I’m sitting here watching the dvr’d copy of Fletch that was on last night and they’ve cut out one of the, IMHO, funniest quotes in the movie. It wasn’t redubbed, it was just gone.
When he’s in the doctors office, bent over the table you hear the ‘moooooon river’ … but it seems they cut out the line ‘using the whole fist doc?’. This is on SpikeTV! MXC says much nastier things.
Am I imagining that this line existed in the real version of the movie and, if it did, why would a cable channel cut it out? I’m pretty sure I’ve even heard the line on TBS showings before.
Anyways, not a rant, just an observation that things seem to be getting pretty puritan if I’m not mis-remembering.
-K
I think Spike is going for an image change. They’re going to drop wrestling in September in favor of more CSI. Seems they’ve decided that being a “network for guys” just ain’t gonna work. My guess is that the censoring you saw is part of that.
That’s kind of sad. Even if they’re changing formats, keep the format around until it’s official. Oh, well…I kind of liked the ‘network for guys’. CSI? C’mon! I’ve heard the hype but I’ve never seen an episode. Maybe I’ll like it?
Please keep in mind that the edited versions of most movies are provided by the distributers and not done by the TV channel. And the selection is extremely limited. So a TV exec picks the “TV-PG” version and airs it. That some bits were edited out that the channel would have allowed is neither here nor there. You see this on Comedy Central all the time when some old movie they’ve been running forever gets a certain phrase bleeped out and then in the next movie they air (which is usually newer) it doesn’t get bleeped.
Bingo. Comedy Central has a cartoon with talking piece of poop, innuendos about a minor sucking cock in a back alley, and exploding genitals in a Jewish kid’s knees. Yet the last time they showed Blazing Saddles it was the version with the fart sounds edited out. Heh heh, it’s surreal.
That scene is just bizarre in the TV version. It was years before I saw the unedited version and I never realized up to then what the heck was supposed to be going on.
Also, the scene where the Governor (Brooks) rides into town is totally different (completely different scene) and completely unfunny in the TV version. I don’t remember the cinematic version that well, but I didn’t remember anything horribly offensive in it. Strange.
There’s a bit in Drew Carey’s book, Dirty Jokes and Beer, in which he describes the convolutions they had to go through to get a fart sound that would pass network censor muster. Also, there was an incident where the censor denied the use of the term “butt wipe” but permitted instead “butt weasel”. Hmmm…
I’ve heard the hype but I’ve never seen an episode. Maybe I’ll like it?