History ScrewedByTheLawyers / LiveActionTV

* When reruns of ''Series/NickArcade'' moved to Nick [=GaS=], twenty episodes were pulled from the rotation. One theory as to why is because the show used a lot of music videos in their puzzles, and Nickelodeon couldn't clear (or didn't feel like clearing) the music rights for every episode. The entire series eventually made its way to Creator/ParamountPlus in 2021. While the theory hasn't been confirmed, it's interesting to note that every episode omitted from [=GaS=] had a music video.

** In August 2019, CBS and Viacom re-merged into one company, so there's at least a possibility of some synchronicity with the ''Star Trek'' and ''Mission: Impossible'' franchises again.

** The DVD releases of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' have been repeatedly delayed due to issues with music rights. Several scenes had to be cut from the Season One set because Disney was unable to secure the rights to certain songs used in the show. Completely averted by Jim Henson's other major production, ''Series/FraggleRock'', as it used entirely original music.

* The DVD release of WB's all-female superhero series ''Series/BirdsOfPrey'' was held up for ''years'' (leading to an awful lot of KeepCirculatingTheTapes) due to music rights issues. The fact that it was ScrewedByTheNetwork (cancelled in its first season despite good reviews and decent ratings, reportedly due to internal network politics) did not help. It was only after years of pleading from the fans that the series got a full release on DVD with a note on the packaging that "some" of the music has been changed for home video release.

** A bit of Music/FleetwoodMac's "Oh Well, Part 2" appeared on the soundtrack of Jon Pertwee's debut story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace Spearhead from Space]]" on first broadcast (the stock footage workers in the plastics factory seem to be listening to Radio 1), but the rights were secured only for original transmission and the song was removed for rebroadcasts, exports, and home video release. The version as broadcast no longer exists, but the soundtrack was recreated for the second DVD issue and the Blu Ray, presumably because either Fleetwood Mac reduced their demands, or the success of the revived TV series increased BBC Enterprises' licensing budget.

* ''Creator/{{BBC}}'' halted all US VHS releases of ''Series/{{Jackanory}}'' due to CBS/FOX Video not doing a major licensing contract of the classic children's show from the 60s up until the 90s and beyond as these are replaced with Playhouse Video's own CBS Videobreak US VHS releases. Jackanory was only released in the UK on VHS and could not be played in North American Video Cassette Recorders at all unless CBS/FOX retained their NTSC rights of the classic children's show by dropping the "Jackanory" name, showing only the name of the book on screen (similar to their CBS Videobreak US VHS releases). Unfortunately for Creator/{{Disney}}, the US VHS release of ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' does violate the company's trademark rights of the cartoon character of the same name being shown on a slipcase of the actual UK show's episode.

* Due to rights disputes between Chespirito's family and Televisa, ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' and ''Series/ElChapulinColorado'' were removed from broadcasting worldwide on July 31, 2020.

* With the exception of ''WesternAnimation/SaltysLighthouse'', any preschool show that used imported cartoons as a FramingDevice will probably never see the light of day again due to rights needing to be cleared for the shows they are a framing device for. These include ''Series/ShiningTimeStation'', ''The Fox Cubhouse'', ''Series/BigBag'', the Lacey Entertainment version of ''WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow'', ''Series/TheNoddyShop'', ''[[Series/CaptainKangaroo Mr. Moose's Fun Time]]'' and ''Someday School''.

** The show got hit with this during the Volume 10 release of [=DVD=]s. One of them was ''Film/GodzillaVsMegalon'' and had been available for a short while. Then, Toho stepped in and said "no". A Volume 10.2 was soon released with a special Host Segment created to show why the movie wasn't included.

** In August 2019, the CBS and Viacom re-merged into one company, so there's at least a possibility of some synchronicity with the ''Star Trek'' and ''Mission: Impossible'' franchises again.

** To avoid this, the NothingButHits soundtrack of the '60s-Earth-set story "Delta and the Bannermen" consists of cover versions of the songs by the show's then-composer and some of his friends.

* ''Series/TheCharmings'' got complaints by the Creator/{{Disney}} Company when ABC was run by Capital Cities since it was an unauthorized parody of ''Disney/{{Snow White|AndTheSevenDwarfs}}''. It's unclear whether this or low ratings ultimately led to its cancellation. Disney does now own ABC, opening up the possibility of a DVD release, though the heavy discouragement of press comparisons with the later show ''Series/OnceUponATime'' by the network suggests that it considers it a DorkAge program. It should also be noted that ABC never owned the rights to ''The Charmings''. Sony currently owns the program, so a chance of a DVD release seems moot.

* The 1960s ''Series/{{Batman|1966}}'' series had such complex licensing problems that the general assumption was that it would simply never be legally released in a home video format until it entered public domain near the end of the 21st century, that is, until it was announced that it would ''indeed'' gain a DVD release in November 2014. As was reported by [[https://www.wired.com/2014/11/batman-home-video-finally/ this Wired article]] from circa the DVD release, the ownership was split between Greenway Productions (who owned the footage), Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox (who had the distribution rights) and Creator/WarnerBros (who owned the characters via their acquisition of Creator/DCComics). Making matters worse, Greenway's shares in the series were split among William Dozier's children and lawyers upon his death. Eventually, Classic Media managed to acquire the Greenway shares, which were then bought by Fox, and Fox and Warner Bros. finally worked out a deal to get the series out on DVD.

* ''Series/TheCharmings'' got complaints by the Creator/{{Disney}} Company when ABC was run by Capital Cities since it was an unauthorized parody of ''West{{Snow White|AndTheSevenDwarfs}}''. It's unclear whether this or low ratings ultimately led to its cancellation. Disney does now own ABC, opening up the possibility of a DVD release, though the heavy discouragement of press comparisons with the later show ''Series/OnceUponATime'' by the network suggests that it considers it a DorkAge program. It should also be noted that ABC never owned the rights to ''The Charmings''. Sony currently owns the program, so a chance of a DVD release seems moot.

* ''Series/TheCharmings'' got complaints by the Creator/{{Disney}} Company when ABC was run by Capital Cities since it was an unauthorized parody of ''Disney/SnowWhite''. It's unclear whether this or low ratings ultimately led to its cancellation. Disney does now own ABC, opening up the possibility of a DVD release, though the heavy discouragement of press comparisons with the later show ''Series/OnceUponATime'' by the network suggests that it considers it a DorkAge program. It should also be noted that ABC never owned the rights to ''The Charmings''. Sony currently owns the program, so a chance of a DVD release seems moot.

* The 1960s ''Series/{{Batman}}'' series had such complex licensing problems that the general assumption was that it would simply never be legally released in a home video format until it entered public domain near the end of the 21st century, that is, until it was announced that it would ''indeed'' gain a DVD release in November 2014. As was reported by [[https://www.wired.com/2014/11/batman-home-video-finally/ this Wired article]] from circa the DVD release, the ownership was split between Greenway Productions (who owned the footage), Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox (who had the distribution rights) and Creator/WarnerBros (who owned the characters via their acquisition of Creator/DCComics). Making matters worse, Greenway's shares in the series were split among William Dozier's children and lawyers upon his death. Eventually, Classic Media managed to acquire the Greenway shares, which were then bought by Fox, and Fox and Warner Bros. finally worked out a deal to get the series out on DVD.

* ''Franchise/UltraSeries'': Ugh, where do you even begin with this one? The reason why the franchise was almost impossible to distribute outside of Asia until 2017 was because the first six shows (''Series/UltraQ'', ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'', ''Series/UltraSeven'', ''Series/ReturnOfUltraman'', ''Series/UltramanAce'', and ''Series/UltramanTaro'') were caught in the midst of a huge copyright dispute between Creator/TsuburayaProductions (the creators) and the Thai company Chaiyo productions (who had done several co-productions with them in the 70s), which meant anybody interested in trying to release Ultraman in non-Asian countries could approach either company only to get caught up in their heated debate. [[http://ultra.wikia.com/wiki/Ultra_Series/Licensing_Disputes Full story here.]]

** "Revelation of the Daleks" took a very long time to be released on VHS due to serious music clearance issues - a major character in the story is a FanOfThePast and as a result, many sixties hit records are used as diegetic music in scenes scattered throughout the story. The only song that the BBC was unable to license, either for the VHS or DVD issues, was Music/JimiHendrix's "Fire", which had to be replaced by a piece of generic library music hard rock track - this required particularly complicated audio surgery as there was dialogue over the music track.

Series/AshVsEvilDead: Bruce Campbell implied in an interview that nothing that could explicitly be tied to Film/ArmyOfDarkness was included because Universal (who own the rights to that entry) wanted an obscene amount of money for using elements from it.

* The streaming service Nosey began streaming the first seasons of courtroom shows ''Texas Justice'', ''Judge Alex'' and ''Cristina's Court'' in the summer of 2018, right as the shows' producer/owner Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox was getting bought out by Creator/{{Disney}}. The shows were pulled after just a year of streaming, without any new episodes added. It's unclear whether or not Disney plans to add the shows on their own service.

** "Revelation of the Daleks" took a very long time to be released on VHS due to serious music clearance issues - a major character in the story is a FanOfThePast and as a result many sixties hit records are used as diegetic music in scenes scattered throughout the story. The only song that the BBC was unable to license, either for the VHS or DVD issues, was Music/JimiHendrix's "Fire", which had to be replaced by a generic library music hard rock track - this required particularly complicated audio surgery as there was dialogue over the music track.
** To avoid this, the NothingButHits soundtrack of the 60s-Earth-set story "Delta and the Bannermen" consists of cover versions of the songs by the show's then composer and some of his friends.
* ''Series/KidsIncorporated'' hasn't received any DVD releases and hasn't been re-run since the late 90's because a major part of the show was the titular group performing covers of popular songs from the time it aired.
* ''Series/LambChopsPlayAlong'', given its extensive use of copyrighted music, got a few select segments on VHS during the 90's and that was it. No DVD releases. No digital releases. No streaming. No proper home releases whatsoever. The only reason ''segments'' ended up on home video instead of full episodes was due to the music in said segments being properly cleared for home video release.
* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'' never got any DVD releases beyond the first season due to various music the show used being copyrighted. The dialogue of one scene (in which Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek sing along to something on the radio) had to be rerecorded to fit with a different song reinserted into the scene.

* Music rights issues are the reason why a home media release of ''Series/WKRPInCincinnati'' took more than ''three-and-a-half decades'' to come out. Up until its complete series release in 2014, it was one of the biggest cases of KeepCirculatingTheTapes in action. When the show first began airing, it used many popular songs of the era and was a smash hit on television, and the music was inextricably tied to certain scenes (characters would quote entire song verses as the track played in the background, for instance). The producers didn't anticipate that the show would be so popular, and only licensed the music for a certain number of years and a certain format (videotape). When the show went into syndication, the licensing issue was dodged by having soundalikes perform replicas of the tracks to avoid paying royalties. However, a home media release was thought to be impossible for many years. Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox DVD attempted to release the series in 2007, but gave up after the release of the first season due to the seemingly-insurmountable challenge of negotiating deals with ''several hundred'' artists and[=/=]or their representatives. ([[http://zvbxrpl.blogspot.com/2007/03/wkrp-dvd-not-ok.html Reviews written around the time of the S1 DVD release]] show that nearly ''all'' of the music was either absent or replaced, completely butchering the episodes in the process.) It wasn't until 2014 that Creator/ShoutFactory successfully acquired the rights to many of the songs used throughout the show. Even then, they weren't able to acquire 20% of the songs and had to either replace the music or remove the scene it was tied to altogether.

* The BBC's ''Series/TopGear'' has had this issue with quite a few episodes as well. Most notable was the Vietnam episode, where "Born in the USA" has to be replaced with "The Star Spangled Banner" because of licensing issues. Not only is the change obvious for anyone who saw the original release, but it kills a joke told by Richard a minute later.

* The 1960's ''Series/{{Batman}}'' series had such complex licensing problems that the general assumption was that it would simply never be legally released in a home video format until it entered public domain near the end of the 21st century, that is, until it was announced that it would ''indeed'' gain a DVD release in November 2014. As was reported by [[https://www.wired.com/2014/11/batman-home-video-finally/ this Wired article]] from circa the DVD release, the ownership was split between Greenway Productions (who owned the footage), Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox (who had the distribution rights) and Creator/WarnerBros (who owned the characters via their acquisition of Creator/DCComics). Making matters worse, Greenway's shares in the series were split among William Dozier's children and lawyers upon his death. Eventually, Classic Media managed to acquire the Greenway shares, which were then bought by Fox, and Fox and Warner Bros. finally worked out a deal to get the series out on DVD.
* ''Series/TheCharmings'' got complaints by the Creator/{{Disney}} Company when ABC was run by Capital Cities, since it was an unauthorized parody of ''Disney/SnowWhite''. It's unclear whether this or low ratings ultimately led to its cancellation. Disney does now own ABC, opening up the possibility of a DVD release, though the heavy discouragement of press comparisons with the later show ''Series/OnceUponATime'' by the network suggests that it considers it a DorkAge program. It should also be noted that ABC never owned the rights to ''The Charmings''. Sony currently owns the program, so a chance of a DVD release seems moot.

** A scene involving Music/TheBeatles was deleted from the VHS release of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E8TheChase The Chase]]" (it's in the Region 2 DVD). This example is particularly JustForFun/{{egregious}}, as that clip is the only surviving portion of The Beatles' performance at Albert Hall (which was wiped from BBC archives for the same reason a lot of early ''Doctor Who'' was as well) and survived only because it was incorporated into the episode. These deletions fit the trope as well, because it was done in large part because the contracts with the actors' union in the period prohibited broadcasting any television program more than twice (and the entirely incorrect view of the BBC management that black and white programming was unsellable overseas).

* In 2003, ESPN aired a series called ''Playmakers'' which was a depiction of the behind-the-scenes actions of players of a fictional pro football team (in a fictional league). However, the NFL, who was in the midst of a new lucrative deal with ESPN, were not pleased with the stark, unflattering look at the world of pro football, and pressured the network to scuttle the show after one season, which they obliged. Several pro players like Warren Sapp praised the show for its realistic (to a point) depiction of football players and their shortcomings in the world, and criticized both the league and the network for trying to scrub anything negative about the sport. Later on the ''Playmakers'' name was used to market a line of cheap footballs and basketballs with ESPN branding.

* The reason for the almost-10 years long absence of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' TV series between ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' and ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''. [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/16/how-rights-issues-killed-a-new-star-trek-tv-show See here for more details]]. For a Cliff Notes version - ''Star Trek'' was produced by Creator/DesiluStudios back in the 60s. Creator/{{Paramount}} bought Desilu during ''Trek'''s run and would hold on to the rights for many decades, even after Creator/{{Viacom}} purchased Paramount. In 2005, Viacom opted to split its movie and television divisions in two, creating a new Viacom and a restructured CBS Corporation, having bought the old CBS six years prior, which merged with CBS' in-house studio to become CBS Paramount and, later, CBS Studios. This is where things got messy - the ''Star Trek'' franchise was now split in two as Paramount had the rights to make movies and CBS had the rights to make TV shows. Creator/BadRobot, Creator/JJAbrams' studio, wanted to make a massive multimedia franchise out of the reboot ''Star Trek'' film series, but CBS, content on fueling nostalgia and sticking with their old TV universe, would refuse. It wouldn't be until November 2, 2015 that ''Discovery'' was announced and it was specifically mentioned that it would be set in CBS's TV universe -- dormant for a decade since ''Enterprise''[='=]s ending -- rather than Paramount's film universe. For the shortest and simplest answer, rights to ''Star Trek'' shifted hands three times, the third of which saw them being split between rights to TV and film productions, and it started a rift between whose visions for the franchise got the green light because both camps hissed at each other's ideas.

* With the exception of ''WesternAnimation/SaltysLighthouse'', any preschool show that used a FramingDevice surrounding imported cartoons will probably never see the light of day again due to rights needing to be cleared for the shows they are a framing device for. These include ''Series/ShiningTimeStation'', ''The Fox Cubhouse'', ''Series/BigBag'', the Lacey Entertainment version of ''WesternAnimation/TheMrMenShow'', ''Series/TheNoddyShop'', ''[[Series/CaptainKangaroo Mr. Moose's Fun Time]]'' and ''Someday School''.

* ''Series/KidsIncorporated'' hasn't recieved any DVD releases and hasn't been re-run since the late 90's because a major part of the show was the titular group performing covers of popular songs from the time it aired.