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RoboCop: TV Edit HD Restoration (Released)

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 (Edited)

I have been working on this for the past year, and have finally completed it. I’m going to be releasing it soon. I posted a lot of updates over on Fanedit, and am in the process of submitting it.

I’ve compiled several sources to put this edit together including:

-RoboCop 4K restored Blu Ray from 2014 (main source)
-The original ABC network broadcast of RoboCop - recorded c. 1991 (not the premiere) - VHS
-WGN America airing of RoboCop from 2010 - VHS
-Comet TV 2017 airing of RoboCop -DVR to DVD
-THIStv 2018 airing of RoboCop - DVR/hdmi rip
-Unreleased Blu Ray of RoboCop Theatrical cut
-RoboCop Full Screen Laserdisc
-RoboCop alternate footage compilation from YouTube (for 2 shots I couldn’t find in any TV version I had)

There are 2 main TV versions of RoboCop:

-ITV version: This is the most well known version that most modern TV edits are based off of. Cut for violence/swearing/sex/drugs. Contains the most alternate footage.

-ABC Edit: Cut for violence/swearing/sex/drugs. Has some alternate footage, but is cut down signifcantly to fit in a 2hr time slot with commercials. But infamously has the alternate take of Clarence Driving around Emil instead of running him down.

The THIStv recording I have had most of the ITV footage, but there was a problem. The 2001 release of RoboCop (that most TV versions use now) had a blue/purplish tone throughout, so the alternate footage was (very poorly) color corrected to match. Some I could easily correct with a filter, others I had to go through frame by frame and re color the background and faces/clothes.

Other alternate footage was taken from a VHS recording of the ABC version, sharpened and up scaled.

Because the alternate footage of toxic Emil is so infamous and unique, I used it. However, most of the edit is based off of the ITV edit, with some edits throughout that are from either version. I wanted to include as much alternate footage as possible.

In terms of Audio, there are 3 tracks to accommodate the different versions:

  1. ITV, main edit. It has the best audio quality.
  2. ABC Edit. Contains the dubs/takes not in the ITV version. Taken from an old VHS, so quality isn’t great on some of the dubs
  3. Current US broadcast. Almost exactly the same as ITV, but there’s no music under Murphy’s death and every instance of “freaking or friggin” is taken out.

The edit is about 3 minutes shorter than the original movie. I also redid the TV bumper before it at the beginning of the edit.

Will be publicly releasing it soon. Also will be posting (updated) clips and screenshots at some point soon.

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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Here is the info on the edit for those that are interested:

Sources used:
2014 R1 Uncut Blu Ray (base)
2006 Recalled Sony Blu Ray - Theatrical Cut
1988 Full Screen Image Laserdisc - Theatrical Cut
1988 Orion VHS -Theatrical Cut
RoboCop Soundtrack - Music from the Motion Picture
ABC Network TV Broadcast from 1991
WGN America TV Broadcast from 2010
Comet TV Broadcast from 2017
THIS TV Broadcast from 2018
“ROBOCOP (1987) Alternate Scenes from TV version” - Youtube Video uploaded by YT user Orville Joder Jr
“Robocop 1991 ABC Sunday Night Movie Intro” - Youtube Video uploaded by YT user Sean Mc

Language cuts legend based on the 3 audio tracks
1 = ITV dub
2 = ABC dub (sourced from a 30+ year old VHS so audio quality isn’t as good as ITV)
3 is the same as ITV unless noted otherwise (basically the only difference is all uses of Freaking are deleted and there is no music under Murphy’s death scene)

Words or phrases in [brackets] are censored.
If no number is by it, they use the same edit.
Asterisk means it’s the same word(s) but each has a different take
“Deleted” means it’s muted and/or taken out entirely

List of language edits in chronological order:
-Your client’s a [scumbag]

  1. Crum bag
  2. Sleaze bag

-We should strike [fuck em]
Right?

