Upcoming Episodes plus comments on "I Second That Emotion"

11/28 - Brannigan Begin Again (2ACV02)
    Planet Express has a new employee - the recently court-martialed
    Zapp Brannigan

12/ 5 - A Flight To Remember (1ACV10)
    What's worse than taking a vacation aboard the maiden voyage of
    the spaceship "Titanic"?  Taking a vacation aboard the maiden
    voyage of the spaceship "Titanic" captained by Zapp Brannigan

A few comments on "I Second That Emotion":

According to his fang, Nibbler is five - but five what? Five revolutions of what was his home planet around its sun? How long is that in Earth years?

"(Roger) Ebert's Little Movie Glossary" (reprinted as "Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary") has a name for the all-too-common singing of a birthday song that's not "Happy Birthday": "Jolly Bornday". Usually, it's done because royalties have to be paid if "Happy Birthday" is used (I know Michael Jackson owned the rights at one time, but I think he sold them when he sold the rights to the Beatles songs), but it may just be a spoof of that as I would assume Fox could afford the royalties.

Bender didn't seem to be affected by the magnet in the can opener.

"If Fry's book said the only way out was through the small pipe, how did they get out, anyway?" It shouldn't be that hard for Bender to extend his legs high enough to reach any manhole cover, then give Fry and Leela a lift up (presumably, the book assumed the reader didn't have a robot along).

On Mon, 22 Nov 1999 05:26:22 GMT, [email] (Don Del Grande) wrote:

<snip>

That would depend on the distance to the star it orbited. Since the tooth grew a new layer every year, then the planet must have distinctive seasons, so animals would respond to 'years'. That implies 1. an elliptical orbit, 2. a tilted axis (like Earth) or 3. it orbits a multiple star system. Or some combination of them.

I would also guess that Nibbler's species hibernates and grows the new tooth layer while sleeping. This could be a possible episode, Nibbler doesn't wake up one morning and Leela freaks out.

After someone proved they had the rights to the original "Happy Birthday" song, shows started to avoid it. Previously it had been assumed to be public domain. Perhaps they were making a cultural reference to all the "substitute" birthday songs.

I remember The Tonight Show w/ Johnny Carson once cut the sound when they sang Happy Birthday. If anyone could afford the royalties, I sure they could. Perhaps the owner of the rights were being jerks about the whole thing.

His survival chip probably has a higher priority than his inhibition chip, so the magnet overriding it would have little effect.

The map in the book would be very complicated and 3D. Fry, who couldn't count 5 rings, probably couldn't read it properly.

Only if the average distance to it's star was the same as the Earth's (see above).

--Larry

Actually, the rights to 'Happy Birthday' are owned by the family of the lady who wrote the song. The last time I heard (which was approx. 1-2yrs ago) two sisters held the rights to the royalty. They receive about $5.00 each time it is used professionally. They still manage to rake in 10 to 30 grand a year, eventhough most production companies try to screw them by using 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow'. Also, considering the rampant syndication of shows, they feel the 'paperwork' is too much hassle. (yeah, right)

What you talking about? Screw them?? Right. I can just picture it.

"Hey, fellow script writers, let's have them sing 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' instead of 'Happy Birthday' so's we don't have to fill out all that paperwork and send that five dollars to those two old women. Remember, we've got to come in under budget."

BTW, who keeps track of how often the song is used 'professionally', what constitutes 'professional use' and who hunts down the deadbeats who refuse to cough up the fiver? Maybe they have a $4 per hour attorney on retainer?

This whole situation is absolutely idiotic.  That song should be in the
public domain by now.  What are the laws regarding public domain?  Do
orchestras have to pay off Beethoven's descendants when they want to
play his symphonies?
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On Tue, 23 Nov 1999 07:31:07 -0500, Dave wrote:

The network's standards and practices dept. would tell them not to use it. It's not the $5.00, it's the extra hassle of keeping track of it.

I think ASCAP still does most of that.

In general, no one hounds local bar bands over $10.00 per show, however, networks pay out huge sums in royalties. If Fox suddenly stopped, they'd be in court very quickly. It's done as a single bulk payment for all royalties for all artists covered by ASCAP. In fact, the producers of X-files, M*A*S*H and a few other shows on Fox's syndication channel are taking action against fox over a copyright issue now.

The system does have some serious flaws, however it's the way artists get paid.

I don't think it is yet. Even if it is, they might have decided to use an alternate birthday song as cultural reference to all the other shows that did.

That's far too old, I think the original artist, or whoever it's been sold / willed to owns the rights for up to 75 years. For more information, do a web search.

Disney is currently lobbying to extend the time period. The original Mickey Mouse will become public domain in a few years under current law.

--Larry

As I recall, David Duchovny and Alan Alda were suing because FX, Fox's sister station, had grabbed up the reruns of The X-Files and M*A*S*H for far below what they would have been worth if other networks were allowed to bid on them. Is this a different case altogether than the one you're describing?

But... the Mickey with the piecut eyes was the best one!

That's the same case. I know it's a lot different than using a song, but it shows that networks can be, and are, sued over royalties.

--Larry

On Tue, 23 Nov 1999 06:56:34 -0700, "grosse" wrote:

I always liked the sorcerer's apprentice.

--Larry

In alt.tv.futurama, on the "Re: Upcoming Episodes plus comments on 'I Second That Emotion'" thread, Larry wrote:

According to what I read in the papers, "Happy Birthday" will become a public domain song in 2002 (or thereabouts). The two copyright owners have only a short time before rake in all that royalty dough.

I hear they're lobbying for 95 years, and with the specter of losing millions of dollars to cheap foreign knock-offs hanging over legislators' heads, Disney is likely to get what they want. I wonder what Disney will do twenty years from now when the new copyright expires? I can hear them now: "Oops, sorry, we really meant 115 years."

Benjamin Robinson wrote in message news:[email]...

have

do

now:

Hmm, strange, I read an article about this just yesterday!

Happy Birthday was originally protected up through 2001. But, an extension pushed by Sonny Bono was passed by Bill Clinton last year while the nation was distracted by his inability to keep his pants on (so no one protested).

In a nutshell, the new copyright law is life plus 70 years. The justification is that that is the limit set by the European Union and so we need to protect our copyrights for the same amount of time. For currently existing copyrights, they will get 95 years of protection from the date they were filed, I believe is how it works. Anyway, read the article: http://www.boston.com/globe/magazine/8-29/featurestory1.shtml

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"Maybe, just once, someone will call me 'Sir' without adding, 'You're making a scene.'" -Homer Simpson

What is the name of the episode? "Goodbye Mr. Empathy Chip", or "I Second That Emotion"?

Sincerely,
Robert Muldoon
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"Normal people frighten me. . ."
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("Bender Art" by Martin Schmidt)

Do you want a Jurassic Park Newsgroup?

Yes -- the weird ones with rubber mask faces.

I saw an interview with Roddy McDowell on A&E a while back. He said they were going for a 'normal person with his skin peeled off so you can see the blood vessels' kind of look. Me, I thought they were creepy, even without the psionic abilities.

Finally! Someone else saw this!

Greywizard wrote in message news:[email]...

I thought about that too, but forgot to post it when I replied about the refrigerator contents when Bender was making the cake.

A Wizard did it.....

Greywizard wrote in message ...