History Main / EditedForSyndication

* The opening sequence in ''Film/OnTheBuses'' was cut down for TV airings.

** '''The NBC Rerun''': This is the version that airs during the weeks when ''SNL'' doesn't have any new episodes, usually between new episodes, during major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter), or when the season ends or is on hiatus because of a writers' strike (as was the case for Seasons 6, 10, 13, and 33). It's 90 minutes long (just like a typical first-run episode), has the phrase, "Previously Recorded From An Earlier Broadcast" during the opening credits, and has dress rehearsal scenes (and, in some cases, sketches) to replace the live show footage (either for content reasons, to fix a technical error or missed cue, or to make a sketch/segment funnier after flopping badly on its first-run). This cut is the same one that airs on the West Coast.

This is especially prevalent in {{anime}} exported to America and other western countries for broadcast, though it's lessened over time.

* When ''Series/{{Alf}}'' was released on DVD in the United States, many fans were outraged by the fact that all the episodes were in their syndicated format instead of their original broadcast versions. The only episode that was in its original format was the hour-long Season Two episode "ALF's Special Christmas".

* In an interesting reversal, the UK version of Season 1 of ''Series/TwentyFour'' has a scene ''not'' transmitted in the United States: Teri informing Nina of her pregnancy in that series' finale. However, the American syndicated airings on the A&E Channel contain scenes which weren't broadcast during its initial broadcast run (for instance, a longer gunfight between Jack Bauer and the Drazen family in the first season finale).

* The British version of ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' had a game cut from each episode, due to added commercials when shown in America (first on Creator/ComedyCentral and later on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC America]]). Some language and raunchier jokes would be censored; a notable example is a season 9 Film Dub which was removed entirely thanks to featuring footage of [[NippleAndDimed about a dozen topless women]]. Additionally, during the last few years of Comedy Central's airings and BBC America's run with it, the networks only aired episodes from seasons six onward--probably to attract fans of the American version, since those episodes are from when Ryan and Colin became regular contestants.

** Also, for some unknown reason, the same syndicated feed only included seasons 1 and 4, omitting seasons 2 and 3 (the Liza episodes).

* In late 60's/70's syndication and original NBC summer re-airings of ''Series/TheMonkees'', songs from earlier albums in the "romp" sequences were sometimes replaced by tracks from their then-recent albums.

* Creator/{{BET}}'s run of the HBO series ''Series/TheWire'' is a truly epic case of being edited down for syndication - this time, to appeal to a very specific audience. The network has only aired the first four seasons, and while seasons 1,3, and 4 aired with minimal censorship for content and in ninety-minute blocks, season two (which primarily focuses on the plight of Caucasian dock workers in Baltimore) was absolutely ''butchered''. The second-season episodes were cut down to run in an hour-long block, and a massive number of scenes crucial to the storyline (mostly focusing on Jimmy [=McNulty=]'s investigation and Frank Sobotka's crew) were axed, leaving plot holes (such as the background regarding the rivalry between the dock workers union and the police union, which is the ''real'' reason the Major Crimes Unit reformed and launched an investigation on the dock workers, being entirely chopped out) and rendering the season's themes castrated. Interestingly, the entire plot of the second season changed as a result of these cuts (roughly 20 minutes chopped from each episode), as the entire dock subplot took a backseat to the drug storyline (which was minor at that point).

