Edited DVDs

Yesterday I discovered that the new box set of the original series of Reginald Perrin has edited episodes for most of series 1, for similar reasons to the edited version of the 1973 Steptoe & Son Christmas special.

This is most annoying, and surely happens due to pure laziness on the part of those in charge with releasing the material. I'm sure most fans want to see the shows as they were originally broadcast.

Quite a few programmes also have edits for political correctness purposes, e.g. in Fawlty Towers the line "is it your legs?" has been removed, in Bottom the line "thieving bastard gyppoes" has been dubbed over, and apparently the Only Fools and Horses DVDs are a car crash of PC edits. Though apparently the US versions are uncut! Also, series 3 of Reginald Perrin has some edits for PC purposes when Reggie meets a black character.

Anyone know of any more?

Quote: Bad dog @ May 2 2009, 9:26 AM BST

Quite a few programmes also have edits for political correctness purposes, e.g. in Fawlty Towers the line "is it your legs?" has been removed

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Unbelievable. But true. I just checked with my Australian-release Fawlty Towers DVD set and then with my Netherlands-release Fawlty Towers set - and that line has been cut from both versions. Then checked my old VHS recording of The Kipper and the Corpse and there it is. What on earth was offensive about that line? Have there been any other cuts to Fawlty Towers?

Oh yuk - "Politically Correct" Editions. Unbelievable.

Quote: Kenneth @ May 2 2009, 10:00 AM BST

Unbelievable. But true. I just checked with my Australian-release Fawlty Towers DVD set and then with my Netherlands-release Fawlty Towers set - and that line has been cut from both versions. Then checked my old VHS recording of The Kipper and the Corpse and there it is. What on earth was offensive about that line? Have there been any other cuts to Fawlty Towers?

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I'm not aware of any, Kenneth. I can only suppose that line might be construed as being offensive to the disabled.

No one but a petty-minded bureaucratic fool trying to justify their job could have deemed that viewers would find that line offensive. Fawlty Towers' humour stems from the fact that Basil is an inhospitable* person in the hospitality industry. He's supposed to say rude things to the guests.

* Except when fawning to upper-class guests.

EDIT: Surely it can't be censorship? It must have been a transfer glitch? Yet it must have been a deliberate cut... Unbelievable. And to think that the DVD set is called The Complete Fawlty Towers.

Well, all releases for home viewing go through the British Board of Film Classification, the UK censors, who can request cuts, but I wouldn't have thought they would request pc-type cuts. Sometimes if master tapes are damaged then edits are required, but the line is on the VHS tape, so unless the master tape was damaged after the VHS release but before the DVD release, then it's got to be a pc edit by the BBC. If they've done it to OFAH, Reginald Perrin and Bottom, then why not Fawlty Towers? Makes you wonder what other edits have sneaked through unnoticed!?

It's utterly, utterly vile. The whole idea of it repulses me. Leave things in tact, for f**ks sake.

It's appalling, isn't it?

Network are good though, aren't they? It's extremely rare to hear anything negative about one of their releases.

2 Entertain I will never purchase from again unless I hear definitively that the release is uncut. It's always best to wait that first week until Net gossip appears.

The worst DVD debacle ever IMO was 'Bergerac' Series 1 of about three years ago when the entire set was made up of episodes heavily edited for afternoon repeats! Still can't quite believe that release was allowed to go ahead.

Yes, Network are fantastic. Most of their releases specifically state "uncut" on the front artwork. Luckily for me, they also tend to release the shows which I want the most!

Han shot first!

What I hate is when someone comes on a website and say that, this, that or the other is missing from an episode and spoils it for those that are living in ignorant bliss.

Little Miss Jocelyn Series 2 was so poorly edited for no reason and the bonus 7th episode is in fact just sketches cut from the other episodes but there a re still missing sketches.

Someone bought that?

Sometimes things get edited a bit for American network release, so I assume that sometimes these versions get made into box sets? They change or blank out all sorts of ridiculous things, you see it a lot even on Scrubs on Paramount or Comedy Central or whatever it's called now.

The BBc have to prepare an obscenity report to American networks when trying to sell stuff to them, so they know where they might need to make cuts if they want to. I assume everyone has already seen the one for Father Ted? It's almost as funny as the series itself:

http://www.bbcprograms.com/pbs/catalog/fatherted/docs/flagreport_Father%20Ted.doc

Quote: Dene Kernohan @ May 3 2009, 2:14 PM BST

2 Entertain I will never purchase from again unless I hear definitively that the release is uncut. It's always best to wait that first week until Net gossip appears.

The worst DVD debacle ever IMO was 'Bergerac' Series 1 of about three years ago when the entire set was made up of episodes heavily edited for afternoon repeats! Still can't quite believe that release was allowed to go ahead.

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I buy the 2 Entertain Dr Who DVDs, and they often have mastering or authoring errors, cockups with soundtracks etc. Though due to the sterling efforts of the Dr Who Restoration Team at least the episodes are the complete ones.

That's terrible about Bergerac. Why would they trim the episodes for afternoon showings? It's not like commercial TV where they try to fit a 48-50 min programme into a 45 min slot, so they can get more ads in. Why would the BBC ever trim shows to fit slots? Ridiculous!