Re: OT: FX Cuts Buffy Scene! (just noticed, did you?)

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Sigh?

CDS, this has been going on since the Monday after Thanksgiving (the
U.S. version), when FX switched to airing the edited versions that play
on weekends on local Fox stations.

Cuts have abounded, in every ep. In "Who Are You", for instance, they
also deleted Willow's reference to "The Pack", where she says that hyena
possession is very unpleasant, and other things.

Some of the more famous things to be cut include:

"Out of Mind, Out of Sight"--Giles's line re: Angel "A vampire in love
with a Slayer--that's rather poetic, in a maudlin sort of way." (What
makes this cut ultra-stupid is that the line turns up in a half-dozen
Season 2 "Previously?" montages)

"Doppelgangland"--when Willow turns up alive at the library, after the
gang thinks she's been vamped, and Giles can only come up with
"Something?very strange has happened", FX cut Xander's classic "Can
you believe the Watchers' Council let this guy go?"

"Something Blue"--when Giles and Buffy reassure each other that Willow
is doing better, the cut version omits Spike's well-known "Are you
people blind? She's hanging on by a thread--any ninny can see that!"

And on, and on, every day. If you want to play a "fun" game, watch the
butchered version and then go to the transcripts (available at
http://www.studiesinwords.de/ or http://www.buffyworld.com , among other
places) and see what got cut.

I called FX's offices, and they said they would only take feedback from
http://www.fxnetworks.com (warning! You need Flash 5.0 to get in to the
site) and they were "re-evaluating the change" to edited eps.

Well, it's been three months and no "re-evaluation" seems to have taken
place. We may be stuck with this forever. Hope you got a good tape of
everything up to "The Freshman" the first time, because that's the last
complete ep you're going to see for a while?

Personally, I think it's really stupid of them. I struggled through
Seasons 4-5, getting the emasculated versions on tape, but now I don't
even watch the reruns any more. Why should I sit through a chopped-up
Riley show, when I've got the uncut "Innocence" at my fingertips? Good
luck getting the suits to see this point, though.

Sadly,

Dan

(to be fair, in some eps ["Homecoming" and "The Pack", to think of two]
the cuts are barely noticeable--but generally, it's ridiculous.)