Hello Friends,

I found an easier way to communicate with you what is going on with The Double Deckers.

As you may have already heard The Double Deckers album was recently re-released on CD by Poker Records in the UK. The music is crystal clear, studio quality – you don’t get any popping or scratch noises like you may get on the original albums. I bought the record several years ago – it was fun listening to the songs again.

The Double Deckers on DVD is still on hold at this time – 20th Century Fox is the copyright holder. It is not Public Domain as some misguided EBay sellers would like to make you believe. They are exposing themselves to legal risk. I do not endorse anyone selling pirated copies of the DD. If you see them selling on EBay report them to EBay or send them an email asking them to remove their listing for their own protection. It is not Public Domain material.

Now for the story behind all this….

After the first 17 episodes of the DD was filmed – a fire destroyed the set and the office that held important studio contracts related to the show. This was one of the factors why the series was not picked up for a 2nd season. The actors never signed away their rights to royalties – when most papers were destroyed in the fire the studio made the claim they had signed away the rights but the papers were destroyed in the fire. When 20th Century Fox collected money from TV stations for showing repeats of the show they did not think they owed the actors royalties – after years of lobbying Actor’s Equity – they received a settlement – it wasn’t much according to Douglas Simmonds, who played Doughnut, but it was the principle. Today 20th Century Fox keeps its distance from the DD yet they still own the copyright. On a recent interview with Michael Audreson, he said the DD has a file at 20th Century Fox – and whenever someone approaches them about the show they look in this file and then quickly close it and change the subject.

If anyone has any studio connections with Fox please let them know the actors are generally not as concerned with the money aspect as they were – they would be willing to hear any offer that would permit the show to be released. Lets hope we can convince the powers that be to do just that.

See You Next Weeeeek

-Dave