Join the board at www.filmscoremonthly.com. Click on General Discussion and join in the demand for a MacGyver Soundtrack Now. We have waited long enough.

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/post...mID=1&archive=0

Perhaps you can add the topic as well.

I don't know about this, though I'd like to see a release as well from every season and both movies. Who knows maybe they can get a release around the time of the movie release. Before, I don't see it actually happen.

A release from every season would be impractical and expensive. Multiple composers are involved. A single CD highlighting the best takes from all 7 seasons would be most likly. Randy Edelman is an accomplished and well represented (on CD). He would be the album backbone with individual contributions by the other prominent composers.

Why would that be impractical?

Sin City also had multiple composers. Okay one movie one cd.

So you'd rather have music of one composer who did his share of episodes rather than to have everything of each composer?

There is no way you can have the highlights of all seven seasons on one cd. Because it's simply too much even though a lot of music is reused throughout many episodes, it's still too much. With a double cd you'd have more options but still not enough.

Than I'd prefer a North and South like release. Two releases with in total seven cd's. And those releases contains music of nearly every single scene. There's an exception one or two in the 2nd release.

And there's the releases of Xena and Lost and 24. All seperate releases with lots of music on it or their highlights each season.

But all the highlights of the seven seasons on one cd is impossible.

Reuse fees would make an extended 2 CD set more costly than sales fees would warrant. Unless the CD is a limited 1000 to 1500 CD edition it won't happen. Not enough demand. At most this album would sell 3000 copies worldwide. Those selections which were Midi composed and keyboarded would be cheaper to release but any with an orchestra from 30 members up would be costly to reproduce. This project could probably done limited for under 20 thousand bucks which in limited form would at least recover the money for the producer. Beyond that who knows? But don't expect it any time soon in a multi disc set.

In case you haven't seen it, in the media section on the site there's a wonderful compilation of music from the show- it's some 30+ tracks I believe and it imports to itunes rather nicely. Oh and did I mention it's free and available now?

I am grateful for those tracks and the work involved. Downloaded many to my MP3 player. What we are looking for here is a remastered CD in stereo with Edelman's theme and other worthy tracks to present a good overall presentation of the 7 seasons.

I've though this over yesterday. My conclusion is if you want highlights of the show on one disc (depending on how much tracks you can get on it) that would be like three tracks per season. For a total of 21 tracks. Maybe you can get to four each season and get it up to 28.

This is how I see it.

Season 1
- Opening theme season 1.
- The car parachute (The Heist)
- The explosion (Hellfire)
- The harbour (Nightmares). In fact the whole entire first act.
- The fight with Neilson (Nightmares)
- The fight in the clockstore (The Assassin)
- Closing credits season 1 alternate version.

Season 2
- Opening theme season 2.
- Trapped (The Human Factor). The moment Mac and the doctor realizing they're trapped. This was also used in For Love or Money when Mac gets the call from Anton's wife closing the third act of that episode.
- The chase scenes in (Three for the Road).
- Disarming the bomb (Phoenix under Siege).
- The avalanche (Out in the cold)
- War scene (Bushmaster)
- Mac realizing he doesn't remember his name (DOA MacGyver)
- The phone booth (DOA MacGyver)
- Fight at the zoo (For love or money)
- Closing credits season 2.

Season 3
- Opening theme season 3.
- Cliffhanger (Lost Love part 1).
- Fight at the harbor (Back From The Dead)
- Ship exploring (Ghost Ship)
- Fight with Bigfoot (Ghost Ship)
- Arrested (Fire and Ice)
- Murdoc's theme (The Widowmaker)
- Death of Dr. Millhouse and escape (Kill Zone)
- The chase (The Negotiator)
- Closing credits season 3.