-Come here when you’re finished [fucking around]…

  1. fooling around
  2. playing around

-…light a fire under Jones’ [ass]

  1. deleted
  2. Rear

-It’s a better plan [fucking] Jones!
Forget Jones*

-Their union’s been [bitching]
Ditzing

-Someone want to call a [god damned] paramedic?
Deleted

-Oh [fuck] jones
Forget

-As soon as some poor [schmuck] volunteers.
Guy

-[Shit!] I don’t believe it!

  1. deleted
  2. Oh no

-You burnt the [fucking] money
Freaking*
3. Deleted

-It’s as good as marks you [asshole] you stupid stupid [asshole]

  1. Dipstick, doofus
  2. Dunce, moron

-Shut [the fuck] up and do it!
Shut your face up and do it*

-What the [fuck]
Hell

-[shit] he’s on the side!
Deleted

-Ah [shit] Clarence my leg!
Deleted

-Your [ass] is mine
Tail

-I’ll bet that really [pisses you off]
Ticks you off

-[shit] I’m out of ammo
Deleted

-Ah [shit]
Deleted

-Lose the arm! [Jesus, Morton]
Deleted

-Ow! God [damn it]!
Deleted

-You’re gonna be a bad [mother fucker]
Mother Crusher

-Shut up [asshole]

  1. Man
  2. Deleted

-This is [bullshit]
Garbage*

-[What is this shit]
Deleted

-I [fucking] love that guy!
Really

-Look at that [fucking] gun!

  1. deleted
  2. Freaking

-[shit] this guy is really good
Deleted

-Gimme your money, all of it, and don’t [fuck with me]
Mess with me

-Open the [god damned] safe

  1. lousy
  2. Stupid

-[shit] there’s your [god damned] safe!

  1. deleted
  2. deleted, lousy safe

-You better open that [son of a bitch]
Damn safe*

-[Fuck me!]
Why me?

-[fuck me, fuck me, fuck me…]

  1. deleted, (except for last one which is “why me”)
  2. Why me, fight me

-[shit] you better give up pal!
Deleted

-Don’t [fuck with me]
Mess with me

-That goes really fast and gets really [shitty] gas mileage
Lousy

-Lieutenant don’t [jerk me off], people [jerk me off], I kill em!
Mess with me*, mess with me (1st is different, second is the same)

-Kiss your mayors [ass] goodbye!
Butt

-I heard Jones was plenty [pissed]
P-ed

-The guy’s a [pussy]
Pansy

-Iron butt, [boner], once I even called him: [asshole]

  1. bonehead, airhead
  2. Bumbler, “a lot worse”

-You’ve insulted this company with that [bastard] creation of yours
Deleted

-You just [fucked with] the wrong guy! You’re out of your [fucking] mind
Finked on, freaking
3. finked on, deleted

-[god damned] rebels…
Damn

-Various instances of people saying “shit” when Robocop is having his nightmare and walks out are deleted in all 3

-Sorry Sarge, [fucked up], forget it, this guy’s a serious [asshole]
Messed up, airhead

-Ow [shit!] Lets talk. Aaagh [son of a bitch]

  1. deleted
  2. My foot, I’ll get you for this

-[bitches] leave
Ladies

-What the [fuck] are you doing?
Hell

-[God damn it]
Ah Damn it

-I don’t give a [shit] what you want to pay
Damn

-Shove this factory so far up your stupid [wop ass] that you’ll [shit] snow for a year! Frankie blow this [cock sucker]'s head off
Fat nose, blow snow, blood sucker

-Oh [fuck you]

  1. Damn you
  2. Yeah, for you

-Aaagh [shit]

  1. deleted
  2. Oof

-[fuck you]
Get lost

-What is [this shiiiiiii-t]
What is thiiiiiii-s

-[god damn it, god damn it!] Listen to me, listen to me you [fuck]!
Leave me alone, listen to me! Listen to me you fool!

-Don’t you get it [you cock sucker!]

  1. you blood sucker
  2. Listen to me

-You listen to me you [asshole]

  1. deleted
  2. Animal

-He’s a cop killer. spit [Shit]!

