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ABC
Chops
Film
a
Second
Time
February
19,
2010
"Meet the Fockers" had its second
ABC network broadcast on February 19 and once again, it was
brutally edited and overloaded with commercial interruptions. What little
we were allowed to see, however, was in stunning high definition.
Hopefully Universal will release the complete film on Blu-Ray in the not
so distant future. For now, we reiterate our disappointment in ABC and
stand by our editorial from 2007 (below).
ABC
Butchers
Film
for
1st
Network
Broadcast
May 5, 2007
"Meet the Fockers" made its network
broadcast premiere tonight, and it's usually fun when one of Barbra's
films is shown on national television for the first time. However,
tonight was different. One of the most wholesome films ever to be
released in theatres was apparently considered too racy for the ABC
censors. The network went haywire with the cutting room scissors
before allowing this mild PG-13 comedy to be aired. Gone were some of
the funniest jokes of the film (honestly, did the foreskin joke need
to be edited...along with the running gag over the baby's first
word?). Several of the film's most hilarious sequences were removed
altogether, among them Roz and Bernie's bedroom antics with the
whipped cream, and the film's most famous scene, Barbra giving DeNiro
a message. I'm surprised they didn't demand a change in the film's
title.
Have certain
segments within our society become so politically sensitive (and
powerful) that the most harmless of entertainments are now targets for
mass censorship? Shame on ABC. And if director Jay Roach green-lighted
this hatchet job, he should be embarrassed by what he allowed the
network to do to his film.
I hope Barbra was at rehearsals last night and missed the broadcast
entirely. I don't think she would have tolerated the network's editing
shenanigans if the film were her baby. As Roz Focker would say, it was
nich geet. |
