Has MeTV cut anything besides Lesley Gore's 2nd song?

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

I was just wondering if MeTV is actually airing the whole 25 minutes of the episodes (assuming that's the original run time from what I've read here) or if there is anything missing from any of the episodes besides Lesley Gore's 2nd song? I thought of this after epaddon told me in another thread that the song was cut for music rights, not for commercial time. Since I'd assumed that they'd cut the song for time, I assumed that all of the episodes were cut, but now I'm not so sure. I know they speed up the batfights and sometimes the theme song or other music (Chad and Jeremy's final song comes to mind) in order to fit more in, so can anyone name any actual missing scenes besides the Lesley Gore song?

The only missing item I can think of is Dozier's missing narration in the beginning of the pilot. Someone also said there's a missing manhole scene in the pilot, but since I don't have a copy of the MeTV airing of the pilot, I have no idea if they included it or not. I just know that TVLand cut the heck out of the episodes that I downloaded from youtube.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

I was just thinking about the missing little snippets that we see in the recaps at the beginning of part 2 of the eps. I'm guessing those missing snippets were in the original airings of the episodes, but can we be sure they were? From experience with another Warner Bros production, Lois And Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman, there are scenes that were used in the tv promos that were not in the original airings of the actual episodes. Warner Bros did not put any deleted scenes on the Lois and Clark DVDs either, so the only place these snippets have been seen were on ABC's original promos for the original airings of the episodes.

The explanation for this happening is that Warner Bros would send unfinished episodes (the directors' cut?) over to ABC because ABC needed them to grab snippets for the promos for the week. Once the episode was actually edited down to fit for time (and the music and special effects added) then they'd send the final copy over to ABC. I've heard that sometimes they were working down to the wire, finishing an episode a night or two before it was supposed to air.

Now with Batman it would be a different story because the studio people themselves were editing together the recap, so I'm assuming the little snippets that we see in the recaps that aren't in the episodes were originally in there, but does anybody know for sure? I seem to think when I watched it in the 70s that there was the occasional thing in the recap that I hadn't seen in the episode the day before, so I always assumed that the episodes were already cut back in the 70s syndication run.

Are any of these missing recap snippets on the so-called "masters" sets that board members have? Something just made me remember a Riddler dance in a recap that was not in the previous episode. Is that also missing from the "masters" sets?

[epaddon]

It isn't uncommon for "trailers" or previews or recaps to contain footage that wasn't in the episode proper. It happens a lot in movies and TV and it doesn't mean the episode proper is "missing" anything from what was broadcast or what was in the final cut it just means that when it came time to make the recap, they used footage that wasn't part of the episode proper. The recap of the Preminger/Mr. Freeze episode shows footage of Batman and Robin just arriving inside the Frosty Freeze factory but in the episode we had a hard cut showing them already inside. It's not a big deal.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

Funny you should mention that Frosty Freeze factory scene because that's exactly the snippet that caused me to come back to this thread two days ago. I was catching up on a couple of episodes that I'd recorded weeks back and never got around to playing til this weekend, and I noticed that snippet and concluded that there must still be some cut stuff, even with speeding up the batfights, etc.

So you're saying what looks like missing scenes could still be missing from the DVDs and we'll never know if they aired in 1966 or not? THAT'll drive some people batty, I'm sure! Yikes. It just seems like there's too many of them, though. Aunt Harriet singing in the very beginning of the Liberace episodes, The Riddler dancing in the vault, etc etc. It seems odd that that so many scenes would make it into recaps that weren't in the first episode. (Gee, why didn't I remember all of these scenes before I ever started this thread asking if anything else had been cut?!?! )

[epaddon]

No, I'm not saying there might be "missing" scenes from the DVDs. We will get the episodes as aired, but what I'm describing is "outtake" footage that was not used in the final episode but some of that footage was included in the recap because it served the purpose of the recap. That's not an uncommon practice, as I've said. You can see a trailer for a movie and it will sometimes have footage of a scene that doesn't make it into the final cut of the movie released to theaters. It's not strange at all that this footage would end up in recaps because the need for a recap isn't always the same as what the perceived need was for an aired episode proper.

[Jaws63]

In theory, it makes perfect sense that some of the recaps might have footage that did not appear in the first half episode as stated in the above posts.

What we will notice with this official release is that the episodes "should" be 100% uncut, and there will be more snippets from the musical underscore and parts of the dialogue that was not in the masters set(and I guess certain footage like extensions of the batmobile driving to or from the batcave). Yes there will be whole scenes we had not seen, like the manhole scene in the pilot I talked about earlier.

I'm pretty sure there is a batcave scene in "Hot off the griddle" between aunt Harriett's dance and B&R at the pink sandbox. I mentioned this in the old forum, another poster confirmed he also seen the scene in which I'm referring, Bruce and Dick racing to the batpoles in the second episodes recap is not an example of extra footage, but an actual cut.

Also the runtime of these episodes (truly uncut) should be 27 minutes long, The runtime on my dvd collection of "Bewitched" the episodes are 27 minutes...why would the run time be different?

[Jaws63]

I forgot to add in my last post that in the first half of the Catwoman and pussycat episode there IS a missing scene in which Catwoman and gang actually rob a bank. You'll notice that a bank teller is credited for her roll in the end credits. I've heard it mentioned(I think it was in the old forum) that the bank scene I'm referring to was in the original script but never made it on film and this is NOT true. This scene very much exists and WILL be there on the official release.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

I guess my original question should have been has MeTV cut anything from what was given them in the latest syndication package?

I believe you, Jaws63, that the original episode airings in the 60s would have been 27 minutes because I remember reading an article about them wanting to go from 3 minutes of commercial time to 4 minutes, and some backlash at the time.

