When did they start cutting content from shows in syndication?

[James]

Back in the early 1980s I used to watch Tom and Jerry, and in the late 1990s and early 2000s I noticed some parts of the cartoons that were restored on The Cartoon Network. For example, in the cartoon "Farm of Tomorrow" (from what I recall it didn't feature the cat and mouse and was filler between two T&J cartoons; the local affiliate did that frequently with Droopy Dog as well) was a tomato crossed with a lemon--or was it an orange?--that sprayed juice when squeezed, something I never saw in the 1980s.

When did the syndicators start to cut corners and eliminate parts of the shows? I'm not just talking T&J; I'm talking about The Brady Bunch and the like. Speaking of TBB, there was a huge thread recently on that show's board on Sitcomsonline.com that discussed which scenes were eliminated from the syndicated episodes.

[Dean Winchester]

I remember Cosby Show edits in 90. There was a season 6 (89-90) episode, and I remembered a scene with Kenny from the NBC airing that didn't make it to the CBS affiliate's rerun less than 6 months later. That was the very first time I was aware of shows getting edited for syndication.


I am shocked no "tv geek" has yet to create a website listing all the syndicated cuts in an episode on DVD, like down to exact seconds. That'd be something of great interest.

[jamesanthony]

I would guess that syndicators or maybe even the local channel have been trimming since the very beginning of off network syndication, since the run times of prime time and the desired run times of local stations are different. I recall seeing things in the 70s that were obviously edited because back then the editing was very hacked (ex: some character is in mid-sentence and they cut to a completely different scene, or a commercial). I also recall seeing shows on one local channel with certain scenes cut out, then when the show reran on another local channel different scenes were chopped out. This was in the 70s and 80s. Technological advances have mae editing less obvious now, unless I saw the show in prime time I couldn't necessarily tell what was cut out of some 90s show that I see in syndication.

There's also the case of Three Stooges, Little Rascals and other shorts that were originally made for the theater like Bugs Bunny cartoons etc. In syndication they would stick a couple of shorts together and in some cases about 1/2 of a Little Rascals short was edited out so it was very hard to follow what was going on.

One question I have is this: Is there some rule about not cutting a regular player's only scene in an episode out in syndication? I say this because on tvtome.com for Happy Days there are many episodes listed where the editor says that a certain player isn't in the syndicated version, but may have been in the original. If a regular's one scene is cut would he or she still get residual money for that episode?

[slackermonkey]

Syndication's been cutting stuff since it was invented, basically. It's always been about editing it down by two more minutes for more commercials.