While looking through through the TV schedules thread https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/retro-el-paso-fri-feb-25-1983.760281/ I noticed that one movie listed at 12:15am was "Straw Dogs". What bowled me over was the movie from 1971 is incredibly violent (including sexual violence), and it would seem impossible to edit the film without totally butchering it. What movies are you surprised aired on broadcast TV? And if you ever saw one of these films, did the needed editing wreck the film or not?
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Movies that surprisingly aired on broadcast TV
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I know KDSM Fox 17 in Des Moines aired all 3 Porky movies at some point during the 80's and early 90's. During one Saturday afternoon before Fox aired sports and they aired movies they aired all 3 Porky movies back to back from Noon to 6pm which had a lot of nudity so I'm sure they had to edit a lot out.
At one time NBC showed Schindler's List with the nudity and violence unedited, which they said was for historical purposes.
back in the glory years of WSBK in Boston, with Dana Hersey hosting the nightly 8:00 " The Movie Loft", they showed The Deer Hunter unedited in prime time, outside of "safe harbor" but with disclaimers/warnings.
It was a pretty ballsy move at the time
It was a pretty ballsy move at the time
Twice. 1997 with no commercials at all, and 1999 with a few commercials here and there for selected advertisers. Steven Spielberg introduced the movie.
ABC showed 'Looking for Mr. Goodbar' in 1982, which I believe was pretty controversial as well (the sexual scenes and mature content).
Apart from the exceptions listed by other posters, pretty much every TV edit of an R-rated movie butchered it. That was just the nature of the beast, and people went along with it until VCRs and video rentals allowed you to watch it as it was released.
WOIO in Cleveland did the same thing. Also, one of their first broadcasts was an airing of Animal House that was uncut IIRC.
Several independent stations did that. When KCPQ-TV channel 13 Tacoma/Seattle relaunched as a commercial independent station on November 4, 1980, an unedited broadcast of "The Deer Hunter" was their first regular program. I'm not certain, but I think that KTXH/20 in Houston may have also launched with that movie in unedited form.
It also went head-to-head against Election Night coverage on the local ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates.
But by 8 P.M. Pacific time, the election had been long settled: Ronald Reagan won the Presidency (in fact, NBC projected Reagan the winner at 5:15 Pacific time, 8:15 Eastern time), and if my memory serves me correct, both ousted President Jimmy Carter gave his concession speech and President-elect Reagan gave his acceptance speech around 8 Pacific time, 11 Eastern time.
The bottom line was that with the election over so early, KCPQ-13 probably got a huge audience for "The Deer Hunter", attracting far more viewers than it would have had the election had been close.
The 1980 election was the first one I was able to vote in -- I was actually standing in line to vote when Carter conceded. But while I spent most of my childhood in Tacoma, I was in college on the other end of the state on November 4, so I didn't see the KCPQ sign on. But I suspect that the ratings for the movie were limited by the fact that a lot of viewers wouldn't have realized that quickly that the station was back on the air.
And DVD, IIRC, pretty much allows the same thing.
A whole lot of stuff (including porn), if you count the over-the-air scrambled pay TV channels that flourished on UHF for a while before cable TV became common in urban areas:
That reminded me of a joke about a woman who complained about sex and violence on the VCR.
In 1974 or 75, ABC showed Midnight Cowboy and predictably shredded it, supposedly cutting out 23 minutes of the film.
Dr. Don Rose on KFRC explained the movie ratings this way:
Rated PG: The good guy gets the girl.
Rated R: The bad guy gets the girl.
Rated X: Everybody gets the girl.
Rated PG: The good guy gets the girl.
Rated R: The bad guy gets the girl.
Rated X: Everybody gets the girl.
Did she break the VCR?That reminded me of a joke about a woman who complained about sex and violence on the VCR.
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