** '''The NBC Rerun''': This is the version that airs during the weeks when ''SNL'' doesn't have any new episodes, usually between new episodes, during major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter), or when the season ends or is on hiatus because of a writers' strike (as was the case for seasons six, ten, thirteen, and 33). It's 90 minutes long (just like a typical first-run episode), has the phrase, "Previously Recorded From An Earlier Broadcast" during the opening credits, and has dress rehearsal scenes (and, in some cases, sketches) to replace the live show footage (either for content reasons, to fix a technical error or missed cue, or to make a sketch/segment funnier after flopping badly on its first-run). This cut is the same one that airs on the West Coast.
** '''The 60-Minute Rerun''': This is the version of ''SNL'' that aired on the cable channels Creator/ComedyCentral and E! Entertainment. It's ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: a rerun of an ''SNL'' episode cut down to roughly an hour (minus commercial breaks). This version includes [[note]](what most fans consider to be)[[/note]] the best and funniest sketches from a given episode, but excludes the sketches that weren't as good and the second song by the musical guest is cut for time. Originally, Comedy Central aired ''Saturday Night Live'' episodes from the 1970s to the 1980s (barring the Jean Doumanian episodes, except for the Creator/BillMurray[=/=]Delbert [=McClinton=] episode, and the last episode of season six, which had no host, but included guest appearances by Creator/ChevyChase, Creator/RobinWilliams, and Christopher Reeve, with a musical performance by Jr. Walker and the All-Stars), but after a while, those got phased out for the episodes from the mid-to-late 1980s to the 1990s (seasons 12 to 25), then those got phased out for episodes from the 1990s to the early 2000s (seasons 21 to 27). After Comedy Central picked up ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' in place of ''SNL'', E! aired the 1990s to the early 2000s episodes, but also added episodes from seasons 28, 29, and 30. NBC is now airing one-hour cuts of their ''SNL'' episodes at 10:00pm Saturday nights (provided a sports telecast doesn't run over) starting with episodes from season 38 (2012-2013 season). In the 2014-15 in honor of the show's 40th season, one episode per week from each season will air with an hour-cut version in this timeslot.
** '''The VH-1 and VH-1 Classic Reruns''': Similar to the Comedy Central and E! reruns (in which the show is condensed to one-hour, leaving in only the best sketches, Weekend Update jokes, and one musical performance), only the episodes that air on VH-1 and VH-1 Classic are from seasons 24 to 38, with some "Best of" clip show episodes and the occasional behind-the-scenes special about the show's history. The "Best of" clip shows and the "behind-the-scenes" documentaries are the only 90-minute reruns of ''SNL'' ever aired on cable TV.
** '''The Nick At Nite Rerun''': These were 30-minute reruns of ''SNL'' that aired in the early-to-mid 1980s, often with an hour-long syndicated cut of ''{{Series/SCTV}}: Network 90''. The episodes used were from the "Not Ready for Primetime"-era (fall of 1975 to spring of 1980), though episodes from seasons four and five were shown more often than seasons 1-3.
** '''The HA! Network Rerun''' [[note]]The HA! Network was an early cable channel which premiered in 1990 that was like Comedy Central in its early days -- nothing but comedy movies, stand-up specials, and old reruns of sitcoms and sketch shows. It and {{Creator/HBO}}'s SpiritedCompetitor The Comedy Channel merged in 1991 into Comedy Central when it became clear that there wasn't enough demand for '''two''' different comedy networks, and HA!'s format sprinkled with HBO's TCC programming basically formed the nucleus of their schedule for years.[[/note]]: A season seven ''SNL'' episode hosted by Susan St. James was the first program that aired when The HA! Network premiered. It (and other episodes) aired pretty much the same way as an NBC rerun (full 90-minute version with dress rehearsal footage added when necessary), but HA! Network only aired ''SNL'' episodes from when Dick Ebersol was executive producer (between 1981 and 1985), which was when the Susan St. James episode aired.
** '''The Comedy Network Rerun'''[[note]]The Comedy Network is essentially Comedy Central in Canada (meaning whatever Comedy Central airs, Comedy Network airs). The only difference is Canada has much looser standards about profanity[[/note]]: This edited version of ''SNL'' is similar to the NBC rerun (airs for 90 minutes with little or no edits), only Comedy Network airs all of [[AudienceAlienatingEra the season six episodes produced by Jean Doumanian]] in addition to airing the good (or SoOkayItsAverage) episodes from both Lorne Michaels eras (fall 1975-spring 1980 and fall 1985-present) and Dick Ebersol's era (spring 1981-spring 1985).
** '''The Xfinity Streampix On-Demand/Hulu/Netflix Version''': Like the Comedy Central/E!/VH-1 version, in that only the best material is shown and everything else (including musical performances, though seasons one to five had the musical performances intact, possibly because they were cleared for DVD release) is edited for copyright reasons, time, or just not being funny or memorable with viewers, only the episodes range from lasting 15 minutes to 58 minutes, depending on how much has been edited (the second time Kathleen Turner hosted ''SNL'' in the late 1980s has a streaming version so short, the only material in that episode is Kathleen Turner's monologue and Weekend Update with Creator/DennisMiller). Also, the season 30 episode hosted by Kate Winslet with musical guest Eminem is [[MissingEpisode not there]].
* ''Series/MadTV1995'' first aired in syndication on local TV stations, under the title, "The Best of ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}''". Only the first two seasons aired. The show then got picked up by Creator/SpikeTV (back when it was TNN -- The Nashville Network, a channel dedicated to everything that most people would consider "redneck" or "trailer trash") and aired the first two seasons, followed by seasons 3-5. The local station and TNN cuts of ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' were 30 minutes long (''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' runs their show for an hour while ''SNL'' runs for 90 minutes [an hour and a half], and, much like the reruns from ''Saturday Night Live'', the ones for ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' only had the best material from a given episode while leaving the weaker, less funny stuff on the cutting room floor). The TNN reruns were off before anyone noticed (that was when Viacom had "refocused" the network and eventually turned it into Spike TV) and eventually the show found its way to Comedy Central after E! acquired the rights to air ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' (''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'''s long-standing rival). Creator/ComedyCentral aired seasons 1-7 of ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' in their full, hour-long version [with some bleeping and/or muting for obscene language], and as the years went by, seasons 8, 9, 10, and 11 were added as well (seasons 12 and 13 were only shown on Comedy Central's Canadian sister channel, Comedy Network, and the final season [season 14] has yet to be aired on either channel). In 2008, Comedy Central phased out the first seven seasons of ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' in favor of the episodes from seasons 8-11, and those episodes have been running until 2010, when ''Series/{{MADtv|1995}}'' was dropped from the syndication schedule in favor of reruns of reruns of canceled Comedy Central original programming, exports of canceled animated comedies (i.e. ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheGoodeFamily'', and ''WesternAnimation/SitDownShutUp''), more movies, and more stand-up specials.

* FOX sought to test the waters in the late 90s with a thirty minute re-edit of ''Series/AllyMcBeal'' for a quick cash-in for syndication at the height of the show's popularity. Effectively they purged the first two seasons of all courtroom related scenes/drama material in order to present it as a comedy show, which created episodes that had huge plot holes, such as the elimination of Lucy Liu's character's entire introduction episode and having her just randomly showing up in the cast without an introduction. Incidentally this half-hour version never saw syndication.

** ''In Living Color'' is mostly uncut on the FXX reruns. In comparison to the [=DVDs=], all the musical parodies and references to popular licensed songs are left intact. However, the "Bolt 45" sketch is still not there, and neither are the ad-libbed lines from the "Men on Football" sketch that aired during a live UsefulNotes/SuperBowl special where Antoine and Blaine imply that Carl Lewis and Richard Gere are homosexual (both original versions have been uploaded on Website/YouTube). There's also a cut on the season five sketch where Jim Carrey's Fire Marshal Bill tries to look for safety hazards at a magic show. After the magician assures him that his magic is safe, Fire Marshall Bill says, "That's what they said about the World Trade Center, son. But me and my friend Abdul and a couple of pounds of plastique explosives showed 'em different!" While the DVD version left this line intact, the FXX version cut it (as the line, which once referenced the World Trade Center's bombing in 1993, can now be applied to the September 11th attacks that happened eight years later), though the cut was a sloppy and obvious one, as the part where Bill laughs and says his catchphrase, "Lemme show ya somethin'" was also cut.

* This trope is inverted with ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' on Netflix. Until season 4 or so, many of the episodes include deleted scenes not present in the television airings.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' has "A Word From Us Kids" between the two segments. In seasons 11 and 12, this was replaced by [[WesternAnimation/PostcardsFromBuster "Postcards from You!"]]. Some episodes contain an additional segment after the second story, like "A Word From Marc Brown" and "Which Arthur Character Are You?".

** Some episodes had some film segments replaced with others during summer reruns in the 90s; in more recent years, some segments (mainly the Spanish language related ones) have been removed or replaced on prints made available on services like Hulu and HBO Max.

** The first two seasons underwent a remastering on some stations in 2002, in order to update the show's sponsors. This led to the original "ZOOM a Cum Laude" segments being replaced with the "ZOOM Into Action!" ones that had been used since season 3.

* In the 1950's, radio comedy such as ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' was written and timed to occupy the whole of a half-hour slot. Come the 2000's, the BBC had a dilemma on broadcasting the shows whole and unabridged: as in this decade, radio shows are routinely timed to occupy twenty-five minutes or less of a half-hour slot so as to allow for trailers to be played at either end: the BBC's all-pervading self-advertising that simply did not exist in 1954. Yes, the BBC chose to edit classic comedy shows so as to be able to fit in the trailers telling us what a great service the BBC provides and how it respects its eighty years of archive material.... Creator/SpikeMilligan would have had something trenchant to say.

