An email from the BBC on why they still edit Ninja Turtles

[Jason]

Last week, I sent an email to the BBC over their annoying edits to the original Ninja Turtles cartoon or Hero turtles as they would want you to believe. Today I got an amazingly arrogrant reply from them saying that basically they STILL in the year 2003 feel the nunchuka and 'Ninja' cuts are neccesary, the fact that GMTV show the new episodes uncut and movies were rereleased uncut is irrevelent and that they have no plans of ever showing anything other then the edited Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles episodes.

Anway here is a copy of the email I sent to them:

I've noticed that the BBC have been airing episodes of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon under the edited name Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles with numerous cuts made to the episodes such as the word Ninja being said and Michaelangelo's nunchukas being used.
GMTV show the new episodes of the cartoon uncut as Ninja Turtles and the new toy line has been released as Ninja Turtles in the UK and yet disappointingly the BBC still air the original show edited as Hero Turtles.
The BBFC have also removed heavy cuts made to the 2nd and 3rd Ninja Turtles films when they were reclassified last year. Meaning Ninja Turtles are being allowed uncut everywhere apart from the BBC.
Surely, 15 years later the word Ninja isn't considered too violent now and the episodes should be allowed to be broadcast uncut on the BBC as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Why do the BBC still air these edited episodes as Hero Turtles when they are now known everywhere else in the UK as Ninja Turtles ?


And this is the reply they gave:


Dear Jason

Thank you for your e-mail regarding 'Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles'.

In relation to your question about the editing that occurs in the programme, I can inform you that our policy has not changed. We do not feel it is necessary to review the whole series at cost to the licence payer and there were good reasons why we made the changes in the first place in that they met our guidelines for a children’s programme. As it will still appeal to the same age group we feel the same edits are appropriate despite the time gap.

I hope that this help to clarify matters and, once again, thank you for taking the time to contact the BBC.

Regards

Rory Egan
BBC Information
__________________________________________________ _
BBCi - the BBC at your beck and call
http://www.bbc.co.uk

[Raph]

Damn.!!!!!!

That means the edited eps will also appear in Holland. Boy am I glad that tape the American eps from the internet

[Raphaella]

Oh man, steam rising, I really hate those edits, I'm real glad you sent em a letter regarding it, even if the bastards didn't do nuttin. For all the time I've been a TMNT fan, I had to put up with the films minus Mikey's nunchuck action. But they showed the 2nd movie on channel 4 about 2 weeks ago and it was the full version, no cut outs, because I had never seen the scene where April tries to convince Keno that the nunchucks on her counter were hers, and he say: 'Keep practising'. Also, I had never seen the bit at the beginning where they're in the mall, and Mikey uses those food stick things to scare the crooks. Those were deleted from the bought VHS. I have no friggin idea what the reasons are for cutting out the word 'ninja' in the cartoons, or editing Mikey's nunchucks, it's not like people of England are gonna go out and start trying to beat criminals with two bits of wood linked with a chain. It's not illegal in England anyway to possess Nunchakus, if it was I'd be in jail by now, but hey.
The whole editing out really pisses me off, fans in England shud bombard the w***ers with letters demading no cut outs. *walks off steaming to cool down*

Yeah the only way I noticed they had cut out the word 'ninja' in the cartoons was by downloading them off the net, and then borrowing the bought videos off a friend, with the boxes labeled 'teenage mutant hero turtles'.

[Dinny]

10 years ago during the turtlemania years I lived in Greece and they had Ninja Turtles so I was never bothered but we always came to London and Swansea during the summer cause Im 1/2 British and noticed that whole chunks of episodes were missing and that even the theme song was slightly different it was seriously annoyin.

Anyway the reason that the BBC wont change and ITV will is cause the BBC is funded and co-owned by the government which obviously still has a thing against ninjas.

[impetus]

While I disagree with such ridiculous censorship, the BBC can hardly be criticized for an "amazingly arrogrant reply". The letter was courteously written, and you should realize most large companies would not have given your e-mail second glance, much less any thought or a reply.

[Karpo_007]

Well I still don't understand the cencoring, I don't think that even the first season is too violent for small children...

[Jason]

While I disagree with such ridiculous censorship, the BBC can hardly be criticized for an "amazingly arrogrant reply". The letter was courteously written, and you should realize most large companies would not have given your e-mail second glance, much less any thought or a reply.

Okay let me clear one thing up about why many people are so bitter towards the BBC and it's something you don't really have in the US:

If I were writing to any other free channel I could understand a lousy response in fact I probably wouldn't have bothered but I guess what you may not be fully aware of, is that in the UK the BBC is publicly funded and every household in the UK must legally pay them a licence fee of £120 ($180) per year even if you don't want to watch the channels.

If you were forced to pay around $200 in tax per year for the right to watch TV, don't you think if you made a complaint they should be obligated to send you a decent reply ? I'm sorry but this is hugely different to writing to Fox or whoever complaining about edits, they are big company who don't really owe you anything however the BBC as a public funded body are accountable to the public for their actions. It's it actually a rule that they must reply to all queries in the UK about their programming and keep a log of a complaints for future reference.

