ABC messes with The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

[kay1864]

(or at least, fails to deliver)

TiVo and the local paper said that the Grinch was the 40th anniversary edition, with reminiscences from those who made it. I was looking forward to the behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

So I TiVoed it and watched it with KayTot.

NO reminiscences whatsoever!! Screw you ABC!

(note that this edition came out last year, so it couldn't have been a writer's strike thing)

Given that it was in a 30 min slot, I can only think that the reminiscences originally were 30-second sound bites, not really integral to the show itself (i.e. I wasn't expecting pop-up videos, or interruptions at key points)

And therefore ABC decided to drop them in favor of as many commercials as possible.

Screw you ABC!

Although I did discover that Boris Karloff did the narration (it's been decades since I last saw it). And that the "recorded in a studio" sound of said narration was REALLY obvious. And the influence of Chuck Jones is prevalent (esp. the Grinch's dog's expressions and movements, and all of the sound effects and background music)

KayTot liked it, although after she saw the "A Cat in the Hat production" logo at the beginning, she asked "Where's Cat in the Hat?" about 5 times in the first 2 minutes.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Was the extra stuff maybe during the following half hour?

It seems that that has happened with some of the other old shows - they show it one half hour, then the next half hour is the special stuff.

[kay1864]

4. Not in Atlanta

Repeat of Ugly Betty or something.

No mention at the end of it like "stay tuned for a behind-the-scenes documentary". Plus it was labeled as being the 40th edition, and mentioned anecdotes in the description.

See below for more on how they chopped it up.

[kay1864]

2. Crap it gets WORSE!

Just read this on the imdb message board:

the network's brain was two sizes too small

Congratulations, ABC! If you're going to show this, show it intact--not with chunks edited out! Off the top of my head, I noticed four parts that were missing from tonight's broadcast:

-- the game that's a rollerskate type of lacrosse and croquet
-- the group of servers at the feast (each of whom is smaller than the previous one) who serve Cindy-Lou Who
-- the Grinch trying to pull a panicked Max off of himself
-- the last two verses of 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch' were edited together

I'm sure there were other problems, but these were the ones I spotted right away.

I've watched this at least once a year (frequently more) every year for over thirty years. Don't mess with our Christmas traditions!

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And not to mention there were 3 commerical breaks during this showing. In the 80s there was one break, right before Grinch and Max head off down the mountain.

Also, the scene where the sleigh is tumbling off the mountain top is heavily edited as well.

Shame on ABC.

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Yeah, I was p'oed too. It's all because of money money money for more commercials. I usually watch the Grinch on the Family Channel, or Cartoon Network, and they usually never edit. I loved the strawberry part, :(

And I also noticed, at the end, when the Grinch slides down the mountain on Christmas morning, he plays this trumpet fanfare, and Cindy-Lou Who gives Max a piece of roast beast at the Christmas feast (rhymes, lol) Both scenes were chopped out.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Yes, over the years they've edited out probably 4-5 minutes of the show

to make more room for commercials, of course.