Gil Jawetz

The rerun of the Buffy musical was cut to hell! I didn't tape it the first time around so I set it to tape last night and they cut it all up! They cut the overture, so it just starts with Buffy singing (too blunt without the lead-in) then they cut the "I've Got a Theory" song at the end of the Bunnies mini-song, eliminating the midgets joke and the rest, then they cut Dawn's dance at the Bronze, removing another quiet, wordless sequence that made the episode so unique. What the heck? They shoulda made it fit in an hour in the first place rather than do this. I guess it's just to boost DVD sales and occasional "full version" special reruns. Ech.

BizRodian

UPN allowed them to extend the episode. But on reruns it will be the normal time.

I say it's fine. The longer version is the real version.

Patman

This was precisely the reason I taped the musical episode on SP mode for archival uncut purposes.

Merin

They also warned everyone that this would happen, so I'm not really surprised.

Jlbkwrm

Um. If they had made it to fit an hour in the first place, the butchered version would be the only version in existance, because the parts cut were the least plot-relevant. They had artistic merit, but Dawn's Ballet had little impact on the story.

So, call me happy UPN was willing to allow for the one-time airing of the extended version.

MrN

Apart from ruining the midget joke, they also cut SMG's part of that song, which I think was very relevant to the story.

The other cuts were not as noticeable (to me) - minor dialogue and so on.

Gil Jawetz

They messed it up. Apart from the one important bit of plotting cut in SMG's part of that song they also totally ruined the pacing by cutting the overture and Dawn's dance. If the episode had been only about getting the plot points out there it wouldn't have needed to be a musical. By smashing the pacing to bits they messed up what was so great about the ep.

Wizdar

What was the point of the extended version in the first place? I mean, it's not like Joss can't do the math.

Being the creative genius everybody says he is, would it be too much to ask for that genius to fit the allotted time?

I feel sorry for all the folks who taped the original and didn’t know it was going to run over…

MrN

I doubt Whedon intended for it to run long - it was probably scripted for an hour. But these things happen. It was good of UPN to be accomodating, but I understand that they couldn't do it on the rerun.

I downloaded the full version myself and will enjoy the episode that way till the DVD comes out.

Slumbering Fist

You were warned...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...=buffy+musical

This thread wasnt hidden anywhere. We kept it up to inform people.

das Monkey

Oh, come on people ...

What aired was what Joss wanted ... not too long, not too short. It's not some "extended" version or promo stunt ... it's THE version, and it happened to be longer than 45 minutes. We had entire threads devoted to complaining about how hyped this musical was, so anyone who didn't know it was coming on and missed the first airing has no one to blame but himself. Joss and Co. did everything possible to inform every viewer that the musical would run over its allotted timeslot and be cut in its rerun airings. If there is any fault, it lies with UPN for not telling everyone that the episode would run a little long like ABC did with 'Alias'. In fact, UPN dropped the ball by not simply airing this episode without commercial interuption. It would fit perfectly in the timeslot and satisfy everyone. It sucks that the episode won't air in its entirety again, but most television shows don't even reair at all, and if they do, it's on a low-tier cable network that chops the episode up anyway. If you missed this episode the first time around, the fault lies with you. If you somehow tried to record the episode and weren't aware it would run long, I can understand blaming UPN, but Joss and Co. did everything they could to get the word out about this.

das

Wizdar

This message brought to you by the das "I'm really cranky today" Monkey foundation.






Actually, the comment about commercials, while coming from Dreamland, is pretty much right on. After the opening (of the original episode) there seemed to be an endless supply of commercials -- a lot more than usual, IMO.

das Monkey

Originally posted by Wizdar
This message brought to you by the das "I'm really cranky today" Monkey foundation.



You don't know the half of it. A quick search will probably reveal that my most offensive and impatient posts are always on Mondays. Check my post in the Britney thread to see how good a mood I'm in this morning.

das

Wizdar

[Note to self: be afraid. Be very afraid! ]

Actually, I proposed the concept a couple weeks ago in Otter that there seems to be something about Mondays -- seems like there are more [BANNED] on Mondays, more hurt feelings, etc. I even noticed the week before that my posts were more caustic than normal (). But the idea was soundly rejected. B@stards!!