TV channels censoring films in the middle of the *night* - WTF ?!

Do TV channels cut films? Or is it more likely that they bought a job lot of films and the film in question had already been cut when they bought it? What was the film?
 
True. TV networks don't censor films themselves, but they can edit them for time, for example a 2 hour plus movie can be cut down to fit into a 2 hour timeslot.

But they will usually buy cut versions, which makes sense from their perspective because they will probably premiere them earlier in the evening, and then repeat them over the next few years later at night.

I can't believe anyone watches films on TV these days anyway. Surely if it's a film you like you will already have bought it or rented it, of it is a film you want to see you will do the same, and you have the added advantage of better pic and sound quality, plus no adverts or annoying logo's.
 
Back in the 80's and 90's they used to regularly prepare specially censored versions of movies to be shown on long-haul plane flights, and a lot of those used to get snapped up to be shown on tv as well. I understand they were quite cheap to buy for the TV companies.

Also, as well as films being cut for time, sometimes the reverse can happen. TV companies may ask for extended versions of movies to fit longer time slots.

The first Star Trek movie was a good example of this. It's common for cut and deleted scenes to be added back in to pad out the running time as required.

Of course a lot of these extended tv versions now turn up on DVD as 'directors cuts', which is not strictly true.
 
i remember when they would not allow the word "****" on BBC 1....and some films where horrendously editting - even to the point of comical levels - no matter what time it was in the late evening. they used to redub the soundtack - just for that one word!!!!! one film's villian of the piece said "blah blah blah mother crusher...". Different now of course!



Edit - just noticed that RAB doesnt allow you to say the word **** either! i guess times havent changed!
 
I remember about 10 years ago when BBC1 first showed 'Speed' at 9pm and cut all the swearing out apart from the milder stuff like "shit" and "bastard". For a few years i actually thought that the film didn't have any F worRAB in it. Imagine my surprise when they finally showed it uncut a few years later! lol.

ITV did the same with 'Lethal Weapon', but that was a bit more obvious that it'd been cut. At least in this country they don't try to re-dub "safe" worRAB over the language like they do in the US, the network TV version of 'Die Hard 2' is hilarious. "Yippee Ki Yay MISTER FALCON!" :D
 
I once remember watching Crocodile Dundee and they edited one of the famous lines to "well, you can eat it, but it tastes like dung." Assumedly, this must have been done by the studio, as it had the actual actors and it wasn't a dub (ie. you could see their lips moving and it wasn't dubbed over the word "shit." They obviously filmed an alternate version)

I few years later, I saw the film again on TV, but this time the line just went "well you can eat it..." and the rest was cut off.

Both times it was shown on ITV. I wonder why they had different edits of the same film?
 
It'll have been down to a rights issue where ITV will have lost the rights to show it and then they re-acquired them, but a different cut was supplied from the studio.
 
Are you sure that listing is accurate? The BBFC web site says it's a PG (and if you compare the timings of the PG video and the A Certificate original they differ by the 4% the BBFC attributes to frame rate, so the PG should be uncut). So why does that listing say it's a 15?
 
I've never really watched films I really really want to see on television, just go straight for the dvd/cinema. Only time I watch a film on television is with the family around Christmas/Easter and so on. Special occasion films.
 
Incorrect.
The days when ITV and BBC bought US tv versions is long gone .
ITV went through a patch in the late 80's and early 90's when all their films were tv versions but the BBC usually did their own censoring and only bought in tv versions when their own editing was impractical like Beverley Hills Cop



Wrong



The tv versions were usually the version for US tv - airline versions were usually too extreme in their editing .

Adding in scenes to pad out the running time is a US practice that was used for Superman ,The Towering Inferno and others but its not something British tv do although sometimes they may end up with a longer version

ITV have cut films to fit into running times for more than 30 years and they have made their own edits to make films suitable for daytime and they still do.

The Bond films are regularly cut but whats cut out varies with each broadcast such is the stupidity of ITV



C4 NEVER edit movies themselves and certainly wouldn't with a film like this let alone a film during the night.
I've seen daytime movies on C4 where the word "shit" has been left in usually because the film is not aimed at kiRAB .

C4's rules on swearing are softer for bought in product than they are for home grown material.
I recall the Ricky Gervais appearance on Richard & Judy where Madely explained they could show a clip with a certain word in it but they were not allowed to say it live in the studio and of course Gervais duly broke the rule



Was Batman Begins a U ? No.It wasn't even PG - it was a 12A.

PG films often contain material that ITV and BBC will edit on daytime or when kiRAB might be watching
 
Back
Top