Shows cut before broadcast (1 Viewer)

[moviebuff75]

Sometimes an episode runs short because it was cut before broadcast. Maybe the network needs some extra time, there is breaking news, or a last minute change occurs. For example, a Party Duke Show episode in Season One runs short. I researched it and found out that it was cut because President Kennedy was just killed and the show referenced him, or the Presidency, so they cut it at the last minute and it is still missing. Does anyone have examples where this happened, or the footage was originally cut, but showed up in syndicated reruns?

 

[Jack P]

The most notable examples of shows that in syndication showed material not used in the original broadcast (always for time purposes) would be:

1-Night Gallery. While many episodes often fell victim to butchery, some episodes that clocked originally at less than a half hour often got scenes restored in the padding process to a half-hour syndicated format. "Little Girl Lost" and "Lone Survivor" come to mind.

2-Battlestar Galactica. In the initial syndication package that mashed together two different single part episodes into one that was "movie length" the two part episodes were left alone and would have extra scenes restored. This was true of "Lost Planet Of The Gods", "Gun On Ice Planet Zero", "Living Legend" and "War Of The Gods." Only one single part episode, "Experiment In Terra" had extra footage restored when it was mashed together with the G80 episode "Return Of Starbuck".

 

[ScottRE]

There's one episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea that looks like a portion was sliced for whatever reason and remains this way on the DVDs.

"The Lobster Man" - the alien of the title is on the Seaview and follows Nelson and Crane into the radio shack so Sparks can place a call regarding the arrival of said alien. Lobby, as I call him, smacks the radio which erupts in a shows or fire and sparks, sending the Seaview rocking and rolling (why hitting the radio would send the sub out of control is beyond me). Cut to commercial.

We come back to a sudden fast fade in with a close up of Lobby already in conversation, the sub nice and steady saying "I had to protect my own interests." The music was mid cue and the jeopardy resolution was not seen. I always thought this was just a syndication edit, but even at 50 minutes, the episode is still like this.

 

[Jack P]

At least one episode of Columbo was filmed as a two hour episode and then was hacked to fit a 90 minute format. That was "Double Exposure" the last of Robert Culp's three guest shots. The episode when you see it begins in a kind of "joined in progress" way which shows Culp putting his murder plan into effect. Indeed, as was confirmed the shooting script revealed that a number of earlier scenes where Culp confronts the man he later kills were cut and also cut were *all* of the scenes filmed with Arlene Martel, who still ended up with a screen credit at the back end. Also lost were a couple scenes in the middle of the episode regarding Culp's attempt to frame the victim's wife of the murder. In the aired episode, this plotline comes to an abrupt halt.

There was apparently no alternate two hour version prepared before the decision was made to hack it down to a 90 minute slot and the footage has never been seen since though publicity stills from the missing scenes do exist.

 

[jcroy]

2-Battlestar Galactica. In the initial syndication package that mashed together two different single part episodes into one that was "movie length" the two part episodes were left alone and would have extra scenes restored. This was true of "Lost Planet Of The Gods", "Gun On Ice Planet Zero", "Living Legend" and "War Of The Gods." Only one single part episode, "Experiment In Terra" had extra footage restored when it was mashed together with the G80 episode "Return Of Starbuck".

IIRC, one of the "movie length" edits of the pilot had a scene where Baltar was being beheaded. In contrast in the tv episodes, Baltar was kept alive and not killed off.

 

[Jack P]

That was the "theatrical cut" which also cut out more than 40 minutes of material that was in the TV broadcast.

 

[moviebuff75]

I've also seen scenes pop up in foreign broadcast versions too

 

[Polbroth]

At least one episode of Columbo was filmed as a two hour episode and then was hacked to fit a 90 minute format. That was "Double Exposure" the last of Robert Culp's three guest shots. The episode when you see it begins in a kind of "joined in progress" way which shows Culp putting his murder plan into effect. Indeed, as was confirmed the shooting script revealed that a number of earlier scenes where Culp confronts the man he later kills were cut and also cut were *all* of the scenes filmed with Arlene Martel, who still ended up with a screen credit at the back end. Also lost were a couple scenes in the middle of the episode regarding Culp's attempt to frame the victim's wife of the murder. In the aired episode, this plotline comes to an abrupt halt.

There was apparently no alternate two hour version prepared before the decision was made to hack it down to a 90 minute slot and the footage has never been seen since though publicity stills from the missing scenes do exist.

One of the great episodes of this great series - I had no idea it had been sliced up in this way!

 

[AndyMcKinney]

The pilot episode of NBC's Quark had a brief scene cut by the network before air. There was some (IMO) mild innuendo there that might have been the reason. It must've been cut by the network, though, because when the episode was re-run on the short-lived HA! TV comedy network, the missing/extra scene was there, and it is also present on the DVD release.

I know there was an edit because for several years prior to the HA! showings, I had a VHS dub of the 1978 NBC broadcast. At the edit point, there was a noticeable "pop" in the audio soundtrack, which is usually a tell-tale sign of someone getting the scissors out.

 

[David Weicker]

An episode of Doctor Who (Robot Of Sherwood) had a scene where a character (revealed to be a robot) was decapitated.
In the weeks before airing, there were two journalist killed by beheading in the news. That scene was removed and was never broadcast (nor is it included as part of any release, even as an extra).

 

[Neil Brock]

The 2nd Night Stalker movie, The Night Strangler, was produced for a 2 hour time slot but ABC decided to run it in a 90 minute slot. When it came out later on VHS and DVD it was the full version.

 

[Bob Gu]

On the DVD extras of "Nikita" there is a very violent action sequence with Maggie Q running and shooting her way through a bunch of bad guys. The scene is never in any episode. I can only think they thought it was too violent or just too hard core and nasty for heroine Maggie Q, to be doing that.

