I agree completely that the cuts for time will add a ton of suck. My best guess is that they’ll either chop a bunch of the childhood memories, or a bunch of the girlfriend’s home life. I’m not at all thrilled with either prospect, since that’s effectively a choice between cutting out the heart or the soul of the show. (In opposite order.)
My only point is that there won’t really be much butchering; it’ll be a smooth desecration that was planned from the beginning. In an ideal world, CBS can create some sort of oddly-timed reality show to pair with it and do like A&E does with the Sopranos by broadcasting it in 75-minute blocks.
I agree with you in principle; I was really just clarifying. Any edits at all offend me, so I made it a point to “rent” both seasons immediately once I heard that they were going to air edited versions.