Part 04: The Corporations' Movie (1993 to 2023)

How was it that It's a Wonderful Life went from a local TV free-for-all to only airing during the holidays on NBC for most of the past three decades?  In search of the answer, the podcast unearths a never-before-told story that up-ends many of the broadly-held assumptions and reveals much about the Potter-dominated state of modern media.  Generally, once a piece of art falls into the public domain, it stays there forever.  Not so with Wonderful Life, now claimed by Paramount Global and long the exclusive television domain of Comcast’s NBC Universal.  What happened in 1993 to take “the People’s movie" back?  What does it tell us about the effects of a broader corporate trend towards consolidation and monopoly that was the dominant strategy of iconic villain Henry F. Potter?  SaveGeorgeBailey.com

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
NBC tonight at eight seven Central.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
And yea Godian Angel, this is the.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Season to believe miracles can come true.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I will love again.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Well, mister Day, It's a wonderful light, a holiday tradition.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
You can't see anywhere but here.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
James Stewart, Donna Ree a Christmas Eve event. It's a
wonderful light, NBC tonight at eight seven Central.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Buffalo Girls, can't you come out tonight? Can't you come
out tonight?

Speaker 5 (00:34):
Can't you come out tonight?

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Buffalo girls? Can't you come out tonight.

Speaker 6 (00:40):
By the light?

Speaker 4 (00:42):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (00:48):
Jo say, I love that.

Speaker 8 (00:54):
Jos says, you make me.

Speaker 6 (01:11):
I'm talking about the building and loan.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I know very well what you're talking about.

Speaker 9 (01:15):
You're talking about something you can't get your fingers on,
and that's grawing you.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
That's what you're talking about.

Speaker 6 (01:20):
I know Potter wanted to own everything in Bedford Falls,
but George Bailey was there to stop him. Since then,
Potter seems to have become a role model of sorts
for those doing business in America. Over the past thirty years,
there has been an increasing consolidation in almost every field.
Seventy percent of food is made by seven companies. There

(01:43):
are three big auto manufacturers, four major airlines, three phone companies,
and six dominant media companies and a hot property like
wonderful Life is a real prize for an industry driven
by what they call IP intellectual property.

Speaker 10 (02:01):
Hig you right up, thanks, folks, Welcome to the show.

Speaker 11 (02:04):
My name is David Letterman.

Speaker 10 (02:05):
We come to you on the NBC Television Network, a
subsidiary of RCA, where we bring good things to living.
We bring good things to life, Thank you so much.
RCA yesterday was taken over merged. They're calling it a merger.

(02:27):
It was one of those gun to the head mergers.
Ladies and gentlemen. Bye, the friendly folks at GE, whose slogan,
of course is we bring good things to life.

Speaker 11 (02:41):
It's a deal, well almost.

Speaker 8 (02:43):
GE and Vivendi have agreed on a price for the
French company's twenty percent stake in NBC Universal.

Speaker 6 (02:48):
As American media consolidates by the mid two thousands, NBC
television show thirty Rock, taking place inside NBC's famed headquarters
in New York City, seeks to parody the maker's own
apparent sense of the absurd effects they feel all around them.

Speaker 4 (03:06):
I'm trying to produce a Christmas special device. It's a
Wonderful Life look like pulp fiction.

Speaker 6 (03:10):
Fictional NBC executive Jack Donneghe played by Alec Baldwin. The
actor stands in for so many real execs inside so
many real media corporations.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
You see, Ge.

Speaker 12 (03:24):
Owns Kitchen All of Colorado, which in turn owns JMI
of Stafford, which is a majority shareholder in Pokerfastlane dot Com,
which recently acquire the Shinehart Wag Company, which.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
Owns NBC outright.

Speaker 6 (03:33):
And then at the start of the twenty tenseness.

Speaker 13 (03:37):
They keep talking about Shinehart selling NBC to cables.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
That's never gonna happen.

Speaker 14 (03:43):
How could a company from Philadelphia buy a company from
New York.

Speaker 5 (03:46):
That would be like Vietnam defeating the United States in.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
The Ground War.

Speaker 15 (03:50):
Good morning, We've been sold.

Speaker 16 (03:52):
In a big story for the entertainment world, a cable company, Comcast,
has agreed to acquire NBC Universal from General Electric.

Speaker 17 (04:00):
Remember when NBC started promoting It's a Wonderful Life. You know,
during that block of TV Friends, Seinfeld, cheers Er and
NBC would be advertising heavily for It's a Wonderful Life
and saying and bragging where it this is the only place,
and I would I'd get all angry because I think, Carl,
I want to watch it all the time, not just

(04:21):
you know, two nights in December, on early December and
then Christmas Eve.

Speaker 6 (04:27):
The angry man, upset that Wonderful Life no longer plays
on every channel constantly in December is Jeff Williams, whom
you will remember from an earlier episode. He recalls vividly
how NBC built on Wonderful Life over the nineteen nineties.

Speaker 17 (04:45):
Basically, NBC ended up owning the holidays, because you start
off with NBC running the Macy's Day Parade. They've got
all their sitcoms doing holiday episodes, and then and they've
got you know, the special the Tree, you know, the
Rockfeller Center and all that, and then it you know,
it all ends Christmas Eve.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
They've got.

Speaker 18 (05:09):
It's a Wonderful Life. And so you know, NBC they
pretty much they own the holidays. They've they've sun it
up and you know, and yeah, I watch it.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
All the time.

Speaker 6 (05:21):
You'll recall from episode one how Wonderful Life was seemingly
everywhere on TV for years. Then nineteen ninety four, a
deal is suddenly announced with NBC making them the exclusive
long term TV rights holder to this American institution. It's
tended to be among the most watched movies on TV

(05:43):
each year in November and December. That's a lot of
ad revenue.

Speaker 12 (05:49):
It's a Wonderful Life, sponsored in part by kmart low
prices and extras you won't find anywhere else.

Speaker 6 (05:57):
Dubbing himself the TV professor If Williams went in search
of the real story of why. For most of the
past three decades, the movie could only be found twice
a year on NBC.

Speaker 17 (06:10):
It's a convoluted story. But Sheldon Abend was a literary
agent and he's watching TV one day and he sees
this movie and gets really mad. He represents Cornell Woolrich,
who wrote a short story that the movie Rear Window
was based on. It was called It Had to Be Murder.

(06:31):
Cornell Woolrich died in nineteen sixty eight, and Sheldon is like,
this is wrong. I run Cornell's estate. I should be
getting this money. He takes it to court and it
goes all the way to the Supreme Court and they
rule in Sheldon Aben's favor. They're like, yeah, you should
have gotten money for Rear window.

