MovieChat Forums > Burn Notice (2007) Discussion > pilot on DVD - please help!

pilot on DVD - please help!

posted 9 years ago by ih8tt
6 replies | jump to latest

I just received seasons 1-3 of Burn Notice from Amazon (so I doubt they're bad copies), and so far, having only watched 28 minutes into the pilot, I've already found several missing lines and one missing scene, as compared to what airs on Esquire (where I've seen the series, so there may have even been more when it originally aired on USA, that Esquire cuts to add commercials...), which I have on video tape, and directly compared, running them simultaneously, on separate tvs

the first thing I noticed was in the scene where Michael goes to meet Lucy, instead of showing him talking his way past the guard (talking about being bonded, and needing a signature, then the guard calling Lucy), there's just a voice over saying how you can, as long as you have the uniform

then, in the first scene with Sam, the lines about having some medals, and some good stories, good for a free beer on July 4th are missing, as well as Sam's last line about people getting shot

thirdly, the whole second scene with Sam is missing, where he asks how the job is going, and tells Mike he found him a place to stay, it just goes right from Mike talking to the "Soldier of Fortune type" to walking and talking with Oleg at the loft

lastly (so far), the scene where Mike makes the fake bomb to get Dan's attention is completely different, even a different length, and the video is a little different...when it airs on Esquire, there's a scarily-detailed VO of how to make the fake bomb, on the DVD, more music, less talking, and extra lines about being okay with the noise (of the club) because he's slept through aerial bombings...and on the DVD, that scene is directly followed by a couple of lovely shots of a Miami sunrise, then Michael at the door of the client...in the Esquire version, no sunrise shots

I want the version I've seen on television, I don't understand why the DVD is different, with less...if anything, I would expect to see a little more, expecting that Esquire had cut some to add more commercials, I'm very disappointed

does anyone know anything about this? is there an explanation? the package reads, "The Complete First Season," it's Region 1, I don't understand the problem

thank you

addendum...in searching the Amazon reviews, I found this, "I love burn notice and started watching it on tv around season 3. I saw the pilot on tv the other week and wanted to finish watching the first season so I bought it. I went to watch the pilot again with a friend only to find out it had several scenes cut out and shortened.

I looked it up and they are now airing the extended pilot on tv, but the extended pilot isn't available on the dvd. I'm a bit disappointed, but this season is still worth buying."

so, does anyone know if the pilot is the only episode that is different? thank you

[–] MurphAndTheMagicTones 9 years ago

Basically, yes. Remember, Esquire takes two hours to show the pilot, so they have to stretch it out and add the scenes that were shaved off to get it down to 42 minutes when it originally aired on USA Network.

Sort of what Friends did with those supersized episodes but in reverse.

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[–] ih8tt 9 years ago

the pilot was originally only one hour (including commercials) on USA in 2007? are you sure? it's 1 hour and 6 minutes on the disc...to get it up to 2 hours with commercials, they'd have to add at least 15 more minutes of material (Esquire's breaks 'feel' long, but that could just be because I can't wait for the show to resume!)...as I said, I haven't finished watching it on the disc, but there must be a lot more missing... :(

[–] shuglife 9 years ago

I watched the Pilot during the end of season 1 marathon, and I vaguely remember it being a 2 part episode. I clearly remember the scene with Lucy's assistant. It might actually be the first scene I ever watched of Burn Notice.

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[–] TC Fenstermaker 9 years ago

The pilot (first episode) was aired without commercial interruption on its premier night. It was a solid one hour; I actually gave into USA's endless hype that summer for this "new show" and so I gave it a try. I have never watched it in re-run, so I often wondered how they handled the fact that it must have an extra 15 minute or so of stuff in it, since clearly they wouldn't run it again without commercials. I assumed maybe they edited out the drug dealer sub-plot, since it adds nothing to the story, but it sounds like instead they make it into a two-parter with some extra filler.
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[–] ih8tt 9 years ago

thank you for that clarification, TC Fenstermaker, that explains at least where the extra scenes came from, but not why the expanded version (which I believe is better) isn't the one on the DVD, or, maybe they could've put both versions (there are some subtle dialog/narration differences, too) on the DVD, let the viewer decide

[–] Anthoney999 9 years ago

I watched the pilot when it originally aired. It was 90 minutes with commercials. It's a shame they did that to the DVD. After a quick check I see most of the pirate copies out there are the full version but you who have a legal copy get only 2/3 of an episode.

Netflix also has the full episode.

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