Season 4
- Opening theme season 4.
- Final scene (Blood Brothers)
- Jungle escape (On a wing and a prayer)
- Kidnapping Tommy (The Battle of Tommy Giordano)
- Hop on the truck (The Battle of Tommy Giordano)
- Booker's body (The Challenge)
- Fight with Larson (The Challenge)
- Fight with Jonathan (Easy Target)
- Deborah's theme (Unfinished Business)
- Clip Rock the Cradle (Unfinished Business)
- Closing credits season 4

Season 5. (Music only gets better from now on)
- Opening theme season 5.
- Mac asleep (Legend of the Holy Rose)
- Cliffhanger + escape of Pendulum torture (Legend of the Holy Rose)
- Foiling assasination (Cease Fire)
- Cutting of bomb (Cease Fire)
- Fight out of the ring (Second Chance)
- Serenity theme (from the moment the dream starts)
- Fight with Yakuza (Log Jam)
- Ramon shoots Enrique (The treasure of Manco)
- Stealing the sunboat (Passages)
- The tunnel (Passages)
- Closin credits season 5.

Season 6.
- Opening theme season 6.
- Humanity theme (Humanity)
- Victor dies (Humanity)
- Chase scene (The Gun)
- Rescueing Lisa from the car (Twenty Questions)
- The Wall theme (The Wall)
- Last arrow (The Wall)
- Running to the court (Lesson in Evil)
- MacGyver's testimony (Lesson in Evil)
- Zito escapes (Lesson in Evil)
- Zito calls MacGyver the first time (Lesson in Evil)
- Pete's caught (Lesson in Evil)
- End of Lesson (Lesson in Evil)
- Zito's pen (Lesson in Evil)
- Bitter Harvest Theme (Bitter Harvest)
- Killing Road (Bitter Harvest)
- Fight with Novis (Squeeze Play)
- Final Fights (Squeeze Play)
- Fight at the bar (Eye of Osiris)
- Clip Children of Light (Hind-Sight)
- Clip Deep Cover (Hind Sight)
- Clip Cleo Rocks (Hind Sight)
- Finale (Hind Sight)
- Closing credits season 6.

Season 7.
- Opening credits season 7.
- Torture rack (The Hood)
- Strapped under the rocket (Obsessed)
- Chasing Murdoc (Obsessed)
- Final phone call (Obsessed)
- Dismantling bomb 1 and Earl's death (Prometheus Syndrome).
- Dismantling bomb 2 (Prometheus Syndrome)
- Escape from coffin (The Walking Dead)
- MacGyver vs Duncan (Good Knight MacGyver)
- Cliffhanger + escape from lavapit (Good Knight MacGyver)
- The dog (Good Knight MacGyver)
- Making the kite (Good Knight MacGyver)
- Escape from dungeon and Mac gets shot (Good Knight MacGyver)
- Fight with Minton (Gunz 'N Boyz)
- Escaping the building manager (Off the Wall)
- Landing (Mountain of Youth)
- MacGyver destroying the pumphouse (Mountain of Youth)
- Escaping the warehouse (The Stringer)
- Mac finds out about his son (The Stringer)
- Kidnapping Mei-Jan (The Stringer)
- MacGyver gets shot (The Stringer)
- Finale (The Stringer)
- Closing credits season 7.

That is just way too much to put on one cd. Double cd perhaps. Anyway this is just a part of what I want. I made my own tracklist once involving music of every episode. Sometimes it was everything of an episode, sometimes just music of one scene. But that's a really long list. I love lists.

Wow, MacGyverGod, this is awesome! I love your list, too.
And I want all of it.
Gimme gimme.

That list is like 16 pages long including the both movies. That also includes how long the music lasted during the scene.

I always liked the music in the opening gambit of The Gauntlet as he's running along the sand before sliding on the map.

This would be costly to produce and probably cut the number of buyers willing to pay for it down to a handful. The most famous TV scores in history like Peter Gunn and a handful of others never had more than a single CD release and very occasionally a second disc at a later date. A few small soundtrack only labels have produced shows like Cain's Hundred (Jerry Goldsmith) and Dr. Kildare on multi discs sets. The editions are very limited (usually a thousand copies) and they remain available for long periods of time while they try to find interested buyers. The Man from Uncle has seen multiple releases and The Girl from Uncle finally moved from LP to a single CD last year. You should put your hopes in a practical single CD. Unless you can afford to bankroll the multi CD project yourself. This stuff is not cheap to do and CD companies aren't out there to lose money.