Speaker 6 (06:50):
Sheldon Aubyn and this nineteen ninety Supreme Court decision would
in fact have no direct legal bearing on the Wonderful
Life situation, but the wide spread misunderstanding that it did
will have an impact on the story. More on that later. First,
a quick refresher is probably helpful here. You'll remember the

(07:12):
short story The Greatest Gift, on which Wonderful Life was based,
was written by Philip van doren Stern before work on
the movie itself began. You met his granddaughter Laura Robinson
in the first episode, I'll bring you closer to Philip
and his family in future episodes. Failing to find a
publisher for his independent story, Philip copyrighted it in nineteen

(07:35):
forty three and sent it out with two hundred Christmas
cards interesting RKO's Studios and eventually Frank Capra. Scripts were
written by other parties under contract to RKO and later
Frank for what became Wonderful Life. After Wonderful Life failed
to meet expectations at the box office in nineteen forty seven,

(07:56):
Banks threatened to foreclose on its director Frank Capra, who
was forced to sell his independent company, Liberty Films and
its movie Wonderful Life to the movie's studio Paramount. Less
than a decade later, Paramount resold it to National Telefilm
Associates NTA, whom you learned about in an earlier episode.

(08:17):
They and their legal team, led by Rashida Jones' grandfather,
overlooked renewing the copyright of Wonderful Life in nineteen seventy four,
and thereafter the public perception became that anyone could do
anything they wanted with the movie. In nineteen eighty four,
former Wonderful Life copyright holder NTA essentially merged with a

(08:40):
former movie studio and changed its name to Republic Pictures.
And then comes one summer day in nineteen ninety three,
just over three years after that Supreme Court ruling I mentioned,
Jeffrey Baker of Good Times Home Video receives a letter
much like the letters that around two hundred others across

(09:02):
America are receiving at this time.

Speaker 14 (09:05):
He opens it the law offices of James P. Tierney,
one hundred Wilshire Boulevard, twelfth floor, Santa Monica, California, nine
zero four zero one June tenth, nineteen ninety three. Dear
mister Baker, we have learned that you may have been
exploiting the motion picture entitled It's a Wonderful Life. If
you have been exploiting the film in any media, you
have been violating my client's rights under the copyright laws

(09:28):
of the United States. The above referenced music publishers own
all of the copyrighted music in the film, and Republic
is the exclusive licensee of the right to copy and
exploit the music in the film. Further, the film is
based upon the separately copyrighted literary work by Philip van
doren Stern entitled The Greatest Gift. Republic owns the exclusive

(09:48):
rights to exploit the story is embodied in the film
during the renewal term of copyright in the story, we
understand that the copyright in the film as a derivative
work was not renewed, and as a result, any new
matter added to the separate copyrighted musical compositions and the
story in order to create the film is apparently unprotected
by copyright in the United States of America, its territories

(10:08):
and commonwealths. However, copyright nonetheless exists for the musical compositions
and story used in the film because their respective copyrights
were timely renewed, as the United States Supreme Court recently stated,
the use of copyright works in the creation of a
derivative work does not limit or impair the exclusive rights
granted by copyright law to the proprietors of the underlying works.

Speaker 13 (10:31):
Los Angeles Times Under twenty third, nineteen ninety three company
Town Mule with less Wonderful Life tound over the next month,
we'll see what a holiday season's like without its wonderful life.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Hearing NonStop on television.

Speaker 19 (10:44):
It's one of all.

Speaker 20 (10:45):
I stopped being for the available for broadcasts as a
result of the Supreme Court decision in nineteen ninety upholding
the rights of the owner of a short story on
which Alfred Hitchcock based his rare Wind Goes Through It
that caused republic pictures which I'd assume.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
It's a Wonderful Life was in the public coming.

Speaker 13 (11:01):
So closely is the rights it held to the greatest gift.
An obscure short story by Philippe van doren Stern and
with chaper Lucy based so posted by US Supreme Court decision.
Lawyers are now succeeding at doing what the filones Miss Etel,
mister Potter always wish she could do in the Daileys.

Speaker 6 (11:20):
There are some factual errors within this Los Angeles Times
reporting by Jim Bates that you just heard the result
of Jim's direct conversations with people inside Republic. Just before
Thanksgiving nineteen ninety three, Jim learns of the letters that
have gone out and heads to Republic's offices in Beverly

(11:43):
Hills to find out what exactly is going on. He
meets with Russell Goldsmith. It's CEO who makes clear he
believes his company is losing millions they might otherwise be
making from wonderful life.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
By you, Russell.

Speaker 13 (11:58):
You know, because part of my beach was covering phone companies,
and I know I'd met with Russell and Elisible, but
Culture Times not to know them.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
I also covered Blockbuster as a case.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
Of company, and you know they made investment in Republic,
so you know, I.

Speaker 13 (12:13):
Got to know us.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
So I actually actually was his father well too.

Speaker 13 (12:18):
His father I previously prior covering entertainment and covering banking,
and Russell's father, Braham, was the head of City National Bank,
which was the bank.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
To the stars in Hollywood.

Speaker 2 (12:29):
Russell later, after.

Speaker 13 (12:30):
Leaving Republic, grand City National for a number of years
and just retired.

Speaker 6 (12:35):
With the fiftieth anniversary of Wonderful Life approaching, and with
Blockbuster purchasing a stake in Republic and a merger with
Aaron's Spelling Entertainment on the table, Goldsmith is looking for
ways to increase the value of Republic, which will sweeten
the proposition of acquisition by a bigger fish. He turns

(12:56):
to corporate attorney James Tierney. Wouldn't it be nice for
them if they could regain control of Wonderful Life. They
had to plan, as they explained to Jim, I want.

Speaker 5 (13:09):
To make showings of Wonderful Life rare enough the networks
will be eager enough to air it during the holidays
and make a deal out of it.

Speaker 4 (13:17):
And I'm sure there's something short to house flight. You
want to do this, you know, even if I said, look,
you know, if we'd like to do it, and you know,
we had this idea that we could maybe make a
like you have.

Speaker 13 (13:27):
It as a special release on video and have his
prime time special, and so yeah, we're not going to
let all these stations there.

Speaker 6 (13:33):
You know, we're sitting at the tyranny. The Republic lawyer
tells Jim.

Speaker 14 (13:37):
We're trying to resolve this without filing two hundred lawsuits.
We would resolve all of them, but we'd like to
win this amicably.

Speaker 6 (13:43):
First, Jim wonders if Republic has story rights to the
Greatest Gift or any other story rights that would allow
them to control showings of the movie Wonderful Life. Now,
why have they not asserted those rights earlier? The answer
to that is never made totally clear to Jim. But

(14:03):
Republic has also gone out and purchased rights to songs
written before Wonderful Life was made that were used in
the soundtrack. Any local station airing the movie with the
soundtrack embedded under every scene would seem to be violating
Republic's newly acquired license to the music, regardless of whether

(14:23):
the movie itself is or is not in the public domain.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
My resuite is buying the music rights was the key element.

Speaker 13 (14:32):
It wasn't so much as saying we own you know,
because if they theoretically own the rights, you know, ever since.

Speaker 4 (14:39):
Since he has failed, who knew it?

Speaker 13 (14:41):
If he still owned it, they theoretically could have tried
to invoke content. But obviously they felt, you know, let's
get the you know, get the music. Rights, and that's
what kind of put it on the top. I imagine
there was some bit of uncertainty involved in terms of
is that enough to accomplish?

