Question: I was watching The Breakfast Club on AMC and noticed scenes that aren't on my commercial tape of the movie. Were these lost scenes that were added in, or were they specially made for television? I've had a similar experience with Billy Madison and always wondered what the deal was.
Answer: The deal is that movies are often aired on broadcast and basic cable television in versions that differ to some degree from the theatrical versions. The two big reasons are standards and practices, and length. Because television programming goes into so many households for free or for a minimal basic-cable fee, the programming assumption is that it has to be held to a different standard than material that people have to actively seek out. You have to buy a ticket and go to a theater or pay a steep monthly fee to subscribe to a premium cable channel like HBO or pay to buy a movie on video or DVD, so the assumption is that befo
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