I remember reading some posts here that when the series ran in syndication that some scenes were taken out from when they had originally aired.

I wanted to know if the Brady episodes released to DVD are as they originally aired or are they cut? Thanks.

Theyu looked The Same to me on The DVD from The TV

I remember reading some posts here that when the series ran in syndication that some scenes were taken out from when they had originally aired.

I wanted to know if the Brady episodes released to DVD are as they originally aired or are they cut? Thanks.

I have the entire series and they are the uncut versions :)

The two three part holiday episodes have the squares cut from the end of act three in all of those episodes so the screen fades to black and then the tag starts. I think this is the same for the episode where Marcia is in love with her dentist.

I noticed the omission of the squares too in those episodes. Everything else is great though. Seasons one and two even have the original bumpers before the opening credits start! Episode quality is pretty good but as with most Paramount DVDs, not spectacular.

Here Are the Known Official Brady Bunch DVD Series Cuts:

1.) All of the vacation episodes both the “Grand Canyon” Episodes from Season 3 and the “Hawaii” episodes from Season 4 are missing the fill in squares on the DVD. However, these squares are included on TV Land’s and syndicated prints of the show.

2.) The Hawaii episode “Pass the Taboo” is missing about 15-20 seconds.

3.) The fill in squares are also missing from the Season 4 episode of “Love and the Older Man”, but are included on TV Land and Syndicated prints.

4.) “Greg Gets Grounded” from Season 4 on the DVD combines the final scene before the tag sequence and blends it in rather than going to a “fade to black” before the tag scene. Furthermore, this episode comes in at about 24:50. There are also no fill in squares on this episode, which could explain the slightly shorter running time.

All other episodes are believed to be unedited, running an average of 25-26 minutes in length. The average DVD episode time is around 25:20. In contrast, syndicated/TV Land's Brady Bunch prints, although using different edits, time in at just under 22 minutes.

Jack

On the DVD, GREG GETS GROUNDED does have the fill in squares. As Mike and Carol kiss, the squares fill in. The odd thing is- the episode has no tag scene, that's what makes the running time a tad shorter. So either the tag scene was cut or the episode has no tag. It's the same thing with THE HONEYMOON episode. No tag scene in this episode either. It ends with the fill in squares.

Other than that, the main edits to note are the missing dialog from PASS THE TABU and no fill in squares in LOVE AND THE OLDER MAN.

The Honeymoon never had a tag scene. When you see the family march up the hotel stairs, that is it for the episode.

Also part of the scene where Bobby puts his mothers photo away in the cupboard prior to the wedding is also cut from "The Honeymoon", why i would never know as that whole scene is really touching and its the only time we see the boys real mother in a photo

Also part of the scene where Bobby puts his mothers photo away in the cupboard prior to the wedding is also cut from "The Honeymoon", why i would never know as that whole scene is really touching and its the only time we see the boys real mother in a photo

So that explains why The Honeymoon episode runs a little short on the DVD. I thought maybe the episode has a tag scene at the end and they cut the tag. I hate when they make these sneaky little cuts in the episodes, it seems totally unnecessary and ruins the episode.

It dont bother me that theres some edits on TV shows. But when a studio decides to put syndacated episodes on the DVD's that's when I get angry.
Like the season sets of ALF.
To bad that there was some edited episodes on The Brady Bunch. Still glad that I bought the show on DVD. But I do wish CBS/Paramount would release A Very Brady Christmas on DVD? Yeah I know its in the box set. But I did not buy the box set because I already had the single season sets. Yeah that too also ticks me off. The studio releases all the season's of a show.Then when its all done the then do a box set and include bonus features that was not on the season sets. CBS/Paramount did it three times-I Love Lucy,The Andy Griffith Show box set has The Return To Mayberry TV movie,and The Brady Bunch. The studio just loved to double dip dont they. I see now there already double dipping on Blu-Ray tittles too. I guess if people continue to buy the studios products the studios will just keep on double dipping.

Also part of the scene where Bobby puts his mothers photo away in the cupboard prior to the wedding is also cut from "The Honeymoon", why i would never know as that whole scene is really touching and its the only time we see the boys real mother in a photo

Wow!!!

That's really strange! How much is cut here? Do TV Land/syndication still show that scene complete?

There are a couple of episodes that I CAN NOT CONFIRM, BUT MIGHT HAVE BEEN LONGER BY A FEW SECONDS IN THE ORIGINAL AIRINGS.

1.) A possibility of a longer scene with Randy Peterson and the Drama teacher rehearsing the scene with the flowers at least once, before Greg opens the door and gets hit with them in "Call Me Irresponsible."