After I pointed how Ninja Turtles was being shown uncut everywhere else in the UK the BBC clearly have no intention removing cuts to this one show, even though they have removed cuts made from other shows in the past. The fact they even refuse to consider looking over the past episodes pretty much shows their clear arrogance in this area.
"We made the cuts then and they should apply now regardless of how times have changed and how GMTV are showing the new episodes unedited without kids killing each other. " That's how is pretty much how I had interpreted their response oh and of course my family still has to legally hand them £120/$180 even if we don't want to watch their censorfest episodes.

[impetus]

legal requirement?! :o

that certainly DOES make a difference!

[Karpo_007]

We have a similar thing to. A TV permission fee. The money goes to two goverment own TV channels.

[uviuar]

I think the real reason here is that they simply have neither the time nor care to go back and RE-edit the episodes to compile a library of originals like before. There isnt some guy walkin around with access to vhs tapes just poppin em in every half hour for each show. They have all these lousy edited TMNT ep's stocked and nothing to do with them, and they probably dont even have the originals anymore, cuz they figured they would never show them. So it would cost them MORE work and MORE money to return the show to its original form, so why bother?

[Karpo_007]

That is probably the real reason. They have the old episodes in stock, they just bought the license to air them again.

[jeff the cheff]

I dont understand why the nunchucks are so bad. They seem almost the least violent of the weapons used by the ninja turtles

[Karpo_007]

I heard it was to easy for kids to make and conseal them.

[Dinny]

I made a pair o' nunchucks. :D

[gobo]

Bottom line is that the BBC doesn't have the rights to the uncut series, and probably doesn't see enough reason to shell out the additional cash to secure those rights, especially now that they've already renewed the rights on TMHT. Just get to the video/DVD distributor before they make same decision.

Oh, wait... "...enough reason to shell out the additional cash..." Uhmn... pun intended... Honest. :embarass:

[Misfit]

If what Gobo said is true then I can see the BBC's point.

Yet if not I find it shocking that they still have those beliefs. Kids grow up ridiculously fast in today's world and can probably handle a heck of a lot more than they could some 15 years ago or however long it's been. Though even back then I don't think seeing 'chunks and hearing the word "ninja" would turn every young child into a wannabe violent thug.

The BBC should be re-named TPCC aka The Politically Correct Channel, since that's the only sort of thing they show in all their programmes. It really is ludircous.

[Karpo_007]

I made a pair o' nunchucks. :D

So did I. :)

[Tetsu Deinonychus]

I think every one of us had some kind of homemade Ninja weapon.

Anyway, I'd protest this with a write-in campeign (snail-mail). Even if it doesn't work, you'd at least have punished it for starting all that "edit out the word Ninja" crap in the first place.(Those letters would pile up and get annoying) Also american TMNT fans can cry boycott on the "BBC America" channel in sympathy with brittish fans.

Anyway, at least your getting the new show, uncut.

[Jason]

Spot the Difference:

BBC airing: (UK - 2003)
http://members.lycos.co.uk/j38uk/bbc.jpg

GMTV airing: (UK - 2003)
http://members.lycos.co.uk/j38uk/gmtv.jpg


This is what really annoys me most about the BBC's stance on this issue. The stuff they feel is unsuitable for children is being shown on GMTV.
If anything calling it Hero Turtles must be really confusing to younger viewers who will know it as Ninja Turtles from the new episodes and wouldn't most people consider the new cartoon more violent then the original ?


Another thing the BBC said was the passage of 15 years hasn't made any difference to standards whereas the BBFC who classify cinema and video releases in the UK removed the cuts they made to the Ninja Turtles films back in the early 1990's proving that things have changed since the late 80's/early 90's.

Ninja Turtles II listed uncut by the BBFC:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/ClassifiedWorks/7AD72A02763B52EB80256C53002BE604?OpenDocument

Ninja Turtles III listed uncut by the BBFC:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/ClassifiedWorks/014A23965073C63380256C53002BE5F8?OpenDocument

It really amazes that the BBC believes everyone else in the UK such as GMTV and the BBFC are wrong, every other country in the entire world to air 'Ninja' Turtles was wrong and that they, the BBC, are right.

[J Legault]

Ofcource the original is suppose to be sutible for younger kids. When I watched it i didn't had any influce on Nuckchas. the series isn't too violent for children, doesn't contain any blood in it or mild language. I only have small memories on the original show. I'll wait until the series gets dvd rights soon.

the new one is different it contains nuckchas and it's more serious then the old one. It has more mirage theme in it. the old cartoon ignored the Mirage plots as it was similar to TMNT Archie comics.

i would say one thing for the new one:

"Now that's what I call a TMNT cartoon!"

[Karpo_007]

Yeah, new show is defiently more violent than the old, but like being said it's probably money issue. "Not suitable" is just an excuse.

[Dinny]

Well if theyve not changed it after all these years theyve not got much of a reason to go diggin out 10 year old videos now.

[jeff the cheff]

It should be illegal to tamper with anything ninja turtles.

Doesnt hero turtles sound so bad?

[J Legault]

Well atleast it's not Mild Violent. Just Ninjisu Action and some violence. I don't know why Europe would perfer Hero instend of ninja. Different country different Law I guess.

Well like I said UK is very lucky while we Yanks have to finds website with downloads. There'll be Dvd release rights in a little while. i'll be sitting on my butt until I see some.

[Reznorite420]

It should be illegal to tamper with anything ninja turtles.

Doesnt hero turtles sound so bad?You should've been around when I first joined the forums; I was ranting and raving about that so much that my posts had to be constantly edited.