TV Version Scenes

One of the other unique aspects of the tv version was the earthquake itself was split into two sections.

The quake actually ends when barbara is shoved out of the elevator by the greedy developer. The people get stuck in the elevator (this is dragged out much longer than the theatrical where it seems like a momentary lull).

We then cut to LAX which mysteriously has not felt any effects of the quake. As the plane begins its descent, we see a sudden crack in the runway, unbeknownst to anyone on the ground which is unaware of a quake. The plane descending and the crack widening are intercut, until the plane finally touches down.

The people in the elevator fall as the second quake begins and we have a long sequence where the pilot tries to rise the plane as they feel the eathquake upon touchdown. The crack ahead of them is getting bigger, screams and panic from the passengers and finally, just as the crack goes under their plane, they rise and are safe from the quake.

In the theatrical, the second half of the quake(from the elevator fall) now continues with only the shot of the plane in the air from someones viewpoint on the ground surviving in the theatrical edit.

Also, it was while the newlyweds on the plane are being shook by the quake, that the tv version froze with a "to be continued" when it was shown in two parts on NBC(I remember this two parter being done only twice).

Later, the tv version was shown latenights on ABC in one part but for time, they cut from the end of the quake to Genevieve Bujold climbing down to rescue her son from the fall into the trench, a deletion of a good ten minutes of action and which never made sense to me editorially. It was as if the tv editors just didn't give a *beep*

The shot of the woman getting glass in her face was deleted (too bloody in 1975 for network tv) and there may have been some additional scenes in the quake but its hard for me to remember as it was pan and scan. I thought the fall of the Capitol records building was different until I realized the difference was caused by the right side of the 2:35 image being gone. They abruptly switch from the Capitol Records building on the left of the screen to the men falling out the window on the right, giving the impression of two different short shots when they are actually one long shot.

Finally, there were several additional scenes of Marjoe Gortner's character so it was a lot less of a surprise when he goes bonkers.

I haven't seen the tv version shown in well over a decade. Maybe on some special edition someday. It might be cool to check out as a comparison.

Hi,
Just to clarify a few things: there was never a scene shot of Denise being told to go home-even though some cast lists include the mysterious "studio guard". And there were 2 original cuts used: the pre-credits shots of the fault and the scene of Rosa telling the guy on the bike to get lost.
I wish they had used all the real footage cut, BUT the extened scenes with Graff, Remy & Vance might have totaled only a few minutes, and other little bits like the guys in the lumberyard and Stockle & Russell in the institute probably wasnt enough. They wanted to make it a big 2 night event.the extra footage they made is about 45 minutes. The actual trims maybe 10? I have the annotated script of the script supervisor and every scene that was filmed is noted in detail, as well as any on-set changes etc. I also have roughly 4,000 pics from the film showing everything that was shot. You can check out a lot of these images on my site here. The pictures are spread out, so it might take awhile to see most of them:
http://www.jimusnr.com/Earthquakemainpage.html

It really did seem like there was an insinuation an earthquake would move about and hit different areas, and not all at once.

The plane landed, hadn't stopped, THEN the ground began to shake and it lifted up again.