{"id":96330,"date":"2016-06-18T17:07:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T17:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/06\/18\/is-it-true-that-the-sherlock-episodes-are-actually\/"},"modified":"2016-06-18T17:07:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T17:07:07","slug":"is-it-true-that-the-sherlock-episodes-are-actually","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2016\/06\/18\/is-it-true-that-the-sherlock-episodes-are-actually\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it true that the Sherlock episodes are actually longer in the UK than the US, due to more commercials in the States?"},"content":{"rendered":"

mid0nz-deactivated20170516<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Yes, it\u2019s true. All the versions you can purchase or stream are the original BBC version.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a misconception among a lot of casuals that Sherlock<\/i> is aired in the US on BBC America. That\u2019s not the case<\/i>. PBS, the US station which airs Sherlock<\/i>\u00a0as part of its Masterpiece Mystery<\/i> series, is partially publicly funded, and \u201cfamily friendly.\u201d It produces\/broadcasts wholesome and\/or brainy shows like Sesame Street<\/i>, Antiques Roadshow <\/i>(US), Ken Burns documentaries, classical and country music concerts, horrors like Celtic Women<\/i>, and LOTS of nature programs. They also air LOTS of UK dramas like Downtown Abbey, Endeavor <\/i>and the like. To their credit they did cut exponentially\u00a0less<\/i> of Series Three, but yes\u2013 there are substantial<\/i> differences between Series One and Two as PBS\/Masterpiece<\/i> broadcast them versus the BBC originals. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Now. Not only did PBS\/<\/i>Masterpiece heavily cut Sherlock S1 and S2\u2013 they aired the episodes MONTHS after the BBC. And in the case of TEH\u2013 a few days later.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Masterpiece<\/i>\u00a0Mystery<\/i> and Sherlock<\/i> Co-Producer Rebecca Eaton\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

The US cuts weren\u2019t done primarily for commercials. PBS shows have very few sponsored ads (mainly from charitable foundations and Viking Riverboat Cruises!) Those spots appear at the close of episodes. The main reasons for the cuts were that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Masterpiece Mystery<\/i>\u00a0traditionally has a shorter runtime than BBC dramas.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  2. Masterpiece has charming, but long opening credits animated by Edward Gorey<\/a>. (see below)<\/li>\n
  3. They have VERY annoying looooong insipid introductions for all their\u00a0<\/i>episodes by a host that old timey viewers love to love AND hate. (see below)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here are some Gorey examples:<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/figure>\n
    \"image\"<\/figure>\n

    Here are Masterpiece\u00a0Sherlock\u00a0<\/i>intros by Alan Cumming<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    <\/figure>\n

    Masterpiece<\/i> is produced by Rebecca Eaton, one of the most powerful people in US media<\/a>. Eaton\/Masterpiece <\/i>puts up a big chunk of cash for\u00a0Sherlock<\/i>\u2019s production budget. (Eaton is also credited with introducing Benedict to Sophie<\/a>.) People talk about Sue Vertue all the time but Sherlock<\/i> wouldn\u2019t exist without Eaton\u2019s\/Mastepiece<\/i>\u2019s backing. The co-production is also why Sherlock<\/i> is even eligible for US Emmys.\u00a0Here she is talking about TAB<\/a>. Here is Eaton with somebody you know:<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/figure>\n

    [^ Hilarious considering the ashtray bit was cut from the PBS version!]<\/p>\n

    Here Eaton is bitching in her autobiography (between S2 and S3) about how we pirate Sherlock<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/figure>\n
    \"image\"<\/figure>\n

    ..from Making Masterpiece: 25 Years Behind the Scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS<\/a> by Rebecca Eaton<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/figure>\n

    This ^ is ultimately the primary reason Masterpiece<\/i>\/PBS stopped hacking up Sherlock<\/i>. They were losing massive money (despite what she claims above) in the US due to the fact that the Sherlock<\/i> audience is decades younger than traditional Masterpiece<\/i> viewers, and<\/i> we know a thing or two about VPNs, BBC iPlayer, and Mediafire. (Jesus lady, get with the times already!)\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Also Sue, Moffat, Benedict, etc. all put much public pressure on Eaton (especially<\/i> when asked about the cuts and the delay by fans at cons and public appearances) to stop the madness and air the original simultaneously with the BBC.<\/p>\n

    Yes, but what about the @#$% cuts?!<\/b><\/h2>\n

    The cuts were made willingly by Hartswood so they weren\u2019t *total* hack jobs, but I can tell you that they made a huge difference story wise. I didn\u2019t know there were cuts when I first watched Series Two in the US. (And this is why I watched TEH on the friggin iPlayer buffering 30 seconds at a time!) In TRF, for example, they cut, among other things, a key bit of Sherlock\u2019s and Molly\u2019s scene before the Fall. In fact TEH (and \u201cyou were the one person who mattered the most\u201d) wouldn\u2019t make much sense if you had only seen the PBS cut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s a link to a blog that compares all the PBS\/Masterpiece cuts from Series One and Two to the BBC originals:<\/p>\n

    http:\/\/calverosdepot.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/27\/new-urls-sherlock-bbcpbs-edits<\/a><\/p>\n

    It would be quite the meta for somebody to talk about how the cuts changed the stories and headcanons\u2013 especially since they were \u201cofficially\u201d (though reluctantly) done by the late Charlie Phillips (I\u2019m not sure if Tim Porter, who edited TRF did the PBS\/Masterpiece<\/i> edits for that ep, or if Phillips did them all.) \u00a0Here is Charlie talking about the edits<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/figure>\n

    from \u201cReimagining a Classic with Editor Charlie Phillips\u201d in Cinema Editor <\/i>
    By Adrian Pennington\n<\/p>\n

    Now that\u2019s kind of true\u2013 there were, however a few words\/phrases of S3 that were altered. For the youth, you know\u2026<\/p>\n

    And there you have it. This is why we all tuned into the BBC iPlayer for S3 early (to get access to the stream so we wouldn\u2019t be blocked out from overwhelmed servers which we were anyway) and why we watched the BBC\u2019s DEADLY BORING version of Antiques Roadshow which aired just before TEH in the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n

    The cuts and the delay are a HUGE HUGE part of Sherlock<\/i> fandom history that you wouldn\u2019t know about if you came in after Three.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    mid0nz-deactivated20170516: Yes, it\u2019s true. All the versions you can purchase or stream are the original BBC version.\u00a0 There\u2019s a misconception among a lot of casuals that Sherlock is aired in the US on BBC America. That\u2019s not the case. PBS, the US station which airs Sherlock\u00a0as part of its Masterpiece Mystery series, is partially publicly … <\/p>\n

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