British TV reedited into films for US video market

[George White]

Just found a trailer for the VHS release of 80s BBC thriller the Assassination Run starring Mary Tamm, which has been re-edited into an average, almost Cliff Twemlow-esque DTV thriller for the US market by CBS/FOX.
Any other suggestions? Obviously, Who was treated as a series of TV movies for US syndication and video, as were many of the Gerry Andersons, and Arthur of the Britons - as Arthur - The Young Warlord played theatrically and on HBO, Showtime, etc.
I know Day of the Triffids 1981 was released as such by Prism video. The Dick Turpin feature with Richard O'Sullivan in Briton was released in segments as the final season of his show.
Colditz's only US release was as a single TV movie compilation.

Any other suggestions?

[Old Gold Tooth]

Recent examples would be editing the first two series of The Trip into 2-hour films for the US audience.

Never watched them as it seemed pointless after having seen the series. You could only improve The Trip to Spain by hacking an hour off its runtime though.

[Paul Calf]

And increasing Marta Barrio's screen time by as much as possible.

[Alberon]

Wasn't there at least two 'films' made out of Space 1999 episodes? IIRC they even had new title sequences.

[biggytitbo]

The first series of Allo Allo was reedited with new footage and a black and white filter and released as 'Schindlers List'.

[Replies From View]

Recent examples would be editing the first two series of The Trip into 2-hour films for the US audience.

Beat me to it.  I have those on DVD as well as the original series format, as I am obsessed with versions.

My view is the movie edits don't work very well.  The structure doesn't suit a 2 hour format and edited like that they feel a lot longer, funnily enough, despite being an hour shorter.

[Pdine]

I Claudius was written as 13 ~55 minute episodes but the BBC decided at the last minute to smoosh the first two together into a 97 minute bumper episode, cutting some fairly random sections in order to do so. When PBS showed it they used the original 13 episode edit.

[Attila]

Wasn't there at least two 'films' made out of Space 1999 episodes? IIRC they even had new title sequences.

Yep -- and one of them ended up becoming fodder for Mystery Science Theatre's first series, under the title 'Cosmic Princess'

(appalling quality here --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S66KAW4zmQ)

[Attila]

I Claudius was written as 13 ~55 minute episodes but the BBC decided at the last minute to smoosh the first two together into a 97 minute bumper episode, cutting some fairly random sections in order to do so. When PBS showed it they used the original 13 episode edit.

Cheers for this -- all this time I thought I was misremembering that it was 13 parts (which is what I have on old VHS tapes recorded off-air), but the DVD is 12 with that super longer first episode.

[The Duck Man]

The six hour-long episodes of Wolf Hall were turned into seven episodes of varying (but similar) length on Netflix. I presume this was originally done for PBS, who aired it in the USA.

[Z]

Not British but... Scenes from a Marriage, Carlos, the Best of Youth, Fanny & Alexander

Then theres oddities like Das Boot and Underground where they were films but were funded partially by television stations under the condition they'd be a TV miniseries too

[NurseNugent]

Two episodes of Man in Suitcase (Variation on a Millions Bucks Parts 1 and 2) were re-edited into a film (To Chase a Million) but I think that was for the Japanese market rather than the US market. 

[George White]

Not British but... Scenes from a Marriage, Carlos, the Best of Youth, Fanny & Alexander

Then theres oddities like Das Boot and Underground where they were films but were funded partially by television stations under the condition they'd be a TV miniseries too

RAI and ZDF also coproduced the likes of The Name of the Rose, a few Argento films, etc, some Fellini stuff, etc.

[thecuriousorange]

The first two or three episodes of Twin Peaks were edited into a stand-alone TV movie for Europe, with a new ending shot for this purpose.

[Attila]

Been reading up on The Persuaders! as Mr Attila's been  watching it lately; apparently because it didn't do well in the US as a standalone series, several pairs of episodes were smushed together as 90 minute 'movies' for American TV-release.

It was pretty common practice in the US when I was a kid in the 1970s to take busted pilots (extended pilot episodes of show that didn't go to series) and release them as films abroad, or to make 'TV-movies' from two unrelated episodes of a series that didn't last long enough to go into syndication. The latter resulted in really awkward bridging narration/editing to try to smooth over the rough joins (a bonkers example is the MST3K experiment 'Riding with Death' or the two Master Ninja 'movies').