So why would that be costly? He just asked his favorite track. Is it going to be more costly than anything else we'd ask. You're first post sounded like 'now it's the time to make your demands known'. We're giving suggestions and everything is costly all of a sudden. I know those guys would like to get paid for what they're doing of course it costs money.

But if everything would be too much trouble to do because of the money, they better don't bother. Because I'd stick to my original opinion: depending on how many tracks they can get on a cd, you'd be glad if they can get it up to 21 tracks so you'd have three tracks per season (not counting opening and closing themes). If they do that with each opening and closing theme version you'd only have one track left. Cut of the opening themes, maybe.

Best way is to get it up to four or five tracks per season, than you get 28 to 32 tracks. With that amount of tracks you'd have something that you can be glad about and cherish it. Otherwise if not done properly, don't bother, I'd say. It has to come from two sides.

Maybe, but if they want money, they better do it right. With a decent release with a bit of everything on one single disc or on multiple cd's. That's up to them. If they lie down on the job, don't expect profits.

So why would that be costly? He just asked his favorite track. Is it going to be more costly than anything else we'd ask. You're first post sounded like 'now it's the time to make your demands known'. We're giving suggestions and everything is costly all of a sudden. I know those guys would like to get paid for what they're doing of course it costs money.

But if everything would be too much trouble to do because of the money, they better don't bother. Because I'd stick to my original opinion: depending on how many tracks they can get on a cd, you'd be glad if they can get it up to 21 tracks so you'd have three tracks per season (not counting opening and closing themes). If they do that with each opening and closing theme version you'd only have one track left. Cut of the opening themes, maybe.

Best way is to get it up to four or five tracks per season, than you get 28 to 32 tracks. With that amount of tracks you'd have something that you can be glad about and cherish it. Otherwise if not done properly, don't bother, I'd say. It has to come from two sides.

Maybe, but if they want money, they better do it right. With a decent release with a bit of everything on one single disc or on multiple cd's. That's up to them. If they lie down on the job, don't expect profits.

Most soundtrack releases of this nature are not being done to greatly enrich the bank accounts of the producers. Mostly it's a project done more for personal interest. Reuse fees are paid to Union musicians when music is released for profit on a CD. What this means is that the original recording for which they were paid a standard wage was for use ONE time in a TV show. No additional income was expected to be derrived from the music as it was composed and recorded to augment a visual product. Later when you want to release a CD you are saying that you are going to reuse their labors and they demand another payment in line with the amount of money you are expecting to make. Older films from the 50's on (and TV shows) were not released because large symphonic size orchestras received 60 to 70 thousand bucks for a session. A recording expected to sell 5 thousand copies or less meant that if you paid the reuse fee and costs of production you would end up LOSING an enormous amount of money. Throughout the 70's and 80's major composers like John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith etc. would leave the country to record their scores because the Symphonies only charged around 15 thousand for a session which meant that the reuse fees and productions costs were recoverable. I am talking about scores like STAR WARS, E.T. and others. Major scores that even in their day were not guaranteed to be big sellers and the composers wanted to see their works released to LP and CD. This practice continues to this day. More old scores are now seeing release as new agreements with Unions say that if a score is only going to see 1 to 5 thousand units printed they understand that the reuse fees must be reduced to a percentage of the gross projected sales not just a demand for the original fee to be paid all over again. These principals fully apply to a MacGyver release. That is why I am pointing out that a single CD with highlights, remastered and with good liner notes and artwork are what we can hope for. We can ask for more but unless we are willing to bankroll the project it won't happen. The distribution and sale of a 20 buck CD can be expected to realize at best 3 thousand copies world wide. Maybe a lot less. Remember if you press 3 thousand copies and sell them direct at 20 bucks each you can expect to gross a total of 60 thousand dollars. Subtract a 15 to 20 thousand dollar reuse fee, pay a little to the studio who owns rights to the score, pay out some money for CD reproduction, CD cases, Artwork and liner notes and the costs continue to rise. You must also have a staff to package and send out the units as you must sell them all direct to realize the 60 thousand dollar gross. If you sell them to other retailers you unit fee is reduced to 10 bucks a copy since the distributor wants to make a profit and the retailer wants to make a little money also. Are you getting this picture? Nobody is going to jump out and invest a 100 thousand bucks for a multi set MacG CD set unless they can figure out how to sell it for 60 bucks and up and sell a lot of copies. Again, lets be realistic and hope for the single CD. If it sells more maybe more will come later.

