Deleted scene

When the TV series Dead Like Me went from

Showtime to basic cable Sci-Fi Channel, due to its
heavy use of profanity, many scenes were altered
in order to censor the profanity without removing
a large amount of content.

For other uses, see Deleted scene (disambiguation).

A deleted scene refers to footage that has been removed,
censored, replaced, or simply left out from the nal version of a lm or television show. (It is occasionally referred to as a cut scene, however the dierent usage of
this phrase in reference to video games makes this term
uncommon in this context.) A related term is extended
scene, which refers to the longer version of a scene which
was shortened for the nal version of the lm. Often extended scenes will be included in collections of deleted
scenes, or also referred to as deleted scenes themselves, as
is the case with for instance, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Serenity.

Scenes are cut from many Rankin/Bass specials for

this reason. In Rudolphs Shiny New Year, there was
a song called Make Every Moment Count. This
is taken o TV showings, likely in fear it might intimidate young children. This deleted scene can be
viewed on YouTube.

1.2 Running time

Concerns about running time can also be cause for removal or shortening of scenes.

Reasons for removal of a scene

In feature lms, sometimes scenes are cut to keep the

Scenes are removed, replaced, or shortened in lms for a length of the lms theatrical cut shorter. This has apvariety of reasons, including:
parently happened with most of the Harry Potter feature
lms, including an arguably important transitional/plotrelated scene in the second lm (involving Harrys over1.1 Requests that it be altered
hearing of the conversation in the shop in Knockturn
Alley), which was not in the theatrical cut but was reThe studio or network that is providing funding/support leased on the 2-disc DVD along with several other deleted
for, owns the rights to, or plans to air or distribute the scenes.
lm(s) (usually the prior two) may be uncomfortable with In the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the scene
a certain scene, and ask that it be altered or else removed showing John Connor reprogramming the Terminator
or replaced entirely.
was shortened by deleting dialogue which made other
scenes necessary, and these scenes were left out of the
theatrical release version (but restored on the special edition VHS). Also, a scene where the T-1000 kills the family dog was deleted. In interviews, both Schwarzenegger
and Cameron stress this was done to shorten the lm (the
theatrical version still ran 2 and 1/2 hours, even without
these scenes), but these scenes were not restored for the
DVD set released in 2003.

This kind of situation is most common in the production

of television series, since networks and channels often
have to be mindful of how the viewers, critics, and/or
censors will react to programming, and may fear losing
ratings, incurring nes, or having trouble nding advertisers.
The 2002 Fox series Firey's original pilot episode
("Serenity", parts 1 & 2) had such a change made,
with the original, less action-packed scene being replaced in the nal cut of the episode but featuring
on the later DVD box set release of the series as one
of several bonus features.[1]

In the movie Thirteen Ghosts, there was a scene where

Kathy and Bobby were in the trap room, where they were
summoned for the Eye of Hell, in which they were having a conversation about not liking the house, and talking
about one of the ghosts being their deceased mother. This
scene was included on the DVD release.

A scene in the pilot of 24 involved the destruction

of a 747 airplane. Aired just a few months after the events of 9/11, the producers made some
creative edits to cut out shots of the plane visibly
exploding.[2]

In television serials, however, running time becomes an

even greater concern, due to the strict timeslot limitations, especially on channels which are ad-supported,
where there can only be approximately 20 minutes of actual show per half-hour timeslot (depending on the sta1

tion and the particular format of the show, this may/may

not include opening credits; closing credits may/may not
count towards running time, either, in some cases, because many ad-supported stations now squish the closing credits or force them into a split-screen in order to
show more advertising), and the majority of shows are in
either a half-hour or one-hour timeslot. This somewhat
forces producers of television serials to both break up the
acts in a manner that will (hopefully) make the viewer
want to continue watching after the ad-break, and to not
go over the stricter running time limits.

