# Best "edited for TV lines"

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 26, 2016, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036 "2016-11-26T13:36:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 4

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### Author: ![ruh-roh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ruh-roh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruh-roh)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/61 "2016-12-03T02:21:15Z")

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Some shows should never be allowed to be put on general access television. The editing and censorship changes them into a completely different show. Blazing Saddles is a classic example.

Anybody care to speculate what Dead Pool would be like on network television?

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### Author: ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2016, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/62 "2016-12-03T08:31:41Z")

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> [@sps49sd](#):
>
> They must’ve cut the part where they were threatened with having his foot put up their ass.

I’ve been living abroad the last 25 years. At what point was it OK to say “ass” on US TV? (I know they used it all the time on _ **Frasier** _.)

I’m pretty sure they kept “I’ll put my foot up his ass!” when they showed _ **The Sopranos** _ on A&E.

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### Author: ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2016, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/63 "2016-12-03T14:49:50Z")

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> [@terentii](#):
>
> I’ve been living abroad the last 25 years. At what point was it OK to say “ass” on US TV? (I know they used it all the time on _ **Frasier** _.)
> 
> I’m pretty sure they kept “I’ll put my foot up his ass!” when they showed _ **The Sopranos** _ on A&E.

I remember a character with the catch phrase “Don’t make me break my foot off in your ass.” Some googling shows it to be “[my White Momma](https://www.google.com/#q=my+white+momma+madtv)” from MadTV, and the character (and I’m assuming the catch phrase) first appeared in season 1 in 1995, so at least that early.

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### Author: ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/64 "2016-12-03T14:52:24Z")

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Another recent change I’ve noticed for standard broadcast TV in the US. For a long time you couldn’t use the word “dick” at all. In the last few years, shows have been getting away with using “dick” to describe a jerk (as heard very often in _Supernatural_.) It is only very recently that I’ve started hearing “dick” being used to mean penis.

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### Author: ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/65 "2016-12-04T02:25:03Z")

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> [@hogarth](#):
>
> I think “melon farmer” is from the TV cut of “Repo Man”.  
> [melon farmer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkSgsArrh_k)

Pro wrestler Dick Murdoch used to call the crowd “Melon farmers” when he was used as a bad guy. The implication being that melon farmers were lazy and otherwise undesireable.

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### Author: ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/66 "2016-12-04T22:37:35Z")

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> [@Nonsuch](#):
>
> When the Blues Brothers was shown on TV, there was all kinds of swearing dubbed over, but that’s not the change that stuck with me. It was during the period when the (ironically Mafia-backed) Italian American Anti-Defamation League was putting pressure on the media not to use the word Mafia, claiming it was an ethnic slur. Consequently, when Jake and Elwood retreat backstage at their concert and Jake says, “My god, the _Mafia’s_ out there!” it’s clumsily dubbed to “My god, the Mob’s out there!”

The Blues Brothers had all kinds of “Bad Lip Reading” moments in its TV edit. One of my favorites, when the State Troopers see the Bluesmobile speed by:

“I don’t believe it, it’s that shitbox Dodge again!”  
“Bastards are ours now!”

became

“I don’t believe it, it’s that screwball Dodge again!”  
“Buzzards are ours now!”

At least they tried to match the lip movement. 😃

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### Author: ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/67 "2016-12-04T23:24:16Z")

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> [@ruh-roh](#):
>
> Anybody care to speculate what Dead Pool would be like on network television?

One of the Dirty Harry movies?

😉

Nah, _Deadpool_ would work as a film even with cable edits. They’d have to edit out a whole long sequence, but that’s pretty self-contained and the film would still make sense on a basic level without it. The language would be challenging, but no moreso than the average action movie. And as for gore, well, if they can show _Robocop_, they can show pretty much anything.

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### Author: ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/68 "2016-12-04T23:57:08Z")

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> [@Morbo](#):
>
> But our all-time favorite is **Casino** when it aired on USA Network. They very lazily changed every “fuck” to “freak.” Every single one. All _Four Hundred and Thirty-Five_ of them. It’s actually surreal, hearing Sharon Stone say “Freak you, you freaking motherfreaker!” Or DeNiro say “Oh Freak Yooou, **FREEEEAK YOOOOOUUU!** ”

Yeah, it was definitely lazy. The mouths don’t exactly move the same way. At least Mr. Falcon (Die Hard) is a little closer. But what they really need to do is hire the crew from [Bad Lip Reading](https://www.youtube.com/user/BadLipReading) to handle the dubbing because those guys are geniuses at making everything look plausible.

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### Author: ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2016, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/69 "2016-12-05T04:17:09Z")

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> [@terentii](#):
>
> When _ **The Sopranos** _ went from HBO to A&E (I think), every “Cocksucker!” became “Bloodsucker!” and every “Fuck you!” became “Forget you!”

I’ve seen “Forget You” used in many TV edits.

> [@terentii](#):
>
> When they showed _ **Animal House** _ on TV, the part where the padding fell out of Katie’s bra was also cut. ☹

That wasn’t Katie. Katie (well, actually Katy) was Donald “Boone” Schoenstein’s (Peter Reitgart) girlfriend played by Karen Allen. The girl with the padded bra was Clorette DePasto (Sarah Holcomb) who was the daughter of the mayor and Larry “Pinto” Kroger’s (Tom Hulce) object of interest. Though things go awkward when she told him she was only 13.

> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#):
>
> Not TV but radio: the Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” is now missing the “little faggot with the earring and the makeup” verse.

I always here the “faggot” section on the classic rock stations around here. I was in fourth grade when the song came out and the pop stations had always played the edited version. I didn’t even know that part existed until high school when I heard it for the first time on a classic rock station.

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### Author: ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/70 "2016-12-05T12:06:39Z")

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> [@Hoopy\_Frood](#):
>
> That wasn’t Katie. Katie (well, actually Katy) was Donald “Boone” Schoenstein’s (Peter Reitgart) girlfriend played by Karen Allen. The girl with the padded bra was Clorette DePasto (Sarah Holcomb) who was the daughter of the mayor and Larry “Pinto” Kroger’s (Tom Hulce) object of interest. Though things go awkward when she told him she was only 13.

I stand corrected. It was a long, long time ago. ☹

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### Author: ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-edited-for-tv-lines/773036/71 "2016-12-07T02:32:36Z")

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> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Another recent change I’ve noticed for standard broadcast TV in the US. For a long time you couldn’t use the word “dick” at all. In the last few years, shows have been getting away with using “dick” to describe a jerk (as heard very often in _Supernatural_.) It is only very recently that I’ve started hearing “dick” being used to mean penis.

Supernatural also gets away with all sorts of gore you wouldn’t have expected on broadcast. I get the sense that the sort of people that complain to the FCC don’t pay much attention to the CW.

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