Three scenes deleted from DVD version

[samstokes80]

I visited my parents who taped ALF off of TV many years ago and in a low-tech effort I used my digital camera to tape three scenes that were edited on the DVD versions. One is the full Asparagus song, which is trimmed on the DVD. Another is a short bit where Kate and Lynn have a disagreement with a couple at the Nutrition Follies who are accidentally sitting in their seats (completely deleted from the DVD). The third and coolest one is the scene in "Help me Rhonda" where they show Skip and Rhonda in the spaceship. In the DVD version, you only hear their voices and they never cut to the ship. You can find these scenes on the OrbitGuard channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/OrbitGuard

I hope you enjoy them!

[ALFsince86]

Why, that's crazy that they chopped so much out of that particular episode. I don't know why DVDs ever edit the episodes, there certainly not concerned with fitting in commercials.

[ALFicionado]

Those cuts are only on the American releases though, right? I seem to remember the scenes you are referring to on my German season one set.

[samstokes80]

Yeah, these cuts are on the English DVD version released from Lion's Gate.

Incidentally, since you bring up the subject, I keep looking at the Amazon listing at the "uncut" German DVD set and I notice that it lists both German and English under language. I'm wondering, does it have full English audio or only subtitles? I would very much like to know, because I will probably order them if they have an English audio option.

http://www.amazon.de/ALF-Komplette-Fell ... 678&sr=1-4

[rbendtzen]

Hi.

Yes, there is an English audio option on the German dvd. In fact, the English is the default option.

I hope this helps.

Rob Bendtzen

[samstokes80]

Thanks for the info, Rob! That's good to know that the uncut English versions still exist (I was worried that the cut scenes may have been discarded).

Now, I need to figure out if I can play Region 2 DVDs in the US. I know that Region 1 is the standard US format, but I've heard there are "Region-free" DVD players, but I don't know much about them. Does anybody know about region-free players or other ways of viewing Region 2 DVDs in the US?

[ALFicionado]

Should be easy to order a region-free DVD if all else fails. You should be able to watch region 2 DVD's on the computer, too. Then you could connect the computer to the TV so you can see the episodes on your TV.

[Tedm]

The German version is much better. I have all four seasons and there is a very minimal amount of deleted scenes. It is certainly worth buying a code free DVD player for. amazon.com has some from their marketplace sellers that are under $80


The largest cut of all is the episode where ALF first meets Jodi and the Chipmunk's Christmas song is played. There is a minor cut in the pilot episode where ALF and Willie are talking. In the skydiving episode, Willie's dream is actually longer from the first airing which originally included a bit at the end where ALF announces to the viewers that the show has been renewed for the full season.

[ALFicionado]

I thought ALF got a whole season pretty much from the get-go? Interesting piece of trivia.

I must say I'm a bit surprised that not all fans are aware that the German DVD's have English audio by now. It was the first thing I set out to find out when I first heard about the upcoming release of the first season.

[samstokes80]

Yeah, I had no idea the German sets were in English. As is it turns out, I ended up getting each of the Lion's Gate DVD sets as birthday and Christmas presents before I even got around to buying them myself (so I really can't complain!), so already owning all the sets I wasn't in any rush to purchase them again. However, having had them for a while and having watched them through, I'm finding that I'm very much missing key moments to a few episodes in particular. The most notable example is the episode "We're So Sorry Uncle Albert" which completely cuts out any explanation of why ALF is celebrating Uncle Albert's death, making his motives appear very self-centered and ghoulish. This was one of my favorite episodes when I was a kid, but when I showed it to my wife for the first time, she was horrified by ALF's apparently inexcusably selfish and tactless behavior. She had no idea what was going on because they edited out any mention of Melmacian funeral customs.

Furthermore, the German versions are not even available through the US Amazon site, so now I'm trying to decide if I should try to set up an account on the German Amazon site (with my very limited German language skills) and seeing if they ship to the US (and how much this will cost in USD).

Then, of course, I have to figure out how to play them. I checked the hardware profile of my computer DVD drive and Windows says it is Region 1. I can change the region of the player up to 4 times and then it is locked into that region permanently, and Windows claims that it will be locked into that region even if I reinstall Windows or move the drive to a different computer. I am wondering if I can install a second DVD drive onto my computer and set that one to Region 2, so I can have both regions, or if I can just get a region-free DVD drive. Also, I know very little about DVD Regions - does it have to do with how the information is encoded or is it just a security feature? It seems that if Windows can allow me to change the Region of my player, then the hardware itself must be capable of playing discs from any region, so it makes me wonder if a region-free DVD player software on my computer would be able to play DVDs from other regions?

Anyway, I know I'm rambling on, but if any of you fellow ALF fans can give me any advice on this stuff, I'd greatly appreciate it!

[ALFicionado]

If you have an Ebay account, it will work for Ebay.de as well, the German Ebay. That's where I've gotten my sets.

[samstokes80]

Oh cool, I'll try that.

[CirothUngol]

Since you will own the DVDs in question, it's completely within your rights to burn your own Region Free copies so you can play them in your set-top DVD Player. I'm unsure if such discussions are allowed on this forum, but if the Admin is willing I can tell you how to do it quite easily with freely available software. Never let the DVD Consortium stand in between you and your ALF!

[NoProblem86]

So here is my question then. While the German versions are a vast improvement over the embarassing U.S./Canadian versions, they are still not perfect. For those few episodes that still have snippets excised, is there a place where the original, unedited versions are traded/saved/uploaded by fans?

I have nearly all of Season 1 and 2 in their original broadcast format, plus a handful of Season 3. Is there a site somewhere where these are traded as .mov or .wmv files?

[Blinky]

is there a site somewhere where these are traded as .mov or .wmv files?

good question mate,

also, i would like to know, what episodes on the german DVD set are also snipped? i think i read that turkey in the straw is missing a scene, but what else? i would love to know. thank you

[Melmac98]

I really want to get my hands on the German DVD's. And I hear you can easily make your DVD drive region-free in Windows, but in Mac OS X, I hear it's a nightmare. You have to install third-party firmware, or get an external DVD drive to use for Region 2 DVD's that will work with a Mac that has a buit-in DVD drive (if your Mac has one, of course). What I'll probably do is wait for my next Mac, dual-boot it with Windows, and go from there. The Mac DVD drives have the same schpeal: you can change it up to four times, then it's stuck forever. Anyway my DVD drive just broke, and I don't want to put a lot of money into my current Mac. I just disconnected it from the logic board and probably won't replace it.

[ALFicionado]

Why not just buy a region free DVD or Blu-ray player?

[Melmac98]

Why not just buy a region free DVD or Blu-ray player?

I could do that, but I want to have the option of playing it on my computer, so I can watch the uncut versions on the go (I have a MacBook, not a Mac desktop). Anyway I think I will replace the optical drive—it's pretty easy with my Mac—and I may dual-boot my current one with Windows so I can easily make the optical drive region-free, and pay it forward to the next person who gets my computer.
There is also a program called Region X that, if your optical drive is already region-free, will reset it back to four changes of the region and five resets at the repair shop as many times as you want to (I think the drive gets re-locked once you stick a DVD in there). And there's an add-on for VLC called libdvdcss that will make it play any region DVD, even if the drive is locked permanently, but I hear it's difficult to install.
The reason you can't unlock the DVD drive by re-installing your OS, be it Windows, OS X, Ubuntu or any other OS, or putting the drive into another computer is because the region code is programmed into the firmware of the optical drive, hence you have to install third-party firmware to make it region-free in OS X.