wow,that's an amazing list,MacGyverGod!

I remember nice music playing background in Gold Rush at several scenes.I think variation of it also plays in one of early season episodes.I think it was in Kill Zone.

I checked it,yes it's also heard in Kill Zone.

It' like that (sorry for the quality of the sound)

By the way,I hope it's not wrong to post a link here? If it's,please let me know...

Posting links here is fine -- Rocky does it all the time. He'd have to bust himself first.

That's good to hear I thought I missed the board rule for it while searching around the forum.

and that's one playing in Gold Rush...
the other sample from the same episode.

I also want check the ones from MacGyverGod's list.I remember the track playing in Good Knight MacGyver (when he gets hurt)

I hope they release these scores one day=)

Yeah, the finale of Good Knight MacGyver is one of my favorites. While being critical on the list I'd like to add one more to it and that's when Victor gets bitten by the viper and Mac takes off.

Id love to get soundtrack for MacGyver... Who's the dude who did all the music, contact him?

Randy Edelman wrote the theme and scored many of the episode. Other composer added music to individual episodes. None of them own the rights to publish or release the music. That is owned by the current owner of the producing studio. All reuse fees (see the entry on this issue above) and costs to release the originally recorded music would have to go through them. The additional issue of how many CD's to produce would depend on a lot of additional issues. A basic 50 to 70 minute CD with Main and End titles and key highlights from the 7 seasons is doable. But, as much as they would like to see it done, the composers have no say in the matter.

There were four composers in total plus a couple of unknown but Randy Edelman, Dennis McCarthy and Ken Harrison composed most of the episodes. Another one I like to name is William Ross. He did Lesson in Evil, High Control, Trail of Tears, Hind-Sight and Honest Abe. Style is pretty recognisable. In Lesson in Evil and Trail of Tears he uses similar music and in High Control, the clip of Passages and Honest Abe he uses a lot of extreme percussion.

Maybe interesting to know William Ross was the conductor on the movie of Lethal Weapon 3.

Further there's always Ken Harrison's website, where you can hear themes of Lost Treasure of Atlantis and bits of Trail To Doomsday.

Among all these compositors I prefer Randy Edelman!
I love the first 2 seasons of Mac because there are also his music!
In second place I put Dennis MacCahrty!
I never really loved Ken Harrison's music score,instead.
I don't know why...maybe he can not create the same atmosphere of the others !

.. or maybe I'm wrong...

Ken Harrison joined in the third season. Ghost Ship being his first episode. That's when Randy Edelman kinda left. He only remade the theme song for the later seasons. His last episodes was Lost Love.

Ken Harrison was in my opinion the best. He did Serenity, Passages, The Wall, Good Knight MacGyver and most of the Murdoc episodes. He came up with Murdoc's theme and Harry's theme. Mac chasing the thief in Passages is one of the best cues in the whole show.

Dennis McCarthy surely deserves credit for his work too. Especially Humanity is one of my top ranking episodes and music. The opening for starters, Victor chasing Mac through the woods, Victor's suicide attempt and Victor's sacrifice are top cues in the episode. Seeing Victor flicking the pin out of the grenade still gives me a rush. 'You taught me well, Major.'

I agree! The music in Passages was great which makes the episode even better

I love that Kill Zone clip. I actually think it was used in more than just one episode, when the action intensified.