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Different Beginnings

posted 11 years ago by richard.fuller1
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Airport '77 aired today on AMC, but the movie began a helicopter and Jimmy Stewart landing outside the estate and talking to the press, then showed Lemmon at the airport as the credits and theme rolled.

The version I recorded years ago off tv as a late movie I believe, begins with the hijackers, Monte Markham and friend, arriving at the base. The first shot is headlights coming down the road.

That's six minutes of Markham breaking into the base and checking files.

Then I got Lemmon and G. Kennedy at a simulation landing. Then back to the hijackers with the knock-out gas. Guess they are getting it onboard.

Now almost ten minutes into the movie, here's Stewart on the helicopter.

Hey, there's a Pamela Bellwood flashback. Unfortunately, the audio messed up and I can barely hear what they are saying, but you know all she's doing is fussing about Jimmy Stewart.

I got a total of four flashbacks in this version.

[–] modano1973 11 years ago

The version shown on AMC is the theatrical and home video release of the film. What you recorded years ago, likely from channel TBS, is the extended network TV version which contains approximately one hour of additional footage not shown in either the theatrical release or the home video releases. In the 1980's, the ABC channel aired the extended version. TBS was the last network to air the extended version in the mid-late 90's. The Alternate Versions section of the IMDB page provides details into the scenes that were added to the extended network version.

[–] richard.fuller1 11 years ago

To paraphrase station identification of years ago, "this . . . . is TBS!"