MovieChat Forums > Private Benjamin (1980) Discussion > TV Land version -- missing a snippet of ...

TV Land version -- missing a snippet of dialogue.

posted 15 years ago by sleazerama
2 replies | jump to latest

Just caught this on TV Land last week. Always loved this movie - however, I noticed that TV Land did a sneaky and entirely unnecessary edit:

When Capt. Lewis (Brennan) makes her initial rounds of the barracks, she bounces a coin on the well-made bed of one impeccable recruit (Soyer?), and then stops at Pvt Gianelli. She looks her up + down and they have some words.

From what I remember in previous versions, Gianelli responds by snapping her gum and perhaps saying something rude, or making a rude gesture. This was missing. It jump cuts to Lewis walking away.

Holy mackerel... are TV Land really that pure? Was the erroneous line of dialogue really so awful it had to be censored? This was hardly 'Goodfellas'!

[–] jayhn1111 14 years ago

It's not always edited specifically for content, but for time constraints as well. I see that with tv shows that ran in the 70's and before hand when being run now, they have to keep snipping away. 10 seconds here, 20 seconds there, and so forth to make room for more commercials in the allotted time.

[–] tmaj48 14 years ago

I seem to remember that Capt. Lewis' line, after Gianelli snaps her gum at
her, is "Don't push me, punk!" Hardly offensive enough to cut out; probably
just sloppy editing. TV Land does that with its TV shows all the time.

I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!