The original pilot for "Buffalo Bill, Jr." has a Frederic Remington statue of Geronimo behind the end credits and a slightly different opening narration than the syndicated version which has a drawing of a buffalo behind the end credits, like the rest of the episodes.

The Geronimo version is on Buffalo Bill, Jr. Vol. 1, from Alpha.

The buffalo version is on the Mill Creek Ultimate Western 150 episode set.

"The Adventures of Robin Hood" has two versions of the episode "The Knight Who Came to Dinner". The episode features the character, Sir Richard of the Lea, who appeared in four episodes of Season One. "Dinner" appears as Episode 37 on the DVDs from Mill Creek and NetworkUK, but since this introduces the Lea character to Robin Hood it should be shown before the other three. In fact, all four Lea episodes are out of continuity order.

Anyway, the "Dinner" story concerns an evil Abbot who, with the help of the Sheriff of Nottingham, wants to get Lea's estate and lands. This is the version on the DVDs.

Sheriff and Abbot.

But for the American audience CBS didn't want an evil Abbot in the story, So the Abbot scenes were reshot with a secular bad guy. This may be why the episode showed up so late in the season.

Sheriff with secular bad guy.

This alternate American version is on Alpha Vol. 10 of it's "Adventures of Robin Hood" DVD releases. The end credits are the same on both and they don't list the replacement actor. The end music over the credits on the American version is music from the show but not the usual "Riding through the glen" theme. Maid Marion's surname is also slightly different in the two episodes.

Then there's the "Coronet Blue" episode, "A Dozen Demons' that has two versions of the ending. One with extra narration and one without. Which was used on the original broadcast?

With the extra narration.

Without the extra narration.

 

[ScottRE]

The first episode of 24 had an airplane exploding heavily edited before broadcast since the episode was to be aired less than two months after 9/11. The original version, to my knowledge, was never shown.

 

[Mark Y]

"Fractured Flickers" has one episode that's a couple minutes shorter, supposedly because there was a segment making reference to JFK and it was removed after he was killed.

 

[Mysto]

This is kind of the opposite. The Tim Hutton Nero Wolfe was shot in wide screen with longer episodes for outside the US and then cropped and cut for America. Here is one of the longer, wide screen episodes.

Nero Wolfe - Before I Die

 

[cinerama10]

CAN -CAN the musical film with Frank Sinatra ,had an entire musical sequence cut when it was shown on Australian TV many decades ago.

 

[moviebuff75]

And who can forget the grisly scene cut from I, Claudius. The question is, when was it cut? A little before the premiere and a little after? No one knows for certain .

 

[Neil Brock]

On the DVD extras of "Nikita" there is a very violent action sequence with Maggie Q running and shooting her way through a bunch of bad guys. The scene is never in any episode. I can only think they thought it was too violent or just too hard core and nasty for heroine Maggie Q, to be doing that.

The original pilot for "Buffalo Bill, Jr." has a Frederic Remington statue of Geronimo behind the end credits and a slightly different opening narration than the syndicated version which has a drawing of a buffalo behind the end credits, like the rest of the episodes.

The Geronimo version is on Buffalo Bill, Jr. Vol. 1, from Alpha.
View attachment 170610

The buffalo version is on the Mill Creek Ultimate Western 150 episode set.
View attachment 170611

"The Adventures of Robin Hood" has two versions of the episode "The Knight Who Came to Dinner". The episode features the character, Sir Richard of the Lea, who appeared in four episodes of Season One. "Dinner" appears as Episode 37 on the DVDs from Mill Creek and NetworkUK, but since this introduces the Lea character to Robin Hood it should be shown before the other three. In fact, all four Lea episodes are out of continuity order.

Anyway, the "Dinner" story concerns an evil Abbot who, with the help of the Sheriff of Nottingham, wants to get Lea's estate and lands. This is the version on the DVDs.

Sheriff and Abbot.
View attachment 170614

But for the American audience CBS didn't want an evil Abbot in the story, So the Abbot scenes were reshot with a secular bad guy. This may be why the episode showed up so late in the season.

Sheriff with secular bad guy.
View attachment 170615

This alternate American version is on Alpha Vol. 10 of it's "Adventures of Robin Hood" DVD releases. The end credits are the same on both and they don't list the replacement actor. The end music over the credits on the American version is music from the show but not the usual "Riding through the glen" theme. Maid Marion's surname is also slightly different in the two episodes.

Then there's the "Coronet Blue" episode, "A Dozen Demons' that has two versions of the ending. One with extra narration and one without. Which was used on the original broadcast?

With the extra narration.
View attachment 170608


Without the extra narration.
View attachment 170609

I have a network print and it has the extra narration.

 

[Wiseguy]

The first episode of 24 had an airplane exploding heavily edited before broadcast since the episode was to be aired less than two months after 9/11. The original version, to my knowledge, was never shown.

I recall a preview of the series FOX showed to hype the series (don't recall if it was before or after 9/11) but it featured a bit more of the explosion than was shown in the actual episode.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

And who can forget the grisly scene cut from I, Claudius. The question is, when was it cut? A little before the premiere and a little after? No one knows for certain .

It was cut not long after its original BBC airing. Audiences were so shocked, that the BBC wiped the master tape themselves, and since it was cut so soon after broadcast (so, before it was sold to other countries), the chances of this missing scene ever turning up are slim to none, unless one of the few people at home who could afford a VCR in 1976 recorded it at home and kept it all these years.

The BBC made a similar cut to an edition of Monty Python by wiping the bit of an undertaker sketch where one suggest they should eat the deceased. The footage returned, though, from either an off-air recording or from an NTSC conversion for the original Canadian broadcasts, as I recall.