In yesterday's edition (Nov. 10th) of the
New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper,
a story written by Dave Walker covered the latest happenings with Tim Reid. While the article, "The tale of Tim & Tom," mostly centers around a new book about Reid's time in the '60s-'70s doing stand-up comedy with his partner Tom Dreesen. Besides talking about the book,
Tim & Tom: An American Comedy in Black and White, Walker also gets Reid to talk about the DVD possibilities of his TV series
Frank's Place, which was set in New Orleans.
The half-hour sitcom from the late '80s ran for just a single season on CBS, with 22 episodes produced. Tim Reid's co-star on the series was Daphne Maxwell Reid, his real-life wife and also known as the second actress to play "Vivian" on
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Reid himself, of course, is best known as "Venus Flytrap" on
WKRP in Cincinnati (plus well-known roles in
Simon & Simon, Sister Sister and
That '70s Show). Guest stars in the series included Don King, Joe Frazier, Lynne Thigpen, Pam Grier, Patrick Wayne and the legendary Dizzy Gillespie.
The story at the
Times-Picayune website describes how the show's "
quirky soundtrack was vital to its verisimilitude," but also comments on how the "
purchasing rights to the music used in the series is still prohibitively costly." So, while Walker passes along that Reid and CBS have agreed to bring the series to DVD, it's with the caveat that it will be done with a newly re-recorded musical score. Reid promises to "
re-create the mood of the music." "
It has to be in the mood of the show or I'd rather not do it.," he was quoted as saying. The article describes how Reid's plan is to bring "
a newly written score performed by musicians who can accurately render New Orleans music." For complete details, please
read the full article at the newspaper's website.
This wouldn't be the first time that a series that Reid has been on came to DVD without the original broadcast music. As the article notes, changes to the score also happened with
WKRP...and fans have complained that it made such a difference on the
Season 1 DVD release for that program, it affected their buying decisions. Lower-than-forecast sales have kept Fox from moving forward with further season set releases of that classic sitcom. We're sure Reid and CBS will keep this firmly in mind as they make their musical changes to
Frank's Place episodes. Because this is still a work in process, no timetable has been set for the DVD release. But we'll update you once we know something further...so stay tuned! Our thanks to longtime reader Jaime Weinman for the heads-up about the
Times-Picayune story.
