Sony Pictures Home Entertainment - Criticism

Criticism

• Sony has been criticized by many DVD consumers for business practices they find bothersome; for instance, several films (ranging from Guess Who's Coming to Dinner to Moscow on the Hudson) that were made available with a widescreen and pan-and-scan version on either side were reissued as pan-and-scan only titles. There was also discontent over their decision to release pan-and-scan only versions of Annie, Matilda, and Castle Keep, but only in the case of the final film did the director, Sydney Pollack, intervene and get a widescreen version issued. John Huston, director of Annie, died in 1987, and Danny DeVito did not comment on the DVD of his film Matilda. Annie in particular has a strange DVD history; the original 2000 DVD featured both widescreen and pan-and-scan versions of this 1982 Panavision musical, but the widescreen version was misframed, but later repressed. However, the corrected version was pulled and replaced with a pan-and-scan only "Special Anniversary Edition" (with a DTS soundtrack) in 2004, while other countries received widescreen versions of the reissue. Similarly, Ghostbusters II and White Nights were released on Laserdisc letterboxed to an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, even though both titles were shot in anamorphic 2.35:1. The DVD of Ghostbusters II corrects this problem, but White Nights is still incorrectly displayed at 1.85:1.

• In another incident, the third season DVD set of Married with Children did not feature the Frank Sinatra theme song Love and Marriage due to a licensing dispute between SPHE and the publishers of the song. Many fans were upset that the theme had to be replaced, and has been replaced on all subsequent sets.

• Also, some episodes of TV series the studio has released on DVD have been edited syndication versions, though most episodes are the unedited versions. One recent offense is a whole story point missing from volume 1 of Norman Lear's satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman).

• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is also known to release older TV shows very slowly and then go into hiatus, e.g. All in the Family, One Day at a Time, Mad About You, Fantasy Island, Silver Spoons, The Jeffersons, Maude, Hart to Hart, Who's The Boss?, 227, and others, either because of poor sales or difficulties securing music rights. However, some shows went into release limbo but have since reappeared such as The Partridge Family, Barney Miller, Charlie's Angels, and The Nanny. Plus, for other shows such as Designing Women, The Facts of Life, "Diff'rent Strokes", and Mad About You the rights have been acquired by Shout! Factory, under SPHE's license, for further DVD releases.

• In another incident, the third season DVD set of Bewitched had two episodes that were edited. Episode 87 had an orb in the sense when Samantha zaps up the tankard of ale, but Sony took it out, and at the end the "To Be Continued" too. While Episode 88 had what the cliffhanger was about, but yet angain Sony took out something else from Bewitched. The only two times they did it too.