Is Friends: S7 still "Super-Sized"? (1 Viewer)

When these were first broadcast, Friends was competing against the Survivor 2 phenomenon and promised extra long "super-sized" episodes of Friends. Basically, the show (with commercials) would run about 10 minutes longer. At the time, NBC promised that these extra minutes of footage would never be seen again.
I don't think I saw any of the episodes original broadcasts, so I don't know if there's anything missing. I know the DVDs typically include new footage, but not as much as I think they were broadcasting with S7. Does anyone know? Are the season 7 episodes longer, even by typical Friends DVD measurements?

David,

I believe they're all still supersized. I have the set but haven't had the time to go through it yet to be 100% sure. However, based on the run times posted in the DVDMG review, it looks like they are:

http://www.dvdmg.com/friendsseason7.shtml

I believe the promotion was that the extra minutes would never be shown (that is, broadcast) again--in reruns or syndication. Home video is another matter.

The DVD versions are the super-size version. They are the same. I also don't say this just on my own. I have the season 7 and have seen it.

What they do with friends is that they cut the episode first and then they try to remove the extra minutes for the broadcast. So they always have a longer cut at the first and it's nothing special to get it. Actually the part where they cut it shorter is a much harder job for them. So with the DVDs and the super-size episodes, it’s easy, they just release(d) the first cut of their episodes.

Each episode has a few minutes extra, even the "Super-Sized episodes had bits I hadn't seen before.

Since getting the DVDs I can't watch Friends in syndication anymore because of all the cuts.

Thanks guys. That makes season 7 even better.

In fact, the commentary for "The One With Joey's New Brain" mentions the super-sized thing, going into the fact that the ep being watched was the first one planned out as a SS one, and that the two SS shows that aired before it were stretched at the last minute to accomodate NBC.

Yeah they talk about how that changed some act breaks and stuff and they ended up having breaks where to them it didn't make sense to have them.

I've watched through season 7 now and while it is not my favorite season, it is not as bad as I had thought it was from when I was watching it in sindication and from what I had read from internet critics. I mean to me 4 is the best season but 3-6 are all really strong and that would've been hard for season 7 to live up to, which IMO it didn't but its not that horrible. Holiday Armidillo is really funny, especially when Chandler shows up and has a conversation with him.

Since I saw S6 and S7 recently, I can judge them better now for myself. It’s interesting, I don’t know why I never warmed up to season 6 and I still don’t enjoy it that much. It’s maybe my least favorite season. However season 7 is a lot of fun to me and I have many big laughs with it! Ross and Phoebe dating a couple, Ross’ book, Ross and Joey being locked on the roof and many more LOL moments! Season 7 is my favorite post-season 5 season!

For what it's worth: Starting with season 7 the UK also got the extended cuts of these episodes. TOW they all turn thirty is classified twice at the BBFC, once with a running time of 20m 57s for the normal cut, and once with 22m 42s for the extended cut (please take into account that due to PAL speedup the running times are 4% shorter that its US counterpart). So whatever is up, it's the same on all DVD versions.

Does anybody still have the original broadcast version on video to compare? Maybe the info on tvtome is wrong.

Chris

A BBFC time of 22:42 for the PAL extended version comes out to 23:40 for the NTSC extended version (based on 4% speedup), so those numbers are in sync.

The extended DVD version looks like the one I remember seeing on TV. And it seems to make some sense, based on the commentary noted above, where they say that "All Turn Thirty" wasn't originally a super-sized episode. So, maybe they just didn't have as much "extra footage" to insert. I do remember one of those super-sized episodes had tons of commercials, and technically ended at 8:37 -- it could have been that one.

On disc 3 of season 7 (sorry, I don't know the episode title), I was surprised to see/hear an added scene that included a bad word. It was the episode where Joey and Ross battle for the affections of Kristen (guest star Gabrielle Union). The boys get left by themselves at a restaurant and when Ross' table is called he asks Joey if he's hungry. Joey's response? "Does a bear shit in the woods?" It was so unexpected and hilarious to hear from one of our Friends that I nearly had to back the DVD up and double-check to make sure I heard right. Classic.

Also check out the episode where Chandler is watching porn on TV. (Sorry, can't remember exactly which one)....you'll see what I mean. I can't imagine THAT was originally broadcast!

It wasn't. The scene in the original episode was a bit different.

It might have been that "TOW they all turn thirty" had a lot of commercials, but that doesn't explain Vanessa White missing. Can anyone remember seeing the episode when it aired?

I saw it when it aired, but it would be a miracle to expect me to remember much about this missing Vanessa White thing. I don't even know who she is, do any of you?

IMDB says she played "Woman" in that episode. There's no "trivia" there about her other than where she graduated HS, and she hasn't been in too many other roles.

I suspect it was a walk-on thing, a throw-away joke that was cut. For all we know it was a a scene where one of the guys bumped into her, tried to hit on her, she said "not in a million years", and walked out. Or something quick like that, the sort of joke that might have been cut for time and pacing, or simply because it didn't work in the framework of the rest of the story.

I wouldn't get all worked up about the Vanessa White thing. I'm sure she's a very nice human being, but her absence from the DVD shouldn't be worrisome to DVD buyers, surely. It's quite possible, even probable, that the scene in question never, ever aired anywhere, and that her inclusion in the credits was just because the people coding the end credits were overlooked when it came time to communicate that a scene was edited out. Really, it happens more often than you would think. Though not "all the time", of course, because of contracts and union rules and all that good stuff.

By Friends S7, DVD was enough on everyone's minds that I'm pretty certain that everything was stored properly and that the episodes as aired are pretty much what we are getting on the DVDs, except for the extra footage of course (watching softcore porn and swearing). If something was actually removed, then it's more than likely due to legal issues that we as consumers can't do too much about.

I appeared in "The One Where Rosita Dies" as the "Hey Guy Guy" in two scenes with Jason Alexander. I appeared in the original broadcast but was cut out of the reruns. I downloaded the episode on I Tunes but it was the edited episode. Is the full episode included in the boxed set of Season 7?
Thanks
Steve Rozic, the "Hey Guy Guy"

Yes, the full episode is indeed on the DVD.