  1. deleted
  2. Geez

-Just give me my [fucking] phone call

  1. friggin’
  2. And 3: deleted

-[Jesus], you really screwed up

  1. deleted
  2. Geez

-We have orders to destroy it. [oh shit]

  1. Deleted
  2. That stinks!

-Your company built the [fucking] thing
Freaking

-I don’t have time for [this bull shit]

  1. This balogna
  2. You big shots

-Nobody [popped my cherry]
Pushed me around

-“Woah a new toy can I play” has an alternate take on track 2

-Aw [shit] aw [fuck], nice car Joe! [fuck you]

  1. deleted, deleted, forget you
  2. Shoot, deleted, forget you

-Give it up [faggot], hey [butt hole] get your own
Maggot, bozo

-Cut the [horse shit]! Emil, get [your ass] in the van
Horseplay, deleted

-We’ll get you [faggot] ha ha ha
Maggot

-That metallic [mutha]… zip it up!
2. sucka
3. Deleted

-Damn it, [shit]
Deleted

-Clarence saying shit Twice during the chase are deleted in all 3.

-Die you [bastard]

  1. blackgaurd
  2. Monster

Violence Edits

-Kinney’s death is censored. Violent shots are cut out and replaced with alternate TV footage of Kinney flying backwards with no blood.
-Bobby hitting the cop car’s windshield is slowed down so you don’t see the impact
-Guy with the hat in hideout is only shot once instead of twice.
-Murphy’s death is shortened and censored significantly. Audio track 1 and 2 have music (the dream) under the scene. Track 3 does not. Murphy’s hand being blown off is not shown, replaced with Alternate TV footage of his facial reaction. When the goons start shooting (“hey pretty boy over here!”), alternate TV and outtake footage is used to mask Murphy’s blown off hand/stump. Many shots of him being shot as well as Joe saying “does it hurt” are cut entirely. When Clarence shoots Murphy in the head, alternate TV footage of Clarence shooting is used to mask the back of Murphy’s head exploding.
-Shots of Murphy dead on the ground are zoomed so you don’t see the bullet hole.
-Several shots in the hospital are cut or replaced with TV footage. These are so you can’t see his bloody torso and back of his head.
-RoboCop’s HUD doesn’t target the rapist’s crotch, and his bloody junk is not shown/shot is cut off early.
-When Emil’s motorcycle hits the car, an alternate extended TV shot of him flying off the bike is inserted.
-Leon kicking Robocop in the crotch is zoomed so can’t see the impact.
-When Clarence shoots Bob, all of the shots are censored. The first shot is shortened. All the rest use alternate TV footage.
-When Bob is crawling across the floor, the shot is panned so you don’t see the blood all over the floor.
-In the factory, several shots of criminals being shot are removed, shortened, or replaced with alternate footage.
-Clarence doesn’t spit blood at Robocop anymore, he just spits. Alternate tv footage was used to mask it.
-Clarence also doesn’t spit blood on the police report either. The blood is Matted out.
-When Joe is shot, the first shot is shortened so you don’t see the impact, alternate footage is used in place of the other 2 shots of him being shot.
-Emil crashing into the toxic waste and coming out deformed is significantly shortened. Cuts off as he gets up.
-Alternate take of “don’t touch me man” from the TV version used so you don’t see melted Emil’s face.
-When Emil moves in front of the car, the shot of his front/face is cut.
-In one of the most infamous TV edits, Clarence doesn’t run down Emil anymore, with alternate TV footage he swerves around Emil.
-Lewis is shot less times by Clarence.
-Clarence doesn’t whack Robocop with the pole 3 times anymore, he just runs up and stabs him.
-Clarence’s death sequence is censored. Alternate TV footage of a wide angle of the stabbing is used. When Robocop pulls the data spike out of Clarence’s neck, blood no longer falls on Robocop and the sound effect is deleted. Alternate Tv footage of Clarence not bleeding out of his neck as he falls down is used for his death.
-All 3 shots of Jones getting shot now have no blood. 2 are taken from the TV version. One has the bullet holes manually matted out.

Sexual