** In the original broadcasts, the show's structure was: Rocky and Bullwinkle, Fractured Fairy Tales/Aesop and Son, Bullwinkle's Corner/Mr. Know-It-Al/Bullwinkle Fan Club, Peabody's Improbable History/Dudley Do-Right, and Rocky and Bullwinkle. ''The Bullwinkle Show'' syndication package follows this format a little, but also includes either Bullwinkle's Corner, Mr. Know-It-All, or the Fan Club at the end, before the credits. Last season reruns actually include three Rocky and Bullwinkle segments and only one non-Bullwinkle supporting feature (though all four parts of the last storyarc, Moosylvania Saved, are shown in the same half hour). Additionally, installments of the various supporting segments are often not the same as originally paired together on television, with them usually being shown out of order (Mr. Know-It-All and Fan Club segments were added in season three, but this syndication package includes those segments in earlier episodes).

** The opening credits of most syndicated episodes are also cut down, usually deleting Lisa's sax solo and Bart's chalkboard punishment gag and skateboarding through town the cutting straight to the "couch gag" (in most syndicated episodes, the couch gag used is the one from season five's "Rosebud"[[note]]The "Mr. Burns loses his teddy bear" episode[[/note]] where the family rush to the couch, only to find an exact clone of them already on the couch).

* From the 1960s through to the early 1990s, anyone watching the first two seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' in syndication saw opening and closing credits sequences featuring the theme song "Meet the Flintstones", which was not introduced until season 3. The original "Rise and Shine" opening and closing sequences were not restored until the series was relaunched in syndication in the 1990s and subsequently released to DVD. And even then edits remain; all references to sponsorship (''especially'' by the cigarette company that sponsored early episodes) remain excised. When Creator/MeTV started broadcasting the series in September 2019, they originally used "Rise and Shine" to open and close the first two seasons, but in October 2020, they switched over to using the "Meet the Flintstones" intro and closing credits as well.

Occasionally this is done where there is no [[UsefulNotes/{{Copyright}} clearance]] for footage to be re-used and an alternate clip may be shown.

* As a gimmick in the Jeff Zucker era, NBC sometime had its shows do special episodes which are slightly longer than the standard half-hour/twenty-two minutes formula, called a "supersized" episode. When they reach syndication, or even reruns, they're trimmed down to the usual length or, if there's enough extra footage, stretched out into a two-parter; a couple of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episodes are incomplete or presented in SD in the show's UsefulNotes/BluRay release for this reason because the additional scenes weren't part of the syndicated cuts. Now that Jeff Zucker is gone from NBC though this doesn't happen any longer.

* The October 22, 2002 edition of ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/comics/2799.png originally quoted]] Creator/RobertFrost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay". Due to the poem still being under copyright, it was replaced in book reprints with original "poetic" lines. In relation, the line "I doubt Robert Frost would have penned any loving odes to leaf blowers" became "I sincerely doubt that poets have penned any loving odes to leaf blowers." (The original poem has since lapsed into public domain as of 2019).

* The October 22, 2002 edition of ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' [[http://www.mezzacotta.net/garfield/comics/2799.png originally quoted]] Creator/RobertFrost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay". Due to the poem still being under copyright, it was replaced in book reprints with original "poetic" lines. In relation, the line "I doubt Robert Frost would have penned any loving odes to leaf blowers" became "I sincerely doubt that poets have penned any loving odes to leaf blowers."

** Some episodes had some film segments replaced with others during summer reruns in the 90s; in more recent years, some segments have been removed or replaced on prints made available on services like Hulu and HBO Max.

* ''WebVideo/ScottTheWoz'' airings on Creator/{{G4}} repackage several episodes together into hour-long time slots, so some scenes are cut short and any copyrighted video game music (which makes up most of the background music in the series) is replaced with a more generic track. It also replaces the censor bleeps with longer ones to obscure the curse words better (but, at least a couple times, they took out the bleeps while forgetting to add new ones), and replaces some footage with stock footage[[note]]for example, a stock image taken inside a [=GameStop=] in "Pre-Orders" was replaced with stock footage of someone at a laptop, likely because the former had photos of real people in it[[/note]].

* The original DVD release of Creator/HamishAndAndy’s Gap Year USA started with them admitting that “all the ads had been editied out” for it. By “ads”, they meant deleting all the celebrity interviews (which, among other things, included a performance by Music/{{Coldplay}} that was an obvious deletion), all the “Coming Up”/“Next Episode” breaks were deleted (causing abrupt [[FadeIn fade-in]] and [[FadeOut outs]]), and many segment introductions were (poorly) shortened.

* When ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' moved to Comedy Central, many of the earlier episodes had scenes cut, or moved around, presumably to make room for more advertisements. Most notably, the four post-season-four movies were cut into four episode-length segments each, creating a fifth "season" of sixteen episodes for Comedy Central to broadcast.