I watched The Haunting again this weekend. I originally watched it the way I watch most movies, on video. This time I watched it on television, TBS to be specific. I was extremely, but not surprisingly disappointed. They cut out a lot of it. They cut out several parts that involved violence including the part where Luke’s head gets bitten off by the giant lion’s-head fireplace flue and rolls onto the floor.
Of course as I said this was not surprising because as anyone who has watched TBS knows that it is a VERY sanitized network. They cut—or at the very least clean—any and all violence, nudity, course language, sexuality, and mature subject matter; you know, the things networks put in the warnings after commercials.
This however was not the worst/stupidest offence that TBS has committed. A while back they actually had the audacity to air Striptease. Striptease?! Really? I mean come one, would the Disney Channel air Pulp Fiction? No. There’s a reason that they wouldn’t air it, because it is not appropriate subject matter for their network. TBS however does not seem to understand that simple concept, well, either that or they are just bloody greedy and want to air anything they can. I really cannot understand what would posses someone to air an R rated movie on a channel where they do not even allow mildly course language. When you think about it however, you will realize that this occurs on TBS all of the time, they cut out a whole heck of a lot, how else do they manage to do 5+ minute commercial breaks? As you would expect the resulting movie ends up being a terrible amalgam of disjoint scenes and looking like it was made by some lobotomized cutter. I suppose nobody complained about them airing Striptease because later they got the balls—pun intended—to start airing Sex and the City. *I am rolling my eyes so hard right now I think I may now be permanently cross-eyed.*
TBS may be the worst but is far from the only network to do this. Last night I watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High on CityTV and was happy to see the classic pool scene. ;D It had it again on City today but this time the pool scene (and all nude scenes) were cut to crap, and by that I mean completely cut out; without the intervening scene, there was quite a disconnect between the now-adjacent scenes. Not only that but last night all the language and everything else was intact, but today they were all gone. What is the purpose of this? Give the adults the full monty so to speak at night, then present a watered down version for the children to enjoy during the day? Maybe it’s just me but that seems very bizarre. If some of it is not appropriate for children, then none of it is. If it’s an adult themed movie or show, then cutting it up will just piss off the grown ups.
There’s a few other examples that I may add at a later date, but for now my blood is boiling just thinking about these stupid people.
Networks should pick what they want to be and stick to that instead of taking stuff that doesn’t fit into their model and chop it bits until it does because what’s left will be worthless, trash, garbage, crap, *%!@$*#. Okay, I’m getting too mad at this point, that’s enough for now.