Speaker 4 (14:59):
Which one accomplished? Having the rights is the short story and.

Speaker 13 (15:02):
The music music was a pretty clever thing to do
because then, as he pointed out, you have two things there.
You're also in the negative, but you know you have
two things there that you can use to try to
enforce this.

Speaker 6 (15:15):
Those two elements, republics vaguely stated rights to story related
to Wonderful Life and their acquisition of the music, are
characterized by lawyer Tyrney to Jim as.

Speaker 14 (15:27):
Two barrels of a shotgun.

Speaker 17 (15:29):
Jeff Williams, again, you've got all these small TV stations
and they don't have the pockets. You know, you're not
going to go to court for the right to show
this one movie for free at Christmas. I mean, I
don't think there was one actual court case. James Tierney
basically just threatened a lot of lawsuits, and all these

(15:49):
stations said, oh, okay, okay, we won't we won't show it.
And now they've got it, and you know, maybe it
is theirs, maybe it's.

Speaker 6 (15:57):
Not public and the corporations that acquire Republic and NBC
go on to make millions from Wonderful Life over the
next three decades thanks to Tierney. Now Tierney is an
interesting fellow. While helping Republic in their effort to regain

(16:20):
control of Wonderful Life, he was also working on another
little operation for another client.

Speaker 7 (16:27):
The Los Angeles Times. Ex prosecutor charged in heart fraud case.
A former federal prosecutor has been charged in a case
that underscores the potential for fraud in the complex world
of fine art insurance.

Speaker 11 (16:38):
James P.

Speaker 7 (16:39):
Tierney, who worked as a federal prosecutor in New York
and Los Angeles before entering private practice, aided one of
his clients in a conspiracy to fake the theft of
works by Picasso and Monette and to fraud two insurance companies.
According to a document federal prosecutors filed in US District
Court in Los Angeles, Tierney, who became a prominent entertainment lawyer,
bases one count of aiding and abetting wire fraud. His

(17:00):
attorney said Tyranny will cooperate in the federal investigation of
Stephen G. Cooperman, a retired ophthalmologist. It is a little
bit like a like a Tarantino movie, and that you
have these kind of like really kind of outrageous characters.

Speaker 6 (17:14):
Jeff Leeds is also a Los Angeles Times reporter in
the nineteen nineties covering the media industry. When he takes
an interest in the James Tierney art fraud case.

Speaker 7 (17:25):
This doctor named Stephen Cooperman, in the course of becoming
fairly wealthy, became a pretty avid art collector. Siblic government
essentially say initially is that Cooperman and some co conspiras
had arranged to have the paintings stolen so that he
could file what he knew would be a fraudulent claim.
So I don't really know how or when they became friends,

(17:46):
but Tierney was a Tierney was a certainly successful entertainment
lawyer in his own right, and in various cases had
represented people like Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys, actors
like Timothy Hutton and other I never would have imagined
that the Cooperman case and the Tyranny case would be
connected to It's a Wonderful Life. Tyranny was charged ultimately

(18:09):
by the government with his role in this sort of
conspiracy to steal the artwork from Cooperman's home and file
the false insurance claims. He cooperated in the investigation of Cooperman.
Tyranny said, you know, in retrospect, he felt like this
was a terrible mistake and that as Cooperman's friend, he
should have gotten Cooperman to take responsibility for the difficult

(18:31):
financial situation that he'd gotten himself into. And he said,
I didn't help my friend take responsibility, and that's a
mistake that I'll be paying for.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
For a long time.

Speaker 7 (18:40):
The government had recordings of Tyranny speaking with Cooperman about
the sort of conspiracy to disappear the paintings, and these
recordings he actually suggests to Tyranny that they destroy the
paintings with garden clippers, and Tyranny doesn't that doesn't happen.
Tyranny suggests that they actually were turned the paintings to

(19:01):
the insurance companies, and Cooperman says to him, sleeping dogs
are best left sleeping.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
The paintings were found in the storage locker of Tierney's
one time law partner, James Little, who claimed to prosecutors
he had brought them to Cleveland unknowingly at the behest
of Tierney Little's name, by the way, can also be
found at the top of those cease and assist letters
that went out to TV stations in nineteen ninety three

(19:29):
on behalf of Republic. Justice Department lawyers later alleged that
Tyrney also had been providing illegal kickbacks in an unrelated case.
For the insurance fraud case, the man who managed to
get republic control of Wonderful Life was convicted and sentenced
to eight months in jail, surrendering his legal license.

Speaker 7 (19:53):
It's a Wonderful Life is really about this question of
what if and what happened if an individual person was
not around? And I I think that's a close relative
of another question which I think Tyranny asked, which was
what would have happened if I had just made different decisions? Yeah,
I mean I think there there obviously is a is
a you know, a sort of morality tale here, And

(20:13):
as we said, I think that in the same way
that the movie through Fiction asks us to question what
is our value? What is our place here? What can
we contribute? And what would happen if we weren't around?
You know, I think the real story, the actual story
of Tierny and this this friend of his, is about
I guess what happens if we were to make different

(20:35):
and better decisions. At the time this was going on,
you know, Tierney was kind of representing republic and in
trying to sort of regain control of what they probably
knew was a really lucrative title to have in situations
like this. And in a sense, you know, I don't
know if people would draw this parallel, but but in

(20:56):
a certain way, you know, you could sort of say
that the studio is almost act thing is as the
potter here in trying to prent the little guy from
making use of this genuine and kind of and heartfelt story.

Speaker 11 (21:08):
It's some if Tyranny saw any any kind of conflicts
in his own mind there.

Speaker 6 (21:12):
J Max Robbins has been closely following the changes in
the media business for decades as part of the Paley
Center and the Center for Communication.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
When It's a Wonderful Life came out, it was a failure.
It bankrupted liberty, this studio that was started by Kaepra
and some other directors so they could have their artistic freedom,
and then through some kind of I guess negligence, it
slips into the public domain.

Speaker 6 (21:37):
That is, the movie slips into the public domain, but
the elements inherent to the underlying story the greatest gift,
do not. It's a little confusing.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
I know that all of a sudden gives it all
this value and all this new appreciation. The audience votes
they see this thing because TV stations play it over
and over again and like becomes this fena and then
all of a sudden it has real value, and the
powers that be in the industry say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Now let's make some money off this film. With media consolidation.

(22:10):
From a bottom line point of view, you see how
people making these deals see value where others don't. I
just think it was like, you know, all bets are off.
I mean, even though in ninety two through two thousand
you had Democrats in the White House, they were very
pro business. It seemed like every week there was another merger.

Speaker 5 (22:29):
United Press International, Spelling Entertainment Group and Republic Pictures announced
Monday they will merge operations in a one hundred million
dollar deal. Showing the expansion of Blockbuster Entertainment in Hollywood.
Home video giant Blockbuster bought nearly half of TV program
producers Spelling earlier this year for one hundred and sixty
five million dollars. Spelling said it will use the money

(22:50):
from the new shares issued to Blockbuster to finance the
merger with Republic. Upon the closing of the merger, Russell Goldsmith,
chairman and chief executive officer of Republic Look, will become
president and chief executive officer of Spelling. Blockbuster has been
on a buying spree for the past year.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
With Goldsmith claiming control of Wonderful Life among its other properties.
The potential for Republic's acquisition by Viacom becomes real.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
And a lot of what people wanted to have is
they wanted more libraries. You know, you have libraries, you
can create networks. You have both content and distribution. Regulations
got pushed aside. You know, you can own TV stations,
and you can own studios, and you can own cable systems.
You know, all these things come together.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
Washington Post January eighth, nineteen ninety four, In a drama
worthy of a Hollywood cliffhanger, video retail giant Blockbuster Entertainment
and cable TV programmer of Viacom announced an eight point
four billion dollar merger yesterday and in turn said they
will pool their efforts to buy Paramount Communications with Blockbuster's help.
Viacom's merger with Blockbuster demonstrated links to which Viacom, the

(24:01):
owner of MTV and other cable television properties, is willing
to go to stay in the running for Paramount. Paramount
movies and TV programs are coveted because they will someday
feed the much predicted five hundred channel TV system. Viacom's tenacious,
seventy year old chairman Sumner Redstone would become chairman of
Viacom Blockbuster and own sixty one percent of the voting stock,

(24:24):
a stake worth around five point one billion dollars.

Speaker 16 (24:28):
They won, we lost. That's how QBC concedes defeat to
Viacom in the five month, multi billion dollar battle for Paramount.
While viewed as a personal duel between Viacom chairman Sumner
Redstone and QBC chief Barry Diller, the struggle for Paramount
is also a quest for content to program the voracious
information super Highway.

Speaker 6 (24:49):
And so the claim to control of Wonderful Life seemingly
transfers to Sumner Redstone, the twenty first richest man in America.
Soon reuniting the movie with Paramount for the first time
since they sold it off to NTA in nineteen fifty five.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
So you just saw this flurry of mergers. Cap Cities
buys ABC and then Disney buys ABC, the Time Warner merger,
the disastrous AOL merger. Not everything worked out as planned.
You see all this consolidation in the cable business. You
see the telcos getting into the entertainment business. You see

(25:29):
all these companies scale up. This idea was if we
don't eat up somebody else, they're going to eat us up.
The number of big media companies got like half in
the space of a few years. There's something very seductive
about the entertainment business where people will pay a premium.

Speaker 12 (25:47):
The real owners, the big, wealthy business interests that control
things and make all the important decisions.

Speaker 6 (25:53):
George Carlin, the comedian, has a strong opinion about all
of this, one decade after Wonderful Life is snatched from
the public, seemingly to help feed a series of acquisitions
and mergers. As he tells audiences at his show in
two thousand and five.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Forget the politicians.

Speaker 12 (26:13):
The politicians are put there to give you the idea
that you have freedom of choice. You don't.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
You have no choice. You have owners.

Speaker 9 (26:21):
They own you.

Speaker 12 (26:22):
They own everything, They own all the important land. They
own and control the corporations they've long since bought and
paid for, the Senate, the Congress, the state houses and
city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets.
And they own all the big media companies, so they
control just about all of the news and information you
get to hear.

Speaker 11 (26:38):
They got you by the balls.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
They want your.

Speaker 12 (26:41):
Fucking retirement money. They want it back so they can
give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And
you know something, they'll get it. They'll get it all
from you sooner or later, because they own this fucking place.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
It's a big club, and you ain't in it.

Speaker 21 (26:56):
Imagine where we'd be now Shakespeare was still in the
under copyright. We'd be able to do fewer things with Shakespeare,
and we like doing things with Shakespeare.

Speaker 6 (27:08):
Peter Yazi is an attorney widely known for his specialty
in copyright law. He has a strong point of view
on this subject, which will become clear as you listen.
As such, he has followed the story of Wonderful Life
over the years, and he has long suspected there may
be some bad interpretations out there, ones that have coincidentally

(27:32):
served the interests of certain corporations.

Speaker 21 (27:36):
Public Domain goes back forever, and its purpose is to
make sure that after the benefits of copyright have been
enjoyed by whoever is entitled to them for a fixed
period of time, the public at large can enjoy the

(27:56):
availability of that material as source material.

Speaker 6 (28:00):
Peter is not aware of any instance in which Republic
in the nineteen nineties, or VIACOM or paramount to this
day have publicly challenged that NTA made a big whoops
in failing to renew copyright to the movie Wonderful Life
in nineteen seventy four, and as such, Peter believes all

(28:22):
versions of the movie's scripts fell into public domain too.

Speaker 21 (28:25):
The script has no independent copyright. Honestly, they I don't
think they've even ever asserted that it does. If they had,
they would have been dead wrong. And the reason is
that the script was written for the film and incorporated
into the film, And insofar as the script was incorporated

(28:47):
into the film and the film went into the public domain,
those bits of the script went right along with it.

Speaker 6 (28:56):
Remember those two barrels of Republic attorney James Tyrney's metaphorical shotgun,
the one he brought around to small TV outlets in
nineteen ninety three. Peter believes Republic did have a little
ammunition in that one shotgun barrel music rights thanks to
their late in the game exclusive licensing of some of

(29:18):
the popular songs used in the soundtrack, ones that had
not been written for the movie, and therefore would not
have had any possibility of falling into the public domain.
Regarding that other beryl of Tyrney's shotgun story rights, Peter
says it's hard to assess, having himself admittedly not seen

(29:41):
any historic or potentially ongoing agreements that exist between the
Greatest Gift Writer and his heirs and Republic and their successors.
He therefore can only speculate that there could have been
merit to Republic's story based argument for control of One
Wonderful Life in nineteen ninety three. Switching subjects for a

(30:03):
moment a few times earlier in this episode, you've heard
reference to that nineteen ninety Supreme Court decision related to
Sheldon Abend. Legally, this case with regard to Wonderful Life
is a total red herring, but Despite this, it served
as what Hollywood people might call an inciting incident for

(30:26):
Republic's sudden push to regain control. Thirteen years before, it
was Peter Yazzi himself who had argued for the opposite
outcome in a case before the US Second Circuit Court
of Appeals.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
On the one end, you're arguing about, you know, doctrine,
it says here in the statute book, and we should
interpret that as meaning whatever. And then on the other end,
you're arguing about policy. You're saying a good rule would
be this one, and the other rule wouldn't be so good.
And we argued that once the movie was made, it

(31:01):
was no longer under control of the rights holders in
the book or story. We said that made sense because
that was a rule that was likely to maximize the
amount of exposure that the derivative work would receive. There

(31:25):
would be fewer hurdles to jump for anyone who wanted
to use the derivative work. And that would be true
even in cases where the derivative work was undercopyright. Would
certainly be true for cases in which the derivative work
was in the public domain. So, in a sense, the

(31:50):
the what happened in the eighties with its Wonderful Life
seemed to vindicate the policy arguement that we had been making.

