), the opening theme was replaced by "Never Gonna Shake Me Loose", which was the vocal version of the end theme. Now, I had always assumed that after the series ended its original network runs (ABC, followed by the brief NBC run), the production company no longer had the rights to use "My Life", leading them to replace the opening theme. However, now that "BOSOM BUDDIES" has reappeared on TBS in the wee hours of Saturday mornings, the episodes still have the original "My Life" theme intact.

Finally, to my question...does anyone know FOR CERTAIN why some airings are allowed to use the original opening theme while others have the second opening theme in use from the very first episode? I considered that perhaps the TBS episodes being aired were the original network masters, leaving everything intact while the USA (and other) airings were the edited syndicated tapes. I discounted this theory right away when there were major edits already seen in the TBS episodes being aired (very noticeable during the end credits when you can see scenes that didn't appear). My only other theory is this: Could both versions be available for broadcast but the episodes featuring the original "My Life" theme have a higher licensing fee attached to them to cover the music royalties, leading most networks/stations to use the episodes featuring the second theme instead at a lower licensing cost? I'd sure appreciate it if someone would post the real answers to this quandry.

Thanks,

JT

[DetectiveGriffin]

i think, if a station purchased the show a long time ago, they're allowed to use the version they originally purchased. any station purchasing the show for the first time will have the newest available version being sold.

music changes are frequent in anything you see these days. my friend bought the pilot ep of now and again or whatever its called, on ebay, and it has a beatles song in it, but a few months later when it was run on the sci fi channel, the beatles song was covered up with something else. never thought about it happening that quick. :)

[aaronshore]

The reason why that there are two themes to "Bosom Buddies" is because of the ABC network decision. When ABC agreed to have the show on their network line-up, they detested the "Shake Me Loose" song, and sought out to find another song to replace it. They finally came up with the so-called brilliant idea of having a cover version of Billy Joel's "My Life" for the opening. ABC agreed to keep the instrumental closing theme of "Shake Me Loose" since the lyrics were impossible to deciffer--without having the opening theme. Then--when USA Network bought the film rights--they decided to use the unaired opening theme of "Shake Me Loose".


I happen to own "Shake Me Loose" on MP3 format, which happens to be in clear sound. I am also going to upload the closing theme to my computer--denoise it--and remix the opening/closing theme together so the song will be complete. When I do so, I will be glad to send it to you on a CD, with the "My Life" theme as well. The CD will be FOC [Free of Charge].

I hope this information helps you.


Sincerely/Graceously,

Aaron Shore



P.S. Below is the information about the "Shake Me Loose" theme.



SHAKE ME LOOSE

music by Dan Foliart and Howard Pearl
lyrics by Chris Thompson
performed by Stephanie Mills
1980 Paramount Records Music Corp., Inc.