OTHER EXAMPLES

2 Formats
Deleted or extended scenes can come in any of several
dierent formats. They may or may not feature nished
special eects (especially in science ction and fantasy
lms, where visual eects are more expensive), and the
lm quality may or may not be the same as in the rest of
the lm, though in some cases this may depend only on
how much post-production editing was done.

Additionally, animated lms deleted scenes might not be

in the form of a fully animated scene, but rather included
One TV serial that has had to make such changes is in the form of an animatic or a blooper form, as is the case
Firey, which had to remove a lengthy scene from the with the deleted scenes on the DVD release of Pixar's Toy
episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds" due to time constraints; Story and Finding Nemo.[3]
this scene was also included on the series DVD collecPlus, certain deleted non-nished scenes can be from
tion as an extra.
TV shows like King of the Hill.
A few Jim Henson specials deleted all scenes featuring Kermit, like in Emmet Otters Jug-Band Christmas
and The Christmas Toy (both post-2004 releases). The
3 Parody
TV versions and pre-2004 video releases have all Kermit
scenes intact.
The DVD release for The Hitchhikers Guide to the
In the 2015 lm Avengers: Age of Ultron scenes showing Galaxy's feature lm also featured not only a handful
the development of Ultron were cut out, to make the lm of regular deleted scenes, but also two spoof Really
shorter, even though the lm still ran for two-and-a-half Deleted scenes.[4]
hours. However, director Joss Whedon said that these
YTVs ZAPX on occasion makes deleted scenes that are
scenes will be included in the Blu-Ray.
not genuine deleted scenes, but rather random scenes of
the movie with footage of the host of ZAPX, Simon, inserted into the clip, for this purpose.

1.3

Disruption of narrative ow

Though the quality of initial vs. the nal cut of a lm is of

course subjective, a certain scene or version of a scene in
the lm is sometimes perceived to have an adverse eect
on the lm as a whole, serving only to slow the lm down,
to provide unnecessary details or exposition, or to even
over-explain points that might be better left either unsaid
or more subtly handled. It is common to remove such
scenes at the editing level, though they occasionally are
released on the home video release as a bonus feature.
There are at least a few examples of this, including a number of the deleted scenes on the DVD release of the sequel lm Serenity (in fact, the audio commentary on the
DVDs deleted scenes collection quite often makes mention of the plot or tension being disrupted or slowed by the
inclusion of a scene and/or expositional overkill being the
main reason for the scene in questions non-inclusion in
the nal theatrical cut). Another well known example is
the cocoon sequence in the lm Alien. The scene added a
lot of information about fate of several crew members, as
well as new information on the life cycle of the creature,
but was ultimately deleted because it was thought to slow
down and disrupt the tension of the last part of the lm.

On the DVD for UHF, Weird Al Yankovic provides

commentary with the deleted scenes, emphasizing that
there are hours of lm footage but they were all removed
for good reasons.

4 Other examples
In The Wizard of Oz, the song If I Only Had a Brain
was originally over 4 minutes long, but was cut short
by removing a 3-minute dance sequence performed
by Ray Bolger, although this segment has since been
included as a bonus feature on all DVD releases from
1999-onward.
In The Rugrats Movie, there was a nightmare about
Dr. Lipschitz and the march of the wagon.
In Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the scene
54 Summer Sundae was deleted from the main
presentation, but can be found on the American
DVD.[5] Scenes involving a villain character named
P.T. Boomer were also cut from the nal version.[6]
In the 1969 lm The Italian Job there was a scene
which showed the Minis and Italian police cars in a
room with an orchestra playing "The Blue Danube".
This scene is included on the special features on the
DVD.

