Bowdlerized versions of Movies.

[Jkid]

I came back from my anime society meeting to see one of my dormmates watching 1408 on TNT. I knew it's a bowdlerized version because 1) It's in pan-and-scam, 2) Cut for time to cram more adverts every 15 minutes, 3) Edited for content despite most people who watch TNT are 18-34.

I asked him a few questions, here are his responses:
I don't mind
I don't mind more breaks
More power to them.

He basically did not care.

Why are American basic cable channels still bowdlerize movies to 4:3, edit content to be suitable for grandmothers, and to cram more advertisements than they actually need? They might as well scream to the viewer that you're not watching the real thing and get the dvd version and be done with it.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Jkid]

7. Let me guess

It's just too profitable...

[Forkboy]

2. No comment...just going to laugh at "pan and scam".

:thumbsup:

[Jkid]

5. The phrase "pan-and-scam" actually exist.

Google it.

[thesquanderer]

9. P&S terminology

"pan and scam" is a wry-humor version of the actual video term "pan and scan"

[Warpy]

3. I heartily agree, except

that a great many current grandmothers went through the 60s and can tell you a hell of a lot of things you have come nowhere near discovering yet, in language that has been known to blister paint.

I'm sick of having everything on TV made safe for fundamentalists whose virgin ears are so tender you can bet they never stray from CBN, anyway, except for a few nutcases whose sole purpose is to write nasty letters every single day of their lives to the FCC to complain about everything that isn't all Jebus, all the time.

In other words, the silly bleeping has to stop. It's called the remote, people, and if something offends you, find another channel. Try Disney.

Unfortunately, we're stuck with the pan/scam formatting for most movies because the transition to the wide screen sets has only begun and there's no reason for them to chop the movie into ribbons for advertisers in wide screen yet. TCM has started to letterbox a lot of the later Cinemascope movies where it is important to do so: "Ben Hur," "Lawrence of Arabia," and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" as examples.

FMC has shown quite a few movies unbleeped, usually after 10 PM EDT when the innocent little cherubs should be in bed. TCM also doesn't bleep, but they rarely would have to consider it since most of their library is when the old Hayes Office was bluenosing everything that came out.

So if you want grown up movies with grown up language that show the whole screen as shot, yeah, rent them and make sure they're letterboxed.

Otherwise, sigh and pass the popcorn.

[Jkid]

6. In the UK and in other modern countries, they're transition to widescreen faster

But in America, where it's HD or nothing, we get 4:3 programing or a limited selection of HD programing OTA, nothing in between.

I bet we will be the last of the modern countries to make the switch to native widescreen programing in all channels, if not just broadcast television, including all daytime tv.

That's why I practically resorted to DVDs and torrenting British TV for my widescreen fix.

[Warpy]

8. Mexico isn't going widescreen/HD until 2012

and I think other countries in Central and South America aren't making the switch until 2016. So we're not dead last. We're just slow enough to be the world's hicks. That's what happens when there is a war against the consumer class, people who work for a living and depend on wages.

In any case, the new system is worldwide, much easier for satellite channels to offer programming without having to offer PAL, SECAM and NTST for all the different countries that used the different systems. NTST was always the poorest of the three and we were stuck with it.

Some high end TVs come with all four systems available, but switching can be cumbersome.

[Crazy Dave]

4. A long.....LONG....time ago....

Paying for cable did mean less commercials. I remember watching channels like USA and TBS sometimes, having to go to the can and waiting for a commercial and it would be a long wait.

The wife still watches TV, less for me but sometimes she'll have a show on that I'll look at. One night the commercial breaks were every six minutes and the breaks were for about three minutes and I was thinking to myself, "we're paying for this shit?!"

[Onceuponalife]

10. That's why I but DVDs and pay for movie channels.

I won't watch anything that is censored in any way or shown with commercials (sorry AMC).

This reminds me of director Alex Cox, who when network TV wanted to show an edited version of his 1984 film "Repo Man," decided to edit the film himself. The results were hilarious, with "fuckin'" and "motherfuckers" becoming "flippin'" and "mellonfarmers."