Television Q&A: Why is longer version of '1776' shown on TV?
Published in Entertainment News
You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: Around July the movie “1776” is often televised. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the wrong version is always aired. The broadcasters air the long, uncut version instead of the Richard Nixon version, which for me is so much better. Why do they do this?
A: Because the uncut version is truer to the filmmakers’ vision.
For those of you tuning in late, there is indeed more than one screen version of “1776,” the 1972 adaptation of the hit musical about the Founding Fathers. Then-President Richard Nixon had a problem with one of the songs in the production: “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men,” which pokes sharply at conservatives. Jack L. Warner, producer of the film and a Nixon supporter, had the number cut at Nixon’s request — even though the film was ready for distribution.
In a commentary on a “1776” Blu-ray, director Peter H. Hunt says the cut was “devastating” to the overall production. But the movie was released with that and other cuts, at 142 minutes. Warner also ordered that the cut footage be destroyed but, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 2001, editor Florence Williamson put it into storage, and it was found when a video restoration was being prepared for release.
That restored, “director’s cut” runs about 165 minutes — and, good or bad, is the way the movie was meant to be seen.
Q: On the “Law & Order” where Christopher Meloni plays Elliot Stabler, what happened to his character and the young girl in the show when it was on back in April or May. They were hit by a big truck. Did they survive or die?
A: For its fifth season, “Organized Crime” moved from NBC to streaming companion Peacock. But that season’s first episode — the one you wrote to me about — also got a special preview on NBC in April. The season then continued on Peacock where you can see that Stabler, seriously injured from the truck attack, nonetheless survives. The girl, Bunny, dies.
Q: Just finished watching “Warrior” on Netflix. It was excellent! The ending made me think the series may continue. Do you know if it will?
A: The martial arts drama originally aired on Max, which dropped it after three seasons. Netflix then picked up those seasons “with the hope that a surge in popularity there could lead to a fourth season,” Forbes.com said in 2024. Unfortunately, Forbes said, “it drowned amid Netflix’s vast ocean of content” and a fourth season did not happen.
Q: Back in the '60s I watched a sitcom, “The Addams Family,” with John Astin, Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan and other actors. One was Blossom Rock as Grandmama. Can you tell me more about Blossom Rock? I never saw her name in any other productions.
A: The older sister of singer-actress Jeanette MacDonald, Blossom Rock acted under more than one name. As the Internet Movies Database indicates, you can find her credited in some movies as Marie Blake, and her given name was Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald. (The last name of Rock via her husband, Clarence.) Born in 1895, she worked in vaudeville and on the stage and screen, before her death in 1978.
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