This has always bothered me and I hope someone can give me an answer. I will specifically mention "The Goonies" and "Little Darlings" as I know that what I'm going to mention happens with these movies; there maybe more, but I don't know for sure. In "Goonies", I have on DVD, they don't show a scene that I have seen occasionally aired on tv. When they come out of the water slides and before they head over to the ship, they encounter a huge octopus. Data even mentions to the reporters at the end of EVERY version that I have seen as "the octopus was really scary". Where there 2 versions released- a tv version with the octopus scene and a theatrical/DVD version released? I don't think anyone even mentions the octopus scene on the special edition DVD or in the commentary. The other "scene deletions" I have noticed happen twice in "Little Darlings". After Ferris finds out her parents are getting divoriced, she takes a canoe out in a storm on the lake(dummy), which Angel has to rescue her from. Also, when the girls decide to tell Ms. Nichols what really happened with Ferris and Gary, the girls take turns going into the cabin to tell her. I have seen both of these scenes only on 'some' tv airings. Neither scene is on my VCR tape version (it isn't out on DVD yet).
So are there versions made for tv and why wouldn't they be available in every format on DVD? Did I hallucinate those scenes? Please explain and tell me I'm not crazy? Thanks.
Posted by hewzy (Member # 6043) on :
Have you seen the Goonies scene when they all go into the shop, and they bump into Troy in there. I think he dunks one of them into the freezer. That scene isn't on my video version. I always noticed the bit at the end when Data talks about the octopus. i used to think 'what octopus'
Posted by P.S. It's Paul.... (Member # 1022) on :
Often movies will be cut for TV, whether removing or adding stuff. Number of reasons: scheduling, time of broadcast (pre or post- watershed), commercial breaks, unregulated audiences (you can't enforce PG / R18 ratings when you broadcast a movie into people's homes) etc.
What you'll also find is that often, the DVD release also differs from both the general movie theater release AND the TV version - the reasons may be less clear, but often a different cut will be supplied.
Sometimes these differences cause plot holes (such as 'what octopus') but mainly they are done well.
Of course, CLUE had four versions - three different endings and the one with all three - on purpose!
Posted by WolfmansGotNards (Member # 5910) on :
Like Paul said, sometimes a different cut is supplied to a tv station for some mysterious reason. Sometimes it might be to pad out the running time, but that is pretty unlikely these days (the amount of proramming per hour is decreasing while the amount of ads increases...).
I always wondered about the octopus as well, but I picked up a pack of Goonies trading cards a long time ago, and that was my proof it existed
Take a look:
I haven't gone through all the dvd special features, but I'm surprised they don't have that scene on there Posted by WolfmansGotNards (Member # 5910) on :
By the way, the Octopus scene is on the Goonies dvd (the deleted scenes are in the special features section under "outtakes").
Posted by Te-em (Member # 5958) on :
There is a movie called Legend, that has a US version, a European version and a TV version. However, there is a DVD called Ultimate Edition that is the most complete, and also contains the theatrical edition. Even the music is different.
They often do this with movies because, when it's first released, maybe it's to long so they had to cut it. Later, they decided to release an extended version if the movie is popular. And maybe they change the music as well. For instance, Metropolis was cut from 3h to 1h, but now there is a version almost around 3h.
The strange thing about Legend though, it that the US verison has scenes that's not in the European verison and the other way around. So even if the Eu. version is longer, the US version still have scenes it does not have.
And Pocket Monsters, Mewtwo Strikes Back, has 3 version of what I know. A VHS version (the original, very, very rare!), a DVD version (with bad 3D effects, also rare) and a very censored version (even the story is changed) with the 3D effects from the DVD version.
Posted by Steven Carter (Member # 6335) on :
I, too, have examples of the TV, and theatrical film versions of films.
First up: LEGEND.
It's true that the syndicated TV version was longer than the U.S. theatrical version, but that was due to the inclusion of scenes from the U.K. version of the film with Jerry Goldsmith's music cues intact.
And next we have The Sword and the Sorcerer.
Alternate versions of some scenes were filmed for the TV version in order to keep the running time, including commercials, at two hours.
Check out the two trailers on Anchor Bay's DVD edition to see an example of this.
AIRPLANE! also had some scenes added to the TV version to pad out time, check them out on the " And Don't Call Me Shirley!" DVD edition.
But the biggest offender of this was Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL, with a total of three versions known to movie viewing mankind.
Version 1: U.S. Theatrical. Released by Universal when BRAZIL won all those film festival awards. Not a director approved cut.
Version 2: TV version or "Love Conquers All" cut. What Universal would have released if BRAZIL didn't win all those awards. Cut by Universal into an incoherrent muddled mess with a happy, feel good ending that was the complete opposite of the director's intent. Absolutely not a director approved cut.
Version 3: DVD version. As close to a director's cut as we are ever going to get.
Check out Criterion's DVD edition 3 disc edition of BRAZIL to see the DVD version of BRAZIL and the "Love Conquers All" version and compare the two and ask yourself "Why did Universal hate this film to do this to it?"
Posted by Chris the CandyFanMan (Member # 3197) on :
AIRPLANE! also had some scenes added to the TV version to pad out time, check them out on the " And Don't Call Me Shirley!" DVD edition.
It seems the ZAZ team almost does this on purpose, since the TV cuts of almost all their films are at least a good 10 minutes or so longer than the theatrical prints, and some of the TV footage often is relatively significant to the plot (for example, TV viewers can see the East German High Command get their commuppance as Omar Sharif crushes them into their cars as they did to him at the end of Top Secret, but for whatever reason that's not in the generally released edition).
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