Bizarre TV edits...

[Kooshmeister]

What are some truly odd, stupid, inexplicable, or outright bizarre edits you've seen done to theatrical movies that air on TV? Here's a good example of what I mean: Jurassic Park came on AMC the other night, and midway through there was the strangest edit. In the theatrical cut of the film, Tim scares Lex with the bug-eyed night-vision goggles by popping up and going "Boo!". Gennaro, the lawyer, tells him to put them back where he got them, and then Lex hits him (Tim I mean) with her hat and tells him "Don't scare me!"

The AMC airing of the film includes the bit with Gennaro scolding Tim, and Lex saying "Don't scare me!" but completely omits the part before this where he actually does the scaring. No doubt leaving the handful of people who are seeing the movie for the first time utterly confused about how/when Tim "scared" her.

[JaseSF]

I thoroughly despise the practice of editing films to allow for more ad time or any editing at all to be honest. Our native Canadian channels, excepting Global , tend to treat the material far better than that for the most part I'm happy to say.

[The Burgomaster]

This isn't really "bizarre," but I remember seeing THE WILD BUNCH on television many years ago (it was probably somewhere between 1974 and 1977).  The gunfight scenes were so heavily edited that I couldn't figure out what was going on, who was shooting at who, and who even ended up getting killed.  It was an incoherent mess.

[Doc Daneeka]

They leave the fate of Lucy's husband hanging in the TV cut of The Frighteners. The also cut my favorite part of Fright Night! The part where Billy melts (this is odd, because the first time I saw it (on AMC, not SciFi if this makes the difference) it was intact!)

[ulthar]

One of the most egregious Edits-for-Television that I have seen, and this has stuck with me over the years, was for 48 HOURS.  Now, to get 48 HOURS to be shown on TV, they had to cut, what, about 98% of the dialog?  So, what did they do?  They cut in footage that was not in the theatrical release.  The worse part about this is that it was stuff that was cut for a REASON! It was not germane to the plot and a waste of filmstock.

It was footage of Jack (Nick Nolte) and his girlfriend (Annette O'Toole) trying to patch up their relationship.

Utterly.  Bleeping.  Stupid.

[RCMerchant]

What I find REALLY ODD is that movies that were cut YEARS ago,and what is accepted now on TV,such as swear words,are still omitted! I've heard Cartman on that stupid cartoon say stuff that  you would rarley hear outside a hard R movie in the past!

[Jim H]

What I find REALLY ODD is that movies that were cut YEARS ago,and what is accepted now on TV,such as swear words,are still omitted! I've heard Cartman on that stupid cartoon say stuff that  you would rarley hear outside a hard R movie in the past!

To be fair, Cartman is on a Cable network which doesn't have to worry about the FCC.  A lot of what he says wouldn't be let onto network TV, except perhaps after safe haven hours.



My favorite is still probably from my The Big Lebowski.  "This is what happens when you meet in a stranger in the alps!" instead of "this is what happens when you f**k a stranger in the ass!".  Pretty funny.

[Torgo]

The TV edit of Robocop is my absolute favorite(?) of all time.

"Why me!  WHY ME! WHY ME!"   

[Torgo]

Did anyone else see the Fox TV edit of Basic Instinct that aired about 8 years ago?

Talk about butchering a movie.  They've actually got some of the looped TV dialogue as an extra on the special edition unrated DVD.   

[Yaddo 42]

The TV edit of Robocop is my absolute favorite(?) of all time.

"Why me!  WHY ME! WHY ME!"  

"Witches leave!" dubbed in, most of Miguel Ferrer's coke and fondle fest cut out. Also the impacts of Clarence shooting him in the legs cut out also.

The TV version of Flash Gordon on some channels used to lop out most of the segment in the Prince's realm and cut to the Hawkmen's floating city right as Flash and the Prince begin their fight. Must have been a time cut, but so odd to take out one huge segment so badly.

[Neville]

One of the advantages of living in Spain is that there's no censorship. Present laws were passed during the first socialist administration, and are specially relaxed, even when compared to other European countries.

Basically, all movies are shown uncut, both in theatrical and domestical releases, and only porn is forbidden for minors of 18. The rest of the movies maintain a classification (for all audiences, for above 7, 13 and 18 years old), but they only exist as a tool for concerned parents.

This said, I was unlucky enough to stumble into a censored copy of "Re-animator", and it had one of the most abrupt cuts I've ever seen near the end. If you've seen the movie, you'll remember the infamous scene were a reanimated head licks the vary naked body of Barbara Crampton, who is tied to an autopsy stretcher. The final seconds of the scene feature the head going in between Crampton's legs, and then the voice of Herbert West interrupts the proceedings.

In the censored version, the scene abruptly comes to an end way before the head goes towards Crampton¡s groin. Instead, there's a nasty cut to black (not even a fade to black) and with still a black screen (!) we hear part of Herbert West's dialogue, which then cuts back to the rest of the footage.

[quabrot]

My personal favorite TV edit would be Mallrats, which I was upset wasn't a bonus on the 10th Anniversary DVD.  In my mind, it'sa different movie.  It has different dialogue, alternate scenes, cropped scenes, different gags,

The FX cut of Daredevil is probably the best cut out there.  It's kind of an amalgam of the theatrical version and the director's cut.

[KYGOTC]

I forget what channel its on, But in the theatrical version of Dumb and Dumber this is the exchange:

Harry- "You just tell me where to sign, bub."

Loyd- "Right on my ASS after you kiss it!!"


now this is the for tv edit.


Harry- "You just tell me where to sign, bub."
Loyd- "Right on my SANDWITCH after you kiss it!!"

[El Dogo]

Back in the days when airplanes showed movies to all the passengers simultaneously, rather than through those individual TV screen things, someone I knew saw an airplane edit version of Glengarry Glen Ross.  They might as well have dubbed it into Japanese for all the sense it must have made.

[Jack]

Halloween II.  One guy apparently swears a lot, and they replace it all with the most utterly ludicrous nonsensep that vaguely matches his mouth movements.  It would almost be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.