Title (Music) Rights
Our own wonderful Deb is going to post something here soon about the spectacle that was The Late Show With Craig Ferguson‘s Doctor Who theme night with Matt Smith, but I just wanted to talk about one of the more arcane aspects of the show.
As anyone who saw the show knows, Craig intended to do one of his all-signing, all-dancing, all-puppets cold opens—which are usually quite brilliant and mental (you can see what he does to the theme song from Fireball XL-5 here)—this time using the theme music for Doctor Who. Well, mere minutes before the show, Craig was informed that they couldn’t get the rights to the music and, even though the cold open had been shot (and even featured along with the all singing, all dancing all puppets, a cameo by Matt Smith), it had to be scrapped. The cold open featured a pretty PO-ed Mr. Ferguson giving people the lowdown on what happened. The contentious subject kept recurring throughout the episode.
This actually underscores an interesting point which most Doctor Who fans don’t realize: the theme music can be bloody expensive to use.
The BBC don’t own the rights to the Doctor Who theme, written by Ron Grainer. Warner Chappell Publishing does. Licensing it for television is actually a pretty steep proposition. Consider this:
- According to Philip Segal and Gary Russell’s book on the making of the 1996 TV Movie, Regeneration one of the biggest showdowns between the co-production partners toward the end of production was over using the theme music. Warner Chappell wanted a large sum for the use of the theme (Shannon Patrick Sullivan’s site says it was around $170,000 for this and other overruns. My recollection is that a majority of that sum was for the theme music). Universal, one of the co-production partners, pretty much balked at that and demanded a new theme tune. Philip Segal and the BBC held their ground, saying that it was a part of Doctor Who. The theme made it in (though given the marching band rendition I wonder if Universal didn’t have a point…) but it was serious enough to be a dealbreaker for all sides.
- There were rumours leading up to the 2005 series that, much like the troubles around the Daleks, they might not be able to make a deal for the theme music. At the end of the day they worked it out, but it has been noted in interviews that they can’t use the Doctor Who theme music in the incidental music because of the cost.
These were just for actual TV productions of Doctor Who. So when a national US network late-night show comes around saying they want to use that piece of music… you can bet that there’s going to be some hefty coinage. Its almost unsurprising negotiations failed.
Posted by Graeme on Wednesday, November 17 at 2:55 pm
5 Comments...
So instead of getting it on late night TV they got nothing at all. Poor negotiations on their part I’d say.
I’d heard it was something more like $40,000 for use of the theme and even though it wasn’t a huge sum it was one of those “points of principle” that studios have like when to finish the first Star Wars film FOX actually paid more money to use 3 crews going rather than just shooting for another week. Finishing was more important to them than the actual cost.
I’d never thought of the movie theme as being marching band and I doubt Universal cared one way or the other about what it sounded like. Still it’s the only all-symphonic version of the theme so far on TV and had a grand opening with well thought out titles to support it.
Posted by Ryan on 11/17 at 05:03 PM
Regeneration portrayed it as a cost thing more than a principle thing. Even if it was $50K (and it’s been a decade since I read the book, but I seem to recall it was more), that’s still nothing to sneeze at in a production with a $5 million budget for a piece of music that’s a minute long.
The arrangement for the TV movie is a march, pure and simple. It’s my least favourite version, and I say this as someone not very enamoured with Murray Gold’s last two attempts at the theme music (he at least kept some electronic / found sounds component, which I think the theme should have). Your mileage may vary.
Posted by Graeme on 11/17 at 06:45 PM
Re: Ryan. I have to agree that it sometimes makes no sense. They’d rather not have it used at all if they don’t get paid highway robbery fees. It’s not just the Doctor Who Theme. Many songs, recordings, etc. have frankly fallen into obscurity in part because pencil pushers (almost never the artists themselves) don’t care - all they see is the bottom of the ledger. It’s one of the reasons it took a generation for The Six Million Dollar Man to achieve home video release in North America. And everyone involved on the creative side of the 1960s Batman series want it out on DVD as well, and it’s very sad that they may not live to see that happen, all because accountants and lawyers want unreasonable amounts of pounds of flesh.
Posted by Alex on 11/17 at 11:40 PM
Very interesting post and thanks for the included links.
I would never have imagined that playing the Who theme would be so expensive, though it does make sense when one remembers all the fuss surrounding the CBC and their dropping of long-time theme for Hockey-Night-In-Canada.
It’s a good job no-one checks what I hum when I take my shower.
Posted by Andrew B on 11/18 at 03:04 AM
Well I didn’t want to bring it up myself but since it has I think the real problem with MG’s versions are two-fold.
1. They should either be all symphonic or all electronic but not a mix. Considering the way the show is musically what is the point of any electronic in it? Doctor Who sound archivist Mark Ayres has busted the myth that the original idea was for Derbyshire to provide a realized theme that he would then add orchestrations to.
Derbyshire herself loved her original version but not so much the later reworked versions even though she had a hand in them for Troughton and the 70’s versions. She thought Howell’s theme was marvelous. I get the impression she wouldn’t be too pleased with bits of her work in support of a largely orchestral sound.
If anything I got the marching band feel from MG’s with his woodwinds “twirling” sound that is present. Of his three I like his second best probably because it takes in ideas from the Howell which is my favourite.
2. I wish MG would actually use Grainer’s score! It’s one thing to rearrange the sections or add a bit here or there but Murray doesn’t really use the bassline like all the other TV versions up until that point and then we have his latest with it’s open. I’d prefer this fan edit as a starting point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_bJ79mVHNc
Posted by Ryan on 11/18 at 06:52 PM
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