2.) A possibility of shots of Greg signing the contract papers in the agent's office in "Adios Johnny Bravo."

However, I can not confirm these edits from the original run. But they play in my mind going back to perhaps the first syndication cycle around 1975.

The huge scene that has NEVER been seen probably since the original run, based on the back-up print quality, which is very grainy, is Peter and Bobby selling Family Frolic Night Tickets door to door in "The Show Must Go On?"

Jack

I don't think CALL ME IRRESPONSIBLE is cut, but you may be right about JOHNNY BRAVO.

I checked the 5th season running times of the DVD episodes, they all run about 25:15 except for these:

ADIOS JOHNNY BRAVO- 25:02
SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN BRADYS- 25:03
THE DRIVERS SEAT- 25:03
OUT OF THIS WORLD- 25:00
TWO PETES IN A POD- 24:46

So I would say these five episodes are open to question regarding the possibility they are cut, especially TWO PETES IN A POD which would seem to have about 30 seconds cut from the episode. The other four episodes would have about 10 to 15 seconds cut from them. Of course there's also the possibility that some episodes just ended up a little shorter than normal.

If anyone got the Brady Bunch collection, the shag box that has the VBC, Bradys and other shows...

Is A Very Brady Christmas cut or anything?

Also part of the scene where Bobby puts his mothers photo away in the cupboard prior to the wedding is also cut from "The Honeymoon", why i would never know as that whole scene is really touching and its the only time we see the boys real mother in a photo

TV Land is showing The Honeymoon pilot episode today, (Saturday January 3, 2008) Check your program guides for times. If anyone wants to do a comparison to the DVD print, post regarding this scene here. (This assumes that this scene is complete on TV Land, which sadly, has been editing the shows EVEN MORE than the original cuts put into them when the show was distributed.

As a side note, the ONLY place where you can see the missing 20 seconds of Pass The Taboo when the boys talk about what to do with the Tikki Idol back at the hotel, is on a syndicated print. Compared to the mixed bag restoration quality of other episodes restored to DVD, the Hawaii episodes are beautiful. (Other than that 20 second cut.)

Jack

I would like to know if they cut anything from TWO PETES IN A POD since that DVD episode runs about 30 seconds short. TEETER TOTTER CAPER runs a little short as well if I recall.

OUT OF THIS WORLD is a tad short also, but if I recall in the original airing of the episode, at the end there was a mention of cousin Oliver joining the family in next weeks episode. This is not seen in the DVD episode, so that might explain the reason for the slightly shorter running time.

Finding out about these additional edits in the episodes as in THE HONEYMOON for example really casts a dark cloud over the DVD's. To me, nothing at all should be edited from these episodes, especially since they went to the trouble to restore the cut scenes from the series syndication run.

I would like to know if they cut anything from TWO PETES IN A POD since that DVD episode runs about 30 seconds short. TEETER TOTTER CAPER runs a little short as well if I recall.

OUT OF THIS WORLD is a tad short also, but if I recall in the original airing of the episode, at the end there was a mention of cousin Oliver joining the family in next weeks episode. This is not seen in the DVD episode, so that might explain the reason for the slightly shorter running time.

Finding out about these additional edits in the episodes as in THE HONEYMOON for example really casts a dark cloud over the DVD's. To me, nothing at all should be edited from these episodes, especially since they went to the trouble to restore the cut scenes from the series syndication run.

As was common practice,

Many shows and sitcoms from the 50's-early 70's master tapes were destroyed because at that time, the public did not even think of the need that people would have to re-watch shows after their original airing. Film seemed to have a better preservation rate than video tape.

When The Brady Bunch was fully marketed to syndication after its initial August 1974 airing. (Last original air-date, March 8, 1974 followed by summer reruns till the end of August,) Paramount clipped about one minute in small parts of each of the episodes for syndication. When the rights were finalized for the show to be released to DVD, not only with The Brady Bunch but for other network series owned by them, such as Happy Days, I learned that Paramount could not find the original negatives for some scenes. (Presumably destroyed.) They had to go into the video vaults to use 16mm and 35mm back up prints, to get the shows as uncut as possible. (When you see unusual graininess such as the scene in Father of the Year with Cindy and Jan looking for Marcia, or Peter and Bobby selling the tickets in The Show Must Go on? or Alice's extended skiing lesson in Father of the Year, those are back up prints, used when the original source negatives can no longer be found or no longer exist.)