3
In the 1994 lm The Mask, there were two deleted
scenes. One scene shows Odin banishing Loki as
a prologue, and the other features Dorian Tyrell
killing Peggy Brandt after putting the mask on.
These scenes were included on the special features
on the DVD.
In the 1995 Pixar lm Toy Story, the DVD special
features included two deleted scenes. One shows Sid
torturing Woody and Buzz, and the other features
Woody trying to explain something to Buzz, but he
struggles and the toolbox closes itself.
In the 2008 Pixar lm WALL-E, the DVD special
features included two deleted scenes. In Garbage
Airlock, the scene shows that EVE was doing
WALL-Es role while WALL-E was doing EVEs.
In another deleted scene called Dumped, it shows
WALL-E and EVE in a storage room and EVE cares
more about the plant than he does.
In the lm Windtalkers, some parts of the assault
scene in Saipan were deleted in the censored version,
while retained in the original version. Also after Enders talks to Gunny, the scene where Enders goes on
a date with the nurse, with consecutive love scene on
the seashore, while Yahzee plays his harmonica, is
also deleted.
The 1975 musical lm The Rocky Horror Picture
Show has two deleted scenes, both of which are
songs. The rst (and most notable) is Superheroes,
a song played towards the end of the lm. While intact in the original UK cut of the lm, the song/scene
was omitted from the US release. The other is a
completely absent song called Once in a While,
which would have been placed between the reprise
of I Can Make You a Man and Touch-a, Touch-a,
Touch-a, Touch Me.
Several videos from The Wiggles had songs cut
when they were reprinted or brought over to international audiences:
Everybody is Clever was cut from the North
American version of the Wake Up Je! video,
and replaced by a chase scene.
Vini Vini was cut from the Wiggledance!
video when it was reprinted a year later.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was cut
from the 1999 re-release of Wiggly, Wiggly
Christmas.
Bathtime was cut from the Toot, Toot! video
when it was edited and released a year later.
In TV series 1, the Kaz the Cat segments were
replaced by video clips of children at preschool
in the US version.
Chi Baba was cut from the North American
version of Pop Go the Wiggles.

5 References
[1] Joss Whedon, audio commentary in Firey, The Complete
Series (DVD box set), 21st Century Fox, 2003
[2] Sangster, Jim (2002). 24: The Unocial Guide. London,
England: Contender Books. p. 34. ISBN 1-84357-034-3.
[3] Finding Nemo, DVD, Pixar, 2003
[4] The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, DVD, Touchstone
Pictures, 2005
[5] Magic Railroad Artwork. sodor-island.net. Retrieved
2014-07-19.
[6] Magic Railroad Revealed. sodor-island.net. Retrieved
2014-07-19.

6 See also
Directors cut
Alternate ending
Multiple endings

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Deleted scene Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deleted_scene?oldid=714138905 Contributors: Edward, Furrykef, HangingCurve,

Velella, Czolgolz, Bacteria, Woohookitty, Avalyn, Samuel Wiki, RussBot, Garion96, SmackBot, Cubs Fan, Reedy, Chris the speller, Bluebot, BullWikiWinkle, Jacob Poon, Dave-ros, Runa27, Nehrams2020, Ace of Sevens, Courcelles, Amalas, Cydebot, Paddles, Nalvage,
Stillplaygbc, Fez2005, Warteen, Darklilac, Fetchcomms, Albany NY, Magioladitis, Nick Cooper, A Nobody, Thaurisil, Ebeeto~enwiki,
Dca5347, Quinxorin, JasonAQuest, Dcelano, WildMIKE123, Matthew56435, Ccacsmss, Kookyunii, Noq, Materialscientist, Citation bot,
FrescoBot, Stolengood, Mattmatt1987, Dewritech, Evanh2008, HolHorse, A2soup, Unreal7, ClueBot NG, Whytk, BG19bot, AngusWOOF, The Lovable Wolf, MisterMorton, Vanquisher.UA, Lugia2453, KC240, Andrbrooks, Spongebob311, Ol' Dirty Jedi, Bmauldon,
Ptb1997, JShanley98, SummerPhDv2.0, Gurpreetsidhusingh, PowaBlok and Anonymous: 53

7.2

Images

File:Ambox_important.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, based o of Image:Ambox scales.svg Original artist: Dsmurat (talk contribs)

7.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0