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The Censored World of Reginald Perrin
Jul. 25th, 2009 10:58 amA couple of months ago, I bought The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin DVD set. I'd been looking for it for years — a classic British sitcom. I've been watching it a bit at a time, and finally finished the "regular" material yesterday (I haven't looked at the "bonus" stuff yet).
The series stands up well, after all these years -- a few things are a bit dated, but the core of the work is timeless. There are some similarities to the original British The Office, but it's dark in different ways, and it's hard to take the nastier characters seriously because they're more over-the-top.
But I was startled to notice that some scenes were removed from the third season. Originally, in an effort to scare away a couple of bigoted and snobby neighbors, one (white) main character appeared briefly in blackface and another was made up as a Sikh. That scene, and a couple of later references to it, don't appear on the DVDs.
To some extent, I can understand a desire to remove offensive material (though I think that if this is done, buyers should be warned about the editing). But in this case, the intention was to poke fun at the racism of the neighbors; the cut material was anti-racist.
Some references to homosexuality are a bit dated, but most still work. One twitchy young man is very concerned that he might be thought "one of them", but that's probably as realistic today as it was then. A few minor characters are gay, and all seem to be involved in "the gay bar scene" and similar things. Most of these characters are in a group of people with a variety of personal problems, so it makes sense that they're not shown with stable well-adjusted lives, but the bias does seem a bit odd now. I don't think that any of that material was cut for being insensitive or offensive.
The series stands up well, after all these years -- a few things are a bit dated, but the core of the work is timeless. There are some similarities to the original British The Office, but it's dark in different ways, and it's hard to take the nastier characters seriously because they're more over-the-top.
But I was startled to notice that some scenes were removed from the third season. Originally, in an effort to scare away a couple of bigoted and snobby neighbors, one (white) main character appeared briefly in blackface and another was made up as a Sikh. That scene, and a couple of later references to it, don't appear on the DVDs.
To some extent, I can understand a desire to remove offensive material (though I think that if this is done, buyers should be warned about the editing). But in this case, the intention was to poke fun at the racism of the neighbors; the cut material was anti-racist.
Some references to homosexuality are a bit dated, but most still work. One twitchy young man is very concerned that he might be thought "one of them", but that's probably as realistic today as it was then. A few minor characters are gay, and all seem to be involved in "the gay bar scene" and similar things. Most of these characters are in a group of people with a variety of personal problems, so it makes sense that they're not shown with stable well-adjusted lives, but the bias does seem a bit odd now. I don't think that any of that material was cut for being insensitive or offensive.
