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How many remember the hoopla when big movies would come to network TV in the 1970's in new expanded versions?
That's how Star Trek: The Motion Picture (special longer version, not the director's version) started out.
Then, there was Superman:The Movie that most fans know have an expanded Network version. It was done so the network would have more advertising time. Sometimes the a movie would go for 2 nights. Other movies that were expanded were:
King Kong 1976 (about 45 minutes additional scenes)
The Towering Inferno (about a 20 minutes additional)
Airport 77 (almost an hour of additional scenes)
Airport 79 (about 20+ minutes, some believed to be shot especially for TV)
Earthquake!( about 20 minutes, besides a couple of deleted scenes, a whole subplot of a couple on an airplane is shot for TV)
Two Minute Warning (the original plot of this movie was a sniper at a football game whose motive was never revealed. NBC did not want to air a movie centered around a homicidal sniper. So, new scenes were shot that made him a part of an art heist at a museum near the stadium. In this version he shot mainly to scare, not to kill)
The Godfather (FFCoppela re-edited Godfather 1 and 2 into chronological order and added a whole bunch of deleted material to make a miniseries for TV)
I like collecting TV versions. In the days before video and DVD, there was a bit of specialness associated with the idea that they were making special versions for TV.
That's how Star Trek: The Motion Picture (special longer version, not the director's version) started out.
Then, there was Superman:The Movie that most fans know have an expanded Network version. It was done so the network would have more advertising time. Sometimes the a movie would go for 2 nights. Other movies that were expanded were:
King Kong 1976 (about 45 minutes additional scenes)
The Towering Inferno (about a 20 minutes additional)
Airport 77 (almost an hour of additional scenes)
Airport 79 (about 20+ minutes, some believed to be shot especially for TV)
Earthquake!( about 20 minutes, besides a couple of deleted scenes, a whole subplot of a couple on an airplane is shot for TV)
Two Minute Warning (the original plot of this movie was a sniper at a football game whose motive was never revealed. NBC did not want to air a movie centered around a homicidal sniper. So, new scenes were shot that made him a part of an art heist at a museum near the stadium. In this version he shot mainly to scare, not to kill)
The Godfather (FFCoppela re-edited Godfather 1 and 2 into chronological order and added a whole bunch of deleted material to make a miniseries for TV)
I like collecting TV versions. In the days before video and DVD, there was a bit of specialness associated with the idea that they were making special versions for TV.
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