They’re expensive, and tough — sometimes impossible — to negotiate.

Episodes of Carol’s show had less music, on average, than Dean’s, but still enough to cause headaches.

Besides, Carol’s statements to the contrary notwithstanding, she may not actually own ALL of the rights to her series. It, like so many others, was produced in association with the network that originally aired it — in the case of her show, of course, that was CBS.

Now it’s possible that she bought out CBS’ stake at some point, but as we can see from the example of Dean’s show, these issues of who owns what in the jungle of TV rights are not always as obvious as they may at first seem.

Paul had said 1977; we had read elsewhere that it was 1979; you looked at the actual date and discovered that the truth falls (as it so often does) exactly in the middle.

Do you suppose that there might be a lesson here for the parties to this lawsuit…?

By the way, the current prints of the first season of “Star Trek” that now air on TV Land bear a 1978 copyright date. I believe Paramount is the copyright holder. The old “Paramount” logo has been removed from the current TV land prints (and the “Re-mastered” version now in syndication,) and replaced with that of the current rights holder, CBS-Paramount Television.

In any case, while it may well be that rogue film prints were the first justification for the retroactive copyright claim, we can definitively attest to the fact that they were not the last. Paramount DID, in fact, go after a number of small videocassette suppliers who were selling first-year “Trek” episodes in the late ’70s and early ’80s (and remember that back then, VHS wasn’t the only tape format around — Beta was still very much alive and well).

Each and every one of those video distributors that had chosen to sell first-year Star Trek episodes in the belief that those shows were legally in the public domain were driven out of business by Paramount’s legal eagles, and we can say that with certitude because we personally know the principals of one of the companies that went through this ordeal, and as a result, went under.

In the interest of giving all sides a chance to weigh in on the issue, if you take a look at some thoughts expressed by an attorney over in our regular Comments section, you’ll see the view given that it’s actually standard practice among lawyers for the plaintiffs in a suit to go after anyone and everyone who might have even the smallest interest in the property in contention.

While that doesn’t change our opinion —or we’re sure, yours either — that Barrump-Bump should be completely absolved, it does at least offer a legal rationale for NBC U’s thinking in the matter.

And would big bully NBC please with great haste recognize its monumental blunder in naming Lee Hale’s company as a defendant? I’d certainly hate for NBC to have to change the show because they pissed off one of its central contributors.

I recall that in the case of “Batman,” a stumbling block added to the Fox and Time Warner tug-of-war (in addition to any rights DC may hold in the series) was that the widow of one one of the show’s producers claimed to own a piece of the show too. I hope the issues are resolved with “Batman,” as I place it way at the top of my most-wanted DVD list.

After many years of stasis, there are indeed at last some stirrings in the woods, and we hope that they will lead us in the direction where so many of us have for so long wanted to go — on the path toward the availability of ALL episodes of Dean’s show and The Golddiggers series in the complete, unedited form in which they were originally shown.

Only then will viewers be properly and fully reminded — or, in the case of younger viewers, become aware for the first time — of the enormous amount of skill and professionalism that went into making those programs; of Dean’s charm, ease and command of the audience in the most felicitous environment in which he ever worked; and of the extraordinary talent, presence, and appeal of the most winsome groups of female singer-dancers ever assembled: The Golddiggers and, of course, the beloved sorority to which you belonged, Lindsay, The Dingaling Sisters.