The company behind the classic TV specials based on the popular Charlie Brown and Snoopy ‘Peanuts’ cartoon strips has landed an unexpected payday from US TV network CBS as a result of a joke on the final edition of Stephen Colbert’s ‘The Late Show’.
Lee Mendelson Film Productions - which made numerous TV specials featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and friends from the mid-1960s onwards - also owns the distinctive music composed, arranged and performed by jazz musician Vince Guaraldi that was used in the programmes.
Last month the production company filed four lawsuits against entities that have used that music without permission, including the US government’s Department Of The Interior.
Colbert commented on those lawsuits during the last edition of his long-running talk show, which was cancelled by broadcaster CBS - officially for financial reasons, though many see it as part of the media company’s ongoing bid to schmooze President Donald Trump, who Colbert regularly mocked.
“Anyone illegally using that music is going to have to pay through the nose”, Colbert noted on the show, as his house band started to play one of the most famous pieces of Guaraldi’s music, ‘Linus And Lucy’.
Addressing bandleader Louis Cato, Colbert continued, “Is the band right now playing the same ‘Peanuts’ music that I just said people were being sued over for using without permission? Is that what it’s doing?” When Cato confirmed that was exactly what was happening, Colbert then joked, “Oh no, I hope this doesn’t cost CBS any money!”
And, indeed, it did end up costing CBS money, with the joke prompting LMFP to force CBS into securing a retrospective licence for the use of Guaraldi’s composition on the final edition of 'The Late Show', which required the broadcaster to make a payment to LMFP.
Though LMFP says it will pass that money onto World Central Kitchen - a not-for-profit organisation that provides meals during crises - which was highlighted on the penultimate edition of Colbert’s show, with the programme’s producer donating $2.5 million to the same organisation.
Confirming that a retrospective licence had been issued to CBS, LMFP Chair Jason Mendelson says that the production company “found the music’s use on ‘The Late Show’ funny and entertaining, and is proud to support World Central Kitchen’s mission”.
He then added that “a principle goal” of the company’s recent lawsuits is to “educate individuals, businesses and government entities about the need to obtain written licence agreements to use music in a commercial setting”. A goal Colbert’s on air joke aided.
Furthering that goal to educate the world about the complexities of music licensing, it’s worth noting that Colbert’s joke probably wouldn’t have worked had it been delivered by Graham Norton or Jonathan Ross on their respective BBC and ITV chat shows in the UK, because of differences in the way music is licensed in the US versus much of the rest of the world.
In the UK, as in most countries, traditional TV shows usually rely on blanket licences from the music industry’s collecting societies - in the UK that would be MCPS to cover the synchronisation of music into shows and PRS to cover the subsequent broadcast of those shows (and PPL if an existing recording is used). MPCS and PRS work together on licensing TV.
There are some gaps in the UK TV blanket on the MCPS side, with some notable songs excluded, but in the main with BBC and ITV shows, although usage needs to be reported and royalties are paid, bespoke agreements with individual music publishers are not required.
So if Norton or Ross added some extra music into their shows at the last minute, it’s unlikely it would create any licensing issues for their employers.
However, in the US, there is no equivalent blanket licence for TV programmes. Collecting societies like BMI and ASCAP do have agreements with TV networks and will collect royalties when music is broadcast, but the initial synchronisation of music into a programme - including when a composition is performed live - needs to be cleared in advance.
And when it isn’t, a TV company needs to secure a licence in retrospect, which is a situation a publisher might exploit to get a bigger payday, because if the broadcaster doesn’t get a licence and the programme has already aired, they could be sued for copyright infringement.
Although a publisher might agree to more or less standard financial terms to maintain a good relationship with a regular licensee - or maybe just to maintain goodwill in a scenario that began as a joke about a host trying to comedically screw over a network that had just fired him.
So there you go, a little extra TV sync licensing lesson prompted by the actions of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Stephen Colbert and, possibly, a TV network desperate to suck up to Donald Trump.