Extended editions

[andy b]

I hope no one minds but I have started a new post for the USA "extended" television editions. As a European these are fascinating as to the best of my knowledge only The Eiger Sanction played in the UK on the BBC. These longer version just never played.

I have cut part of my post on the Jaws 2 thread as I did not want to be seen to hijacking that thread as it is specifically for Jaws 2.

Andy if it is not okay to do this, feel free to delete the post.

Paul please can you post your comments here if it is okay with Andy as I find them interesting, particularly as the version I saw still had the Harold Bagent voice over not a new American recording.

An old friend who used to be a buyer for the BBC, sent me this list of films that he personally saw the extended versions for, some have explanations already on the web & some, well a bit of a mystery? He told me in some cases footage was added to remove language or violence & some to extend running times as the USA at one point were buying by the minute where as Europe did not do that. He told me except for the Eiger Sanction the BBC did not play any of the altered versions & who also thinks that ITV passed on them as well.

Kind of interesting & I am sure there are plenty more out there in way or another? Not on my friends list but my old Australian opposite number had the strange Mad Max 2 cut that used lots of alternate footage? no idea if that was Warner Brothers editing or maybe something from Kennedy - Miller?

kind of fun to know somewhere there are these copies? Personally would like to see Jaws, Jaws 2, The Deep & Superman 2 & 3, the rest I can pass on.

Regards
Andy b

Superman The Movie – available Warner Archive
Superman 2
Superman 3
Airport 1975
Airport 1977
Airport 80 (or Airport 79 depending where the release was)
King Kong 1976 – available on Shout Factory release
Midway (aka Battle of the Midway) 1976 – available Indicator Power House
Earthquake – available Shout Factory release
The Deep
The Towering Inferno
They Might Be Giants – Kino is supposed to be complete however running time is still 91 minutes? Indicator Power House have a January 2023 release stating 85m, 91m + 98m versions
The Eiger Sanction – UK first BBC showing had numerous scene extensions once at the mountain
Death Wish 2 – available on Umbrella release + new 4K package (Unconfirmed)
Cheech & Chong Next Movie
Planes Trains & Automobiles
Naked Gun 2
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Aliens – available in most Alien box sets as the Cameron full cut
Star Trek The Motion Picture – available in limited box set
Star Trek 2 – available in extended edition
Star Trek 3
The Godfather – A Novel for television – VHS release – Not sure about USA but was out in Europe
Water World – available Arrow edition included TV version + “fan cut”
The Goonies
Gremlins
Mall Rats - on most Universal / Arrow up graded editions
Breakfast Club
Wired Science – available on Arrow edition
1941 – available on Universal disc
Pulp Fiction – shown in some broadcasts with Dick Miller sequence put back in?
Airplane
Two Minute Warning – Shout Factory - thank you Eric for the information
Jaws
Jaws 2
Damnation Alley
Every Which Way But Loose
Any Which Way You Can
The Swarm – Available Warner Archive
When Time Ran Out - Shout edition - Thank you Eric
Born in East LA
Blazing Saddles
Beyond The Poseidon Adventure - Shout Edition - Thank you Eric
Th Evil That Men Do - 3 cuts in the new German edition - TV cut - Cinema Cut - unrated cinema cut
Dune - 1985 - German edition has 3 cuts - cinema / extended / fan edit

[andy b]

alligator - Scream factory edition

[Eric Paddon]

Two Minute Warning's TV cut is on the Shout! Blu-Ray release (Sourced from an off-air recording).

All of Towering Inferno's TV footage is available as a supplement (in pan scan quality).

"The Might Be Giants" was complete on Kino with the added scene that takes place in a supermarket I believe.

I have heard rumors that the TV airing of "Island of Dr. Moreau" (1977) had the originally intended ending showing Barbara Carrera starting to transform. This has never been confirmed. The ending of the film with its altered "happy" end doesn't work because the music cue was clearly written for a shock ending and clashes with the scene completely.

High Anxiety had an extended scene in its TV broadcast of Mel Brooks and Harvey Korman doing an impromptu "You say tomato, I say to-mahto" bit.

[andy b]

Just been told The Warriors also had a television cut. See IMBD link below which give quite a lot of detail.

I can confirm that when the BBC showed this, the first two showing about 1 year apart had the daylight opening & member introductions, the other sequences though were not in the broadcast version on the BBC.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080120/al ... tt_trv_alt

Eric, thank you for the up dates.

regards
Andy b

[andy b]

"The Might Be Giants" was complete on Kino with the added scene that takes place in a supermarket I believe.

Eric

would you say the difference in timing on the 2023 Indicator release would be Pal to NTSC?

[Eric Paddon]

I think there's some confusing reference works on the running time of "They Might Be Giants." Apparently the older DVD release ran 84 minutes and did not include a bizarre scene set in a supermarket near the end. The Kino Blu-Ray has this scene and the running time is 91 minutes which should be the original theatrical cut length. So I think the running times for both versions should be 84 and 91 minutes, not 91 and 98 minutes.

[Eric Paddon]

Two more additions:

"Murder By Death" (1976). The VHS release was the TV cut which had a final "Sherlock Holmes" scene. The Blu-Ray is the theatrical cut and did not include the additional scenes as a supplement.
"The Nude Bomb" (1980). The TV release was entitled "The Return of Maxwell Smart" and had more footage.

[AndyDursin]

I have most of them!

And sorry Andy I would've contributed sooner but we flew down to Orlando tonight for a little vacation.

A few more off the top of my head:

Cat People...I might have something to do with that one soon

The Funhouse

The Guardian

Jaws The Revenge

Stripes (on the UHD)

Airplane 1 and 2

Looker (crucial scene that clarifies the entire plot is an extra on the Warner Archive blu ray)

The Deep I contacted Grover Crisp at Sony a year ago about. Since Sony has been dredging up plenty of new archival materials on their 4K releases The Deep would be a natural. I've been irritated ever since Pioneer announced and then canceled a laserdisc of that 3 hour cut back in the mid 90s! I have an off air copy of it with commercials in good quality.

[Paul MacLean]

Not on my friends list but my old Australian opposite number had the strange Mad Max 2 cut that used lots of alternate footage? no idea if that was Warner Brothers editing or maybe something from Kennedy - Miller?

When NBC broadcast Mad Max 2 (or The Road Warrior) in 1983-84 (I forget the exact date) it contained some alternate shots. It used a wider shot when Wez punches the guy who is tied to the car (presumably because it would seem more disturbing in close-up) and some extra dialog when Mike Preston is trying to keep up the survivors' spirits.

And I don't know if this was done by Kennedy Miller or by NBC specifically for the broadcast, but the opening narration was replaced by a different, American-accented VO, with a few extra words added (and it sounded awful!).

Oh, and until the release of Mad Max 2 on Blu-ray, the US theatrical cut and subsequent home video releases all removed the shot of Wez pulling the arrow out of his arm at the beginning of the movie.

[AndyDursin]

I'd bet NBC replaced the voice over. Got a copy of that also. That deleted/alternate material never surfaced elsewhere afaik

[andy b]

thanks Paul for moving over the comments.

For those here who have seen / own some or a lot of these, I only really know of The Deep, but never seen it, as I had a chance to ask Peter Yates directly, it was to be a longer film & the cinema version was cut down to have more screenings, are majority of these films longer due to cut footage?

I re-watch Earthquake today & the extra sequences, look they are from a TV Universal film of the week, Midway (on the Indicator disc) seemed the same rather than cut footage?

King Kong has a fair bit of duplicated footage, rather than cut or extended sequence.

I do find these versions fascinating to see, but I guess being too used to the release version, some like Superman seem too long, but I do like the Donner cut for the first film.

Have to say these are the first "extras" on a disc release that make me want to buy them.

Guess the Eastwood Loose films would also be unusual as it seems deleted scenes are not on any of his discs or even back to laser discs. I do know Magnum Force had an airport fight cut out as I screened that in Germany, again the film just went on too long, hence the cut I suspect.

regards
Andy b

[Eric Paddon]

The footage for the TV cuts of "Earthquake," "Midway", "Two Minute Warning" and "Airport 79" (and some of "Airport 77") were all shot after the fact for the express purpose of padding the TV broadcast length. All of that footage was shot in TV aspect ratio and thus you can't create a TV cut of the film in widescreen unlike "King Kong" which entirely utilized outtake footage and extended trims. When Universal did this they often brought back just one or two of the actors from the original shoot and utilized other actors or ones who had been small bit players for the new footage.

One thing about the Universal TV cuts is that the video master elements for all of them were lost in the 2008 fire. That's why an off-air recording of "Two Minute Warning" from the 90s had to be utilized for the Blu-Ray release and they had to dig through the archives to find other source elements for the "Earthquake" TV cut.

[AndyDursin]

Some of the Universal TV masters do exist. Fast Times' TV version was an actual HD master in the Criterion release that they were able to freshly transfer so a few of the elements are still around. And Midway was located for the Indicator release. For a while they were going to use my VHS recording until Universal was able to locate somrthing suitable. On the other hand I supplied the TV version for another of their upcoming titles which they couldn't find so it seems to be a hit or miss type of thing.

[Eric Paddon]

Yeah, some of them may well have been backed up and been out there for cable airings at the time of the fire, which also explains why most Universal TV series were still able to make it to DVD in the years following without having to go back to the 35mm source elements and create new transfers (some shows that lost their only set of video masters from early 90s transfers are now technically "lost" unless Universal springs for new 35mm transfers like "Switch" and "Baretta").

Glad to know "Midway" was from their archival element as I was able to rip the Powerhouse version and recreate it on a regular Blu-Ray. For the first time I noticed what a poor slapdash job they did on James Shigeta's age makeup for the new scenes he was in as Admiral Nagumo. They don't remotely match how he was made up in the theatrical version!

I hope we get a release of "Airport '77" at some point whether derived from surviving archival elements or off-air recording because to me that is the one Universal film of this era I prefer in its TV length. The newly shot scenes add a lot more depth to the characters and they also utilized footage cut from the original theatrical version that help fill in some critical narrative gaps as well.

[jkholm]

There's also the extended TV version of Dune (1984) directed by "Alan Smithee."

Scream Factory's edition of Eye of the Cat includes the alternate TV version.