[Pdine]

Cheers for this -- all this time I thought I was misremembering that it was 13 parts (which is what I have on old VHS tapes recorded off-air), but the DVD is 12 with that super longer first episode.

Yeah - the ~1986 repeats were the 13 episode version. I taped those.

[Attila]

I know I've got all 13 eps off PBS from around that time - but they're on NTCS VHS tapes.

[notjosh]

Last two episodes of Danger Man were made into a film:

The two colour episodes aired (in black and white) in the UK in the time slot of The Prisoner, which had fallen behind schedule and could not make its airdates. The European cinema film feature version, Koroshi, did not receive theatrical release in the US but instead aired on network television as a TV movie in 1968.

Going the other way, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. had a few episodes adapted to film and released overseas.

[NoSleep]

The first two or three episodes of Twin Peaks were edited into a stand-alone TV movie for Europe, with a new ending shot for this purpose.

It's only the pilot plus 20 minutes extra footage that was filmed to conclude it if it didn't become a series. The One-Armed Man shoots Bob; end of.

[George White]

Looking more shot on video examples.

US TV market too, not just VHS.

The Tripods was presented as a film on US VHS release from Sony.

[Absorb the anus burn]

Thriller - Brian Clemens series 1973-1977.

[Dr Rock]

Peter O'Toole's TV movie Rogue Male seems to have been poorly repackaged as a proper movie for US audiences several times, each with a worse cover than the last









Don't know why the 'critic's choice' one implies it's in black and white, it's not. Here's the Radio Times cover which is classier than all of them (but sadly doesn't feature Hitler - or Big Ben, which was presumably felt necessary to shove on the cover one time)

[George White]

Thriller - Brian Clemens series 1973-1977.

Yes, with the "special guest star", i.e. a minor US actress in most cases getting top billing in the US version, while the likes of Robert Beatty and Derek Francis get top here.


Rogue Male, some claim it was intended as theatrical, but being a BBC production albeit in association with Fox, this'd have been impossible (union rules IIRC vetoed the BBC making stuff for cinemas), especially as it was commissioned as part of a series.
Somehow, in the US, it fell into public domain.

[ishantbekeepingit]

Yep -- and one of them ended up becoming fodder for Mystery Science Theatre's first series, under the title 'Cosmic Princess'

(appalling quality here --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S66KAW4zmQ)

Indeed, the very first episode of MST3K was a compilation of Stingray episodes, and the second a compilation of Captain Scarlets.

[Dr Rock]

Rogue Male, some claim it was intended as theatrical, but being a BBC production albeit in association with Fox, this'd have been impossible (union rules IIRC vetoed the BBC making stuff for cinemas), especially as it was commissioned as part of a series.
Somehow, in the US, it fell into public domain.

No excuse for those hideous covers though.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The fourth (ITV, 1979) Quatermass series got butchered into a film for the US market.

[Mister Six]

I Claudius was written as 13 ~55 minute episodes but the BBC decided at the last minute to smoosh the first two together into a 97 minute bumper episode, cutting some fairly random sections in order to do so. When PBS showed it they used the original 13 episode edit.

They did the same thing for Rome, cutting out the political intrigue and plot, and leaving in the tits and violence. The series bombed in the UK, the Beeb pulled out of the co-production with HBO and it got cancelled. Still annoyed about that.

[bgmnts]

They did the same thing for Rome, cutting out the political intrigue and plot, and leaving in the tits and violence. The series bombed in the UK, the Beeb pulled out of the co-production with HBO and it got cancelled. Still annoyed about that.

I loved Rome when it first aired and I'm rewatching it on netflix now. I'd say the political intrigue and historical accuracy is pretty even balanced with the tits and blood. Just me though. I didnt know they chopped it up however.

[biggytitbo]

The fourth (ITV, 1979) Quatermass series got butchered into a film for the US market.

That one was always intended to be a film as they filmed different linking scenes for it that don't appear in the episodic version.

[hard rocx and mettals]

Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned