I seem to remember that, when "That's Entertainment" first ran on network TV in the U.S., it was slightly re-edited to place more color footage up front, presumably so Philistine viewers wouldn't change the channel. Can anybody confirm this, or is my memory as bad as I'm afraid it's getting?
shareI think not. CBS first ran this in late 1976, pretty much as it was shown in theaters. They couldn't edit it without disturbing the flow of the film, as each narrator/host introduced the next, with Frank Sinatra serving as the main emcee.
BRING OUT SEASON THREE OF THE GREAT ONCE AND AGAIN ON DVD!
CBS ran THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! twice, the first in a three-hour time slot, the second in a two-and-a-half hour time slot. The first airing presented the entire film, plus "True Love" from HIGH SOCIETY, which was not included in the original theatrical release print (check out the original MGM/CBS Home Video cassette from 1980 and you'll see the original print, which also included slightly different Sinatra narration in the GREAT ZIEGFELD sequence). In the interest of time, the second CBS airing omitted "Thou Swell," "The Varsity Drag," "Be My Love" and "Hallelujah!" There was no juxtoposition of footage, though.
shareI don't think any color footage was moved up front or re-edited, as first host Sinatra makes a point of this in the first 15 minutes of narration: After showing bits from "Broadway Melody," "Rosalie," "Rose Marie," and "The Great Ziegfeld," Sinatra introduces the now famous tap routine of Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell's "Broadway Melody of 1940" clip as "the last of the big black-and-white musicals." With his sequence finished, the rest of the film moves into more Technicolor clips.
The only editing I remember occurs much, much later in the film, and it seems to all be in the Bing Crosby segment. In some versions of the film, for some reason, they do not show the "Hit The Deck" finale "Hallelujah!" and in other versions they do not include "True Love" from High Society." Go figure.