The problem is with The Brady Bunch being such a top syndicated property for over 35 years, the prints were not always maintained very well. In the transition of going from market to market and station to station, you could have edits made by Paramount as well to fit into a time slot. (Paramount did their own edits from the original negatives when the show was sold to TV Land in the Summer of 1998.) Many stations and companies did not keep track of edits, so when the DVD's were issued, some of the quality was better in some episodes than others. It was sort of like saying, "Well, the shows may not be completely uncut, but it's the best we could do at the time." But to have some of the edits like the fill-in squares missing from some episodes does suggest thoughtlessness or carelessness on Paramount's part.

However, unless you can travel back in time to compare the episodes from the ORIGINAL September 1969-March 1974 airings on ABC TV, you'll have no way of knowing what is gone. (Someone on the board claimed they had an audio recording of one of the vacation episodes when we were talking about the fill in squares about a year ago from the original ABC airing.) If any episodes from a 1970's series are coming it at less than 25 minutes, it's a good chance that something is gone. At least Paramount from what I read does have a disclaimer on The Brady Bunch box set that reads, "Some episodes have been edited from their original broadcast airings." I have all 5 individual seasons on DVD and AFAIK, this claim is not made on any of the individual season boxes.

Jack

When watching the DVD episodes, you can usually tell where they used the back up prints because the picture gets soft and the colors aren't as vivid. Although it's annoying that some episodes have minor edits, credit should still go to Paramount for making the episodes as complete as possible. Yea they made a few mistakes, but they could also have just used the syndication prints without restoring any missing footage at all. A few episodes are not totally complete, but most appear to be uncut so thumbs up for that. The episodes with edits still run about 25 minutes or close to it.

In FATHER OF THE YEAR, one part where you can really tell they used back up footage is when Marcia climbs out the bedroom window at night to mail the letter. Mike and Carol then to go the girls bedroom to check on them and see Marcia isn't there. That section looks especially grainy.

^ Also the part where Jan and Cindy go looking for Marcia and there is Carol and Alice doing ironing (at night no less!)--that scenes is particularly looking like it was taken from an old 16 mm print.

Also part of the scene where Bobby puts his mothers photo away in the cupboard prior to the wedding is also cut from "The Honeymoon", why i would never know as that whole scene is really touching and its the only time we see the boys real mother in a photo

Hmmmmm, I never really noticed that......I'll have to look at my DVD copy again.

Also part of the scene where Bobby puts his mothers photo away in the cupboard prior to the wedding is also cut from "The Honeymoon", why i would never know as that whole scene is really touching and its the only time we see the boys real mother in a photo

What exactly is cut here? I am going to have to watch the DVD again. I saw the episode on TV Land and their version BEGINS with Mike coming in to help Bobby get dressed for the wedding and the picture is already gone from the dresser. I have no recollection of seeing Bobby put the photograph away. The conversation from TV Land with Bobby and Mike appears complete and than at the end of the scene, (or near the end) Bobby puts his Mother's picture back on the dresser.

Novarrofan, I noticed that you are from Australia. I used to visit Brady World.com How much editing of The Brady Bunch do they do in your country? Here in the USA, about 3-4 minutes is cut from all prints. I can tell you that for years the famous skinny-dipping scene from Goodbye Alice, Hello. (a.k.a Alice takes the waitress job) was cut from American versions of the show. The only place where we can see it in the States is on DVD.

Jack

In FATHER OF THE YEAR, one part where you can really tell they used back up footage is when Marcia climbs out the bedroom window at night to mail the letter. Mike and Carol then to go the girls bedroom to check on them and see Marcia isn't there. That section looks especially grainy.

Yes, all of the extended scenes of Jan and Cindy looking for Marcia and Alice's "complete" skiing lesson use back-up footage. Look at Bobby and Peter selling the Family Frolic Night Tickets door to door in THE SHOW MUST GO ON? for the same issues. I don't ever recall that scene in The Show Must Go On?, and I have watched The Brady Bunch since the first syndication cycle which began around 1975.

In fact, I remember around 1974 during the last season a station picked up the earlier episodes from 1969-1973 and ran them on Saturday morning. (It must have been in partial syndication around that time.) Having no recollection of the scene from The Show Must Go On?, this may have been edited from as early as after the initial broadcast.

Some episodes often use back up footage within a scene were some footage still exists. Look at THE PERSONALITY KID, when Peter is telling Marcia's friend about the "Invasion of the Potato People movie." HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS? (a.k.a Peter's Bicycle Job) also has a similar fate.

One sloppy issue is that sometimes Paramount chose to use back-up prints for entire scenes even when a quality print is known to exist. Look at THE ELOPEMENT and SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN BRADY'S for examples of this. In my judgment these are among the worst DVD transferred episodes of the series.

Jack