I was wondering if anybody (possibly you Aaron) could tell me what cuts were made on the OFAH DVDs when they were released. I think I'm right in saying that about 20mins were cut from a Royal Flush but were the cuts in the other episodes purely due to problems over clearing songs?
Haha, well unfortunately I'm not old enough to have seen the majority of them on first airing, so I'm not certain. All I can tell you is that I have heard people elsewhere on t'InterWeb saying that a number of jokes and references had been cut (from numerous episodes, not one in particular) which would be considered particularly racist/insensitive/etc in today's social climate.
Your best bet is probably to ask the lovely people over at alt.comedy.british and/or uk.media.dvd, both of which you can find and search easily over at Google Groups.
Thanks Aaron. I will check the sites that you mentioned. A couple of jokes that I do remember in the early series you might recognise though. There is a line in one episode (of series 1 I think) where Del meets an East Asian man and says something like, 'I saw your wife the other day, she ain't half got a terrible spot on her forehead'. There is another line in Long Legs of The Law where Del says that he got a 'black man's pinch' when moving furniture. Do you know if these are on the DVDs?
I recognise the spot line, so I think that that must be. Not sure about the pinch though. Rings a bell, but I'm not certain.
Aaron, loved the grandpa in the first 3sets I have..How long was he in the series and when did they bring in the other old guy and why? Is it as funny with the switch. It isn't in our stores yet.Valentine
I am refering to Only Fools And Horses of course..
Valentine, Lennard Pearce (who played Grandad) died in 1984 during filming of the fourth series. John Sullivan decided to write a new episode featuring Grandad's funeral and to then introduce a new family member - Uncle Albert.
I preferred Grandad to Uncle Albert, although the latter did feature in a number of memorable episodes.
I probably prefer Grandad to Uncle Albert as a character as well because he feels more real but the overall quality of the show didn't decline after Lennard Pearce's death. They made in total, I think, 64 episodes and only 5 of them (A Royal Flush, Miami Twice and the 3 Christmas specials from 2001-3) are substandard in my opinion.
Quote: Nick @ January 5, 2007, 2:25 PMThanks Aaron. I will check the sites that you mentioned. A couple of jokes that I do remember in the early series you might recognise though. There is a line in one episode (of series 1 I think) where Del meets an East Asian man and says something like, 'I saw your wife the other day, she ain't half got a terrible spot on her forehead'. There is another line in Long Legs of The Law where Del says that he got a 'black man's pinch' when moving furniture. Do you know if these are on the DVDs?
Nick, the "Black mans pinch" line is on the DVD I have.
The Line "I saw your missus on Tuesday, she's got a terrible spot on her forehead ain't she?"
is a the beginning of "Who a pretty Boy?" Series 3 Episode 7 and yes it's on the DVD
Barry
Thanks Barry. I'm intrigued by what sort of things that they might have cut if those lines were left in. I'm guessing that lines like 'Don't worry Rodney they probably just think you're a poof' were left in as well so just how politically incorrect could the material have been?
You can find scripts here
http://www.geocities.com/hookyscripts/index2.html
weather they’ve been politically corrected or not I don't know
Quote: Nick @ January 5, 2007, 8:32 PM'Don't worry Rodney they probably just think you're a poof'
Yes that line there too
Diamonds are for Heather (Ser2 Ep8)
Barry
I remember (sad that I am) some lines being cut out of BBC1 repeat shows. One was the reference to athlete Zola Budd "so I said, to Zola, and Zola said to me" (perhaps cause in this day and age people thought of Zola as the former Chelsea footballer Gianfranco). I forget the episode but it was circa 1986.
The other was when Grandad was talking about getting intimate in bed with his late wife (about 1983) and ended up talking about "steak and kidney pudding". Almost the whole dialogue was cut out on the repeat, yet it isn't remotely offensive.
I'm sure there was more missing stuff but I'm not sure. I'm struggling to think of anything racist though (bar the dodgy comments already mentioned). Perhaps it is just stuff that is outdated and would make no sense today.
But in that case, why would it be cut? Hmmm.... Yes, odd anyway.
As for the Grandad vs. Uncle Albert debate, I think it's got to be Uncle Albert for me. They're oh so very similar, but I was lucky enough to meet him (Buster Merryfield), and he was very nice, so that just tips it. Highly scientific, I know. 
I think you wrote elsewhere Aaron that you have all but 1 of the OFAH DVDs. Can I ask you (and any other OFAH fan for that matter) which sort of order you purchased them in?
That sounds like a bizarre question probably but I think that the OFAH DVDs are some of the worst ever issued. I'm not saying that I blame you for purchasing them at all because I love the show but I thought it deserved so much better. My theory is that if they had issued the episodes across 12 DVDs instead of 23 and included extras that they could have sold a lot more and they could have been more profitable.
I would guess that most people bought series 1-7 first as these are still good value for money and then purchased some of the specials. It seems ridiculous to me that they could charge the same price for series 6 (5 hours of superb comedy) as they could for A Royal Flush (60 minutes of mediocrity). The fact that the 1996 specials were issued on 3 discs was another pisstake.
I got the series' 1-5 (and story of documentary) box set for Christmas a few years back. I then bought all of the specials which were available at the time (I think all but 3, although not certain), and I think I must have got the other series' at this point although not certain, on a 2-for-1 offer. Still cost about £80 ish for the lot, but a hell of a lot cheaper than otherwise. Got another one of the specials I think Christmas of that year, and still missing 2 (I think) others. So no particular order, just according to availability/price.