Would I be correct in thinking that the "masters" sets that some people have might be a 25 minute version that was packaged for syndication in recent times? So none of these cuts would be on those 'masters" copies. So I'm assuming the studio made some cuts, and then the stations are free to make additional cuts if they so choose, which explains TV land cutting a lot more, and MeTV speeding things up to avoid cutting as much.

Interesting about the bank teller credit, Jaws63. I'll have to take notice of that when it airs again. I still wish I could find my audio tape of the 70s version of That/Scat to see what all is intact on it. I know the little romantic interlude in the Batcave aired in the 70s because I remember it. Apparently cutting the song out of Scat wasn't enough for TV Land's commercial time because they cut the little romance scene also. It aired on MeTV, though.

[epaddon]

Actually for a program in the late 60s, 25 to 26 minutes would be norm for a half hour show provided we are leaving out things like sponsor plugs ("brought to you by") and a network identification bumper that would usually appear at the end. The only half hour shows I have ever seen in excess of 26 minutes (not even reaching 27) for episode content are the early seasons of "Gunsmoke" back in the mid to late 1950s. A typical one hour show by the late 60s was never more than 50 to 51 minutes, so halving that means 27 minutes is not a realistic length for what the shows were.

The TV Land Canada versions which are all in the 25 plus minute range and are only missing the "In Color" bumpers (a few seconds) and the quick freeze-frame next week plugs from S2 (another 5 seconds or so) are totally uncut in terms of episode content.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

Does that mean Canada saw the scenes that Jaws63 was talking about? The manhole scene in the pilot, and the bank robbery in That Darn Catwoman? Too bad those weren't the TV Land versions that were uploaded to youtube.

This reminds me of something. When the show Lois And Clark debuted in 1993, the UK got more scenes than the US did. The original airing in the US was cut down to 1hr 45 mins, and then the repeat aired in two 1-hour parts with some scenes added back, but there were still two scenes that the UK got that we didn't get in either version. Some of us passed around VHS copies of the UK version of the pilot for several years until finally the missing scenes showed up in the US years later. (I can't remember if it was on cable or when the DVDs finally came out in the mid 2000s.) It seems very weird that the show originated in the US, yet others got scenes that we didn't see for several years, though I believe it might have been because the pilot was produced in such a way that if it had not been picked up as a series, they were going to use the pilot as a movie for European audiences, so maybe that's why they got the complete version, and we got cut scenes for more commercial time.

Interesting how different countries are seeing different versions of things. Someone in Australia told me that she had no idea they were missing scenes from Friends until she downloaded some episodes online.

When the Batman DVDs come out, I hope there's a thread where people discuss the "new" scenes that we will be seeing.

[epaddon]

TV Land Canada was showing uncut episodes as they were from the original airings. Nothing more. This is not, repeat, not a case of them showing stuff that was never shown in the original ABC airings. The only thing missing content wise is Lesley Gore's second song, which was clearly a publishing rights issue at the time.

[Gleeps, it's Batman]

No, I wouldn't think that TV Land Canada would be showing anything that wasn't in the original airings. It's just interesting how different countries seem to show different things for different reasons. Since Canada was able to show the whole show, I'm guessing either they have less commercial time in Canada, or they don't start shows on the hour or half hour, which apparently the UK doesn't. (Example: Lois and Clark starting at 6:15 in a UK ad that I saw.)

[robinboyblunderer]

I don't know if anything else has been cut, but they should speed up the episodes, the opening credits and fight sequences are much too slow.

[High C]

TV Land Canada was showing uncut episodes as they were from the original airings. Nothing more. This is not, repeat, not a case of them showing stuff that was never shown in the original ABC airings. The only thing missing content wise is Lesley Gore's second song, which was clearly a publishing rights issue at the time.

To the best of my knowledge, what epaddon is saying is correct.

Also, to address a point from earlier in the thread, I once saw another show in which a part 2 recap had something that wasn't in part 1.

The show was The Bionic Woman, and the episode was the iconic 'Fembots in Las Vegas.' (Imagine Batman, Robin and Batgirl squaring off against them! But I digress.)

Melinda Fee plays a female robot who is a duplicate of a kidnapped woman---hmm, sounds like a season 3 Bat-episode!---and she is riding in an elevator to go see her boyfriend, who is quite important to the bad guys. In part 1, there are some medium close-ups of Fee in that scene. But there's a closeup of Fee in the elevator in the part 2 recap that isn't in part 1, which presumably, is unedited. She blinks her eyes as if to communicate, 'I understand the plan.'

I must admit, when I had an 'unofficial' copy of that ep, I assumed it had been edited out of part 1. Now I know better. Sometimes a quick cut in the recap is an easier 'sell' of what happened in the episode, whereas in the actual ep you don't need it because you have more time to set up that scene.

[Jaws63]

Does that mean Canada saw the scenes that Jaws63 was talking about? The manhole scene in the pilot, and the bank robbery in That Darn Catwoman? Too bad those weren't the TV Land versions that were uploaded to youtube.

This needs further explanation, I seem to remember another poster in the old forum mentioning that he or she timed most of the episodes on the masters set at 25 minutes, but that the Catwoman/Pussycat episode WAS clocked at somewhat shorter than 25 minutes in both the first and second parter. Now music rights issues for "Gore's" Maybe now, I can understand being edited out...but why would the bank robbery scene in the first half be? Music rights can't be the entire reason. I'd also like to add that the lack of response to earlier posts on who remembers the manhole scene(which I know is there) IS somewhat curious if the Canada tvland version has it.

Now I do suspect there are various different "25" minute versions of the episodes, because the batcave scene in "Hot off the griddle" I mentioned earlier was seen on my local channel as late as 1989-90, whatever the reason I think the Catwoman/Pussycat is pretty much the same which ever version you watch.