Speaker 6 (32:07):
The Appeals Court agrees with Peter in nineteen seventy seven,
but other appeals courts ruled differently over the next decade plus,
setting up a need for Supreme Court clarity that comes
in nineteen ninety with the obent case You've heard the
Greatest Gift brought up several times over this episode the

(32:27):
story on which Wonderful Life was based. While NTA did
indeed fail to renew the copyright for the movie in
nineteen seventy four, the same was not true for writer
Philip van doren Stern. Philip dutifully renewed copyright to his
own story in nineteen seventy one. Herein Lies the Key

(32:49):
to Everything you see. He held on to the copyright
over the rest of his life and passed it on
to his four heirs, his only daughter, and his three granddaughters.
But the Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision in favor
of Peter's argument at the time seemed to have affirmed
a wall of sorts between Philip's original story and the

(33:11):
movie that was based on the story. Then came nineteen
ninety and this Sheldon Obben, to whom we've been eluding,
who took the man who brought George Bailey to life.
Jimmy Stewart himself to the US Supreme Court, along with
other stakeholders in Jimmy's movie Rear Window, in a case
called Stuart versus Oben.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Kelly Aben was really in a different business, and that
was the business of buying up loose literary rights and
then turning around and using those rights to threaten. I
don't want to say extort, but to extract settlement is

(33:58):
Sometimes it was just the nuisance value.

Speaker 6 (34:01):
One day, Abynd acquired the story rights behind Cornell Woolwich's
It Had to Be Murder, which had been loosely adapted
into Jimmy Stewart's and others classic movie Rear Window. In it,
Jimmy had played a character one might almost imagine George
Bailey could have become in another universe, had he actually

(34:22):
lived out his youthful dreams in the city.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
It's my time he got married.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
Before you turn into a lonesome and.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Bitter old man.

Speaker 9 (34:32):
Yeah, she's a seeming Russian home to a hot apartment,
to listen to the automatic laundry and the electric dishwasher,
and the garbage disposal a nagging wife.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
So Vin had bought these rights from Chase Manhattan Bank
for six hundred and fifty dollars and in this case
e BoNT low and attempted to sell high.

Speaker 6 (35:03):
Obbens's Rear Window suit eventually ended up before the highest
court in America, and this time the justices sided with
Obben's argument, not the argument Peter had won in the
nineteen seventy seven.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Case Oh this takes me better, it takes me there.
This was one of the greate disappointments of my life.
This decision business gree court decision, the Obben's decision, which
basically said, the derivative work is always heathered to the

(35:38):
new work. The derivative work never achieves escapeble husband.

Speaker 6 (35:46):
The Rear Window ruling involved copyright renewal in an underlying
story after the author of the story had died, so
this did not pertain to Wonderful Life. As you'll remember,
the author of the Greatest Gift, Philip, did renew the
copyright to his story while alive. But in its ruling,

(36:09):
the Oven case made crystal clear that a derivative film
is tethered, using Peter's terminology, to the story on which
it's based. A derivative film's copyright covers only those elements
of the film original to the filmmakers. The rest of
the elements of a derivative film, all those elements original

(36:31):
to the underlying story, are protected by copyright in the
underlying story.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Facts that are the facts of It's a Wonderful Life.
But the decision was clear enough in its implications so
that it's set the same or allowing then Paramount stratege
with respect recapturing control of It's a Wonderful Life. But

(37:02):
I think it's probable that between nineteen ninety and for
the next decade or so, the Republic Paramount claimed that
because it was the successor in interest to the Stern
family's rights in the Greatest Gift Story, it could control

(37:25):
broadcast It's a Wonderful Life. And when has.

Speaker 14 (37:30):
Merit If you have been exploiting the film in any media,
you have been violating my client's rights under the copyright
laws of the United States.

Speaker 21 (37:38):
Then Republic and its successors have been taking the position that,
based on their transferred interests in the story rights they
are entitled to license.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Not only new productions, but also in particular broadcasts and.

Speaker 21 (38:02):
Showings of the film itself, so presumably they still have
those rights. If the Van Dords gave a new grant
to Republic, maybe Republics just went to them and asked
for a quick claim to said, you know, if you've
still got any rights of this, you know, will you know,

(38:25):
give them to us and will pay you a modest
amount of money.

Speaker 6 (38:27):
They could have done that paramount which, as you'll remember, acquired.
Republic certainly seems to believe they still hold some form
of rights beyond music. Twenty thirteen, an independent company announces
they plan to proceed with a sequel to Wonderful Life,
stating publicly that this is based on their assumption the

(38:50):
movie is in the public domain.

Speaker 22 (38:53):
On Monday, Florida based Star Partners of Film Financing Entity
and Nashville based Hummingbird Productions, which is one of the
biggest producers of music for commercials, announced they were teaming
up for a sequel to the classic film It's a
Wonderful Life. The producers had lined up Carolyn Grimes, who
played George Bailey's daughter Zuzu in the original film, to

(39:13):
reprise her role as Zuzu, now an angel, as she
visits Bailey's grandson, who is far from perfect. Hummingbird's Bob
Farnsworth says the rights to Wonderful Life were in the
public domain and that he had written a screenplay with
Martha Bolton, a former staff writer on Bob Hope Specials.
But now Paramount says not so fast. A studio spokesman.

Speaker 8 (39:33):
Told us no project relating to its Wonderful Life can
proceed without a license from Paramount. To date, these individuals
have not obtained any of the necessary rights, and we
would take all appropriate steps to protect those rights.

Speaker 6 (39:46):
So it appears for now anyway, that Paramount intends to
continue forcefully asserting that it holds the power over this movie.
Their music rights would not allow in this twenty thirteen
instant an ability to challenge a sequel, So they seem
to be asserting a claim to copyright in the underlying

(40:08):
story The Greatest Gift.

Speaker 15 (40:09):
They don't have copyright in the story, and they've never
come to us for copyright in the story. The only
people who have ever held copyright in the story The
Greatest Gift are my grandfather Philip, his heirs his only daughter,
and his three granddaughters, my mother and my two sisters,
and me and the small family company that we airs
created to hold and manage the greatest gift copyright.

Speaker 6 (40:29):
Sarah Robinson here to clarify matters. She's one of those
three granddaughters of Philip van doren Stern, and really among
the only people on earth who can clarify all of
this regarding any story rights held by Republic and now paramount.

Speaker 15 (40:47):
She says, you know, to hold copyright in something is
to hold a whole bunch or bundle of exclusive rights
in that thing. In nineteen forty four, when my grandfather
sold them movie rights to his story, the right to
make movies from the story NTV in some limited radio,
he didn't sell the copyright in the story or any
of the other rights in the bundle. He held on

(41:08):
to copyright and those other rights. That nineteen forty four
agreement was very specific in describing the movie TV in
limited radio rights he was selling, and the agreement also
stated plainly that my grandfather held the copyright in the story.
In fact, the agreement required him to renew the copyright
when the time came, which he did, of course. My
grandfather made this agreement in nineteen forty four with a

(41:31):
Hollywood agent named Frank Vincent. Vincent transferred the agreement to RKO,
which turned it over to Frank Capra, and in nineteen
forty six Frank Kaeper used the nineteen forty four agreement
the movie rights in the nineteen forty four agreement to
make Its A Wonderful Life. At some point after that,
both the movie and the nineteen forty four rights agreement
made their way to NTA, and of course NTA failed

(41:53):
to renew copyright in the movie. NTA later changed his
name to Republic, and in the nineteen nineties, when We're
Public made its claims about rights it held in the story,
all Republic had for rights in the story where those
sam rights of Kaepra had had back in nineteen forty six,
those nineteen forty four rights to make motion pictures in
the story and TV and limited radio. Republic didn't have

(42:15):
copyright in the story or any other rights in the
story's copyright bundle. My grandfather never let go of that
copyright except when he died and passed it on to
us his heirs via his will.

Speaker 6 (42:26):
So all those times that Tierney and Republic said or
implied they held copyright to the story. It was always
held by Philip and his heirs and them alone. In
that case, Tierney's two barreled shotgun would have had at
least one empty the story rights. And had some enterprising

(42:46):
person back in the early nineteen nineties been able to
strip the soundtrack of those popular songs Republic had licensed
and simply replaced them, well, Tierney may well have ended
up totally unarmed. Just imagine that alternative universe. Would the
Republic and Erran Spelling merger have gone forward now with

(43:08):
that nice little promotion for Russell Goldsmith? Would Republic have
still enticed sales with Blockbuster and Viacom? And what about
NBC without Wonderful Life to build its holiday programming around?
So effectively interesting to think about, isn't it?

Speaker 15 (43:27):
And another thing, this isn't about copyright to the greatest gift,
because as I've said, copyrights always been held by Philip
ors airs. But it's interesting. The copyright law allows authors
of works copyrighted before nineteen seventy to terminate or take
back grants of rights they've made after fifty six years
have passed, and if an author dies before fifty six

(43:48):
years passed, the author's air gets that right to terminate.
So fifty six years after my grandfather granted out those
nineteen forty four rights to make movies, TV and limited
radio from his story mother, his air terminated that nineteen
forty four grant. That was in two thousand, and the
upshot of this is that in two thousand, Republic loss

(44:09):
the rights it had held in the greatest gift naming
those movie, TV and limited radio rights. My mother got
those rights back and she placed them into our small
family company.

Speaker 6 (44:19):
But in the potter dominated corporate America of today, do
the actual legalities make any difference? Or is it about
the golden rule? May he who has the gold makes
the rules.

Speaker 11 (44:36):
A guy by the name Michael Klinhoffer, who was a
TV producer in New York for decades, found out that
the only thing copy written about It's a Wonderful Life
was the soundtrack and took it to Comedy Central and said, hey,
why didn't you guys do something with this? And my
friend Kent Altman at the time, was head of development
in New York for Comedy Central, and he had like

(44:57):
sort of an open call of writers that he knew
like coming, pitch your idea for what to do with
It's a Wonderful Life. My idea was very meta because
I grew up seeing the movie rerun over and over
and over and over and over again, and so my
idea was that who would be more sick of this
movie than George Bailey?

Speaker 23 (45:15):
Hi, George, Ernie, I'm sick of doing this darn movie.
Would you mind driving me to another one? George is
supposed to ask for a right.

Speaker 11 (45:22):
Home, George Bean, what's artist d libit a blooming I
am not so. I took that to Kent and he said, yeah,
this is great, this is the way to go. Do
you are you interested in working with these guys, the
Upright Citizens Brigade, which at the time hadn't done anything
on TV. They were, I think about to start work
on their first pilot. They're really talented and they you

(45:44):
guys could all do the voices and I did the
voice of George Bailey just as a scratch track until
we found you know, the star that would do it.
They couldn't get anyone, get anyone with a name to
do it. Come on, Mary, play along.

Speaker 23 (45:57):
You of all people should be interested in turning this
movie into something else for once.

Speaker 15 (46:01):
Just do the script.

Speaker 11 (46:02):
It'll be great, we'll make real money, we'll be in color.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
When the UCV came.

Speaker 11 (46:07):
In, it became just kind of like this camp basically
where we were spending all our time together watching the footage,
trying to sync up the lips with what we wanted
the story to be. Well, I can't marry it'll be cause, well, Chilie,
I'm gay.

Speaker 23 (46:21):
Mary, that's the truth.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
I madly in love with Sam Wayron.

Speaker 11 (46:25):
Sam and I are lovers. You can ask anyone. Let's
call and ask hia On. Let's call him right now.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
I've got his number.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Let's get him on the.

Speaker 23 (46:31):
Ball, Sam Waynwright Please, Hey, Sam, just calling to make
sure you know we're both gay.

Speaker 11 (46:38):
Now tell Mary.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Here's Mary me gay.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
I can't speak for George.

Speaker 23 (46:41):
There's no way I'm gay. I have three four different
girlfriends and didn't give it time.

Speaker 11 (46:45):
Believe me.

Speaker 23 (46:46):
I've been sick with women in nice hotels, cheap motels, tents, bathrooms,
you name it.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
I've had sex with.

Speaker 23 (46:51):
A woman there.

Speaker 11 (46:52):
It's really interesting, like doing this project. They're doing the
escape from wonderful life and taking apart and putting it
back together, you know, in a very irreverent way. And
I think, you know, if you were really a hardcore
fan of the film, you would take issue with it, probably,

(47:13):
But I have to say, from my standpoint, having that
experience made me love that movie more than ever. I mean,
I really it's such a weird movie. First of all,
Like structurally, you know, I've written a bunch of screenplays,
and I read a lot of books on screenwriting and

(47:36):
gone to you know, studied screenwriting. There's no teacher that
would ever teach that form of a screenplay. It is bonkers.
And the intensity of the darkness of it too, is
very unusual for that time. The freedom that the filmmakers
felt to go into this sort of deep, dark underbelly

(48:00):
like human experience was revelatory and then sort of breaking
down the movie, like when we went we were going
scene to scene and watching these performances over and over again,
You're like, wow, they are you know, everyone was all
in on this movie, like nobody was nobody was phoning

(48:21):
it in. I mean, if in the strict strictest sense
of the word, it is a comedy, right, but it
is has a lot of darkness in it and a
lot of sadness and a lot of regret, and I think, like,
I don't know, I don't know if if what I've

(48:43):
done is representative of that in any way, but I
definitely feel like a lot of my work has that,
especially especially in the last few years, has gotten very
has that sort of heart of darkness to it. You know,
even though I've never written anything that wasn't a comedy,
it's always there's always a happy ending because I can't.

(49:06):
I can't deal with that thing where everything's just shit
and then something ends, you know, it makes me want
to kill myself. So I always write. I always write
with hope. But which is it's a this is a
very hopeful movie, you know, but it's not afraid to
travel into these dark recesses. Really weird too, and and

(49:30):
and then you know you've already seen him be kind
of the Jimmy Stewart character you expect, and then a
lot of the movie seems like it's just undermining that,
you know, and making him up, like you said, almost
like a thug and like this this weird guy. You know,
like everyone's like, what is with this guy? You know,

(49:52):
he's you know, getting drunk and punching people and harassing women,
and yeah, that's that's a really good point. Well that
I think, like, you know, Capra did a really great job, obviously,
and I think it's easy that was his thing. Obviously,
it's more than there's more than one movie in this movie, right,

(50:13):
So when he goes back in time with Clarence, it
is a noir film because Pottersville is is very much
a noir town. It's it's it's the dark, you know.
Someone described film noir as the dark side of the
American dream, and that that's Pottersville, right, Like, it's what
happens when unbridled profits seeking runs everything and all all

(50:37):
the other sort of protections and and and social contracts
fall away.

Speaker 19 (50:44):
Today, Viacom and CBS announced the two media and entertainment
companies will merge. At a news conference in New York,
Viacom chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone met with reporters to
discuss the deal.

Speaker 6 (50:56):
Five years after Wonderful Life first seemingly falls under the
control of Redstone.

Speaker 24 (51:02):
This partnership seems almost dictated by destiny.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
What we are announcing today is a merger of equals.

Speaker 24 (51:12):
We will create an eighty billion dollar giant.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
The largest media transaction.

Speaker 24 (51:17):
In the history of the media industry, and this will
generate enormous benefits for the shareholders of both companies. This
singularly powerful enterprise will be home to the number one
cable network group here and around the globe, the number
one radio group, the number one outdoor advertising company, the

(51:37):
number one entertainment brands and most covetive demographic categories, the
number one TV station group, the number one broadcast network,
the number one television programmer, the number one provider of
rentable home entertainment. We will be global leaders in virtually
every facet of the wonderful, diverse media and entertainment industry.

Speaker 11 (52:00):
Frank Rich, who was then writing editorials for the ed
page of the New York Times, wrote a really great
op ed about it, and it was a casualty at
the time. It was like a casualty of vertical integration.
So even though even though we embarked on the project,

(52:21):
because the soundtrack A Bit So Wonderful Life had lapsed
into the public domain, like nobody had copyrighted it. The film,
the visual film was in the public domain. The soundtrack
was actually copywritten. So like the music, the score was copywritten,

(52:41):
but there was this technicality where like, if we took
the soundtrack off, we would basically be able to do
what we wanted with the visuals. So and that's still true,
that's always been true, and that's true today. But what
happened was when we moved closer to completion and the

(53:02):
you know, our corporate godfather has heard about this at Viacom,
alarm bells went off because even though it's all in
the public domain, Viacom at that time had bought I
think I believe it was Aaron Spelling Entertainment, and Aaron
Spelling Entertainment had acquired It's a Wonderful Life among its properties,

(53:23):
and so Viacom had licensed to NBC the right to
broadcast It's a Wonderful Life every year for you know,
millions of dollars. So because one arm of Viacom didn't
know what the other arm was doing, like suddenly we
were in jeopardy of violating Viacom's exclusive deal to NBC

(53:44):
for the rights It's a Wonderful Life, and they killed
the project. You know, it's all about greed. It doesn't
have anything to do with helping the artists or anyone
assisting with the movie. Right, this is all greed. So
you know, when it fell into the public domain, nobody
who was involved with the film could directly benefit from
any any any longer. So it was actually great for

(54:06):
people to be able to see that movie like whenever
they wanted to. And I think that's responsible for a success.
I kind of like, not that successful when it was
released and people find it a little too dark when
it was like first released, And it was only on
these repeated viewings that people were like, oh shit, this
is a masterpiece. Right, So it brought back something that

(54:28):
had been was probably going to be marginalized into the
mainstream that, in my opinion, has a very good message
and a very good heart.

Speaker 9 (54:38):
Right.

Speaker 11 (54:40):
And then you know, so and and God blessed you know,
Peggy Lipton's dad or granddad or for letting it drop.
And then fuck those guys who found a way to
kind of worm it back out, you know, Like I mean,
I feel like, I mean, like the copyright laws are

(55:01):
way too strict in this country, and I mean a
lot of that has to do with Disney, and you know,
Disney's constant campaign to keep Mickey Mouse out of the
public domain, and you know, and fuck to them.

Speaker 25 (55:16):
On November eighteenth, nineteen twenty eight. Mickey Mouse was introduced
to the world in the film Steamboat Willie. But this
may be one of the last birthdays Mickey celebrates. As
the intellectual property of Disney. Copyrights for the popular character
are set to expire on January first, twenty twenty four.
Mickey might have become public property sooner, except that each
time the copyright on Steamboat Willie was set to lapse,

(55:38):
Disney and others pushed Congress to lengthen US copyright terms.

Speaker 15 (55:41):
Honestly, the person who's been overlooked in the Wonderful Life
saga is our grandfather, Philip van doren Stern. Philip wrote
the story on which the film is based, the story
about George and George's wished to have never been born,
the stranger at the bridge who granted George's wish, and
so on. That story sprung from Philip's imagination, and he
worked on it over a period of years Before he

(56:02):
published it. He copyrighted it, and he renewed copyright when
the time came. For a bunch of reasons, neither he
nor his heirs ever sought to control showings of the film.
It's a Wonderful Life after NTA failed to renew copyright
in the film. But he and we have worked hard
to let people know that they can't make adaptations of
It's a Wonderful Life without getting a license from us.

(56:24):
This is because to make an adaptation of Wonderful Life
is to use the underlying story. The only exceptions to
this are if the adaptation is based solely on elements
of the film that are not in the story, or
if the adaptation, say a spoof, could be considered fair use.
Any other adaptation, remake, or whatever in any medium, including
since two thousand, movie, TV and all radio requires a

(56:46):
license from US, the copyright holders, and if it isn't licensed,
it's an infringement. And I can tell you a key
element of any license from US is that you credit
Philip and his story. A lot of people have just
not understand diod this or ignored it. We spent a
lot of time and effort pursuing infringers, and we're just
for a long time, we were just four people. Now

(57:08):
we're just three as our mother, Philip's daughter passed away
in twenty nineteen. In truth, we've always been successful in
getting infringes to understand that they're infringing. Over the past
few years, we've made six settlement agreements that together cover
twelve infringing dramatic stage of stage musical works by eleven
different writers and composers and five licensers of those works.

(57:31):
And then again, there have always been people who do
understand that they need rights from us, and we have
granted options for various types of productions, and I'm very
hopeful about them. I would just say, I'll knows, stay tuned.
But the point here is simply, let's not forget that
copyright law protects for a time the rights of creators.

Speaker 11 (57:51):
Walt Disney definitely he should have benefited from creating that character,
but he's been dead for like forever, you know. So
it's just like, I feel like creators should benefit from
their creations, and and I will go to the mat
on that. I'm you know, I work. I'm a hardcore

(58:12):
member of the Writer's Guild and everything else, and you know,
I believe that you should get residuals on your work,
and you should get these you know, royalties or whatever.
But you know, after a certain point, fuck it, it
belongs to the world. I mean, that's what art is anyway.
It always, you know, belongs to the world. And there
was something very liberating about being able just to go

(58:34):
in and cut up the movie and reorder it. And
like I said, if you're a hardcore fan of the movie,
you probably wouldn't want it. You know, you probably wouldn't
care for it. But that's okay, you know, it was
it was It was for people who came at it
from a certain point of view, who wanted to laugh
be entertained by this wonderful movie in a slightly different

(58:56):
way than and that was fine. And like I said,
in that that's gone and the movie is still there.
So the movie has stood the test of time.

Speaker 26 (59:05):
Principal Skinner, the Happiest Place on Earth is a registered
Disneyland copyright.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
Well, gentlemen, it's just a small school carnival.

Speaker 26 (59:13):
And it's heading for a great, big lawsuit. You made
a big mistake, Skinner, Well so did you.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
You got an ext green berein Man copyright expired.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
I remember when Mashusta, the big Japanese electric company, bought Universal,
and they seem like they were paying a big premium.
Sony had bought Columbia, who's really running the show, And
shaping our mass consciousness. Certainly you have to look at Amazon, Apple, Facebook,

(59:57):
and Google as major players who are in the distribution business.
They're all in the advertising business, and they also really
command our attention. And then you look at the big
media concerns Disney, Comcast, NBC Universal, the two parts of
the Murdoch Empire, and the influence that Fox News wields,

(01:00:20):
and to a lesser extent, what is now Paramount. That's
a lot of power consolidated in a small handful of companies.
I think it's a little too simple to soon that
people running all these companies are potters. Maybe Jeff Bezos
is a potter. Elon must definitely a potter. Rupert Murdoch potter.

(01:00:41):
Is Bob Iger potter? No, not really. I don't think,
you know, are the heads of Google potters? No, not really.
Mark Zuckerberg definitely a potter. I think that when you
put profit seeking motive above all else, you're taking your
eye off the ball of what impact what you're creating

(01:01:04):
has on society. Everything becomes about shareholder value. And in
the wake of all this, who gets burned are consumers?
You know, when we end up paying more and jobs
are lost venerable brands known for creativity get destroyed. It
was part of it. I think an overall change in

(01:01:26):
corporate America.

Speaker 27 (01:01:27):
Big news tonight about our company. As of tomorrow, Viacom
CBS will be known as Paramount. President and CEO Bob
Bakish says it is an exciting opportunity to bring all
brands of the company's premium entertainment and news, including CBS,
under one name. Backish and Board of Director's chair Sherry

(01:01:48):
Redstone say the Paramount name hearkens back to the company's
roots in the golden age of Hollywood. Viacom CBS stock
will trade on Nasdaq under the symbol PARA for Paramount.

Speaker 28 (01:02:08):
George Bailey was never born. Visit Savegeorge Bailey dot com
to join the mission. There you'll find links to works
by this episode's participants. Learn more about how to celebrate
George Bailey Day on Saturday, December ninth, and annually the
second Saturday of December hereafter by hosting your own Wonderful
Life viewing party. Tell your friends to listen to this show, subscribe, like, comment,

(01:02:31):
and post about it on social media hashtags Save George Bailey.
Subscribe to our Patreon to hear, uncut interviews and bonus content.
The podcast also available on YouTube. iHeartMedia presents a Double
Asterisk iHeartMedia co production in association with True Stories created
written and directed by Joseph kurt Angfer and Renovashwski. Kurt Angfer,

(01:02:54):
producer and supervising editor, re Reynoviashlski, producer and journalist, Elizabeth Marcus, editor,
Roy Sillings narrator, George Bailey. Theme song by Carolyn Sills
Buyer albums soundtrack composed by Zachary Walter by his Albums
and the original soundtrack to this podcast available wherever you
get your music. Mallory Kenoy, co producer, writer's assistant, archival

(01:03:19):
producer and fact checker, John Autry sound engineer, additional editing,
sound design and mix. Executive producers Dave Cassidy, Kurt Angfer,
Lindsay Hoffman and Bethan Macaluso for iHeartMedia, John Duffy for
Double Asterisk, Ruth Vaka for True Stories, Reyno Voshewsky for
Double Asterisk and True Stories, Elizabeth Hankouch Associate producer, Brandon

(01:03:43):
Lavoy and Ryan Pennington. Consulting producers Keith Sklar Contract Legal
Peter Yazi copyright and fair use legal, Mattie Akers, archival specialist,
Ron Kaddition, Benji Michaels, publicists Kavasanthanam and Marley Weaver marketing
and promotions. Art and web designed by Aaron Kim. Interns

(01:04:04):
were Kyra Gray, Emma Ramirez, Eva Stewart.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
And Tia Wilson.

Speaker 28 (01:04:09):
Podcast license for Philip Van doren Stern's The Greatest Gift
provided by the Greatest Gift Corporation. Their attorney is Kevin Koloff.
Recorded at David Weber's Airtime Studios in Bloomington, Indiana. This
episode featured, in chronological order, Jeff Williams, Jim Bates, Jeff Leeds,
j Max Robbins, Peter Yazzi, Sarah Robinson, and j Martel,

(01:04:30):
with appearances by the cast of Wonderful Life and of
Escape from Wonderful Life, and the brief voices, music and
artistry of Hollywood public persons and news media professionals, and
one unknown NBC promo narrator and music writer via clips
used under the still existing legal doctrine of fair use.
The Potters are working on that one, though J Martel

(01:04:51):
provided use of the still never fully released Escape from
Wonderful Life, which he produced and starred in, alongside performances
by the writers Matt best Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and
Matt Walsh, directed by David Zeefe. The usages of it
also fit fair use. The voice of the News article
that unpacked Republic's plans for Wonderful Life was by James

(01:05:13):
Bates reading his article for the Los Angeles Times. Those
factual inaccuracies we mentioned are in one paragraph and would
not have been knowable to Jim at the time. To
be clear, that came from what he was told by Republic.
The voice of Russell Goldsmith was played by Kurt Angfer,
and the voice of James Tierney was played by Jason Klom,
paraphrased from words each spoke to James Bates, who wrote

(01:05:35):
it in his article for the Los Angeles Times, and
additionally for Tierney, from a nineteen ninety three letter he wrote.
The voice of the Art Theft News article was by
Jeff Leeds from words written by him in articles for
the Los Angeles Times. The voice of the Spelling Republic
Merger reporting from words written uncredited in an article for
the United pres International, and of the blockbuster viacom Merger

(01:05:56):
reporting from words written in an article by Paul Farhey
for The Washington Posts was played by Keith Murray. The
voice of the Wonderful Life sequel reporting was played by
Bill Fitzpatrick from words written by Aaron Couch for The
Hollywood Reporter. The voice of the Paramount Representative was played
by Elizabeth Marcus from words spoken to Couch for his
Hollywood Reporter article. Go to double Asteriskmedia dot com to

(01:06:19):
hear our other limited run podcasts, Who Is rich Blee
After the Uprising with a Bold new season in Saint
Louis coming summer twenty twenty four and Origins Birth of
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Consider donating to our volunteering with AFSP or your local
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(01:07:02):
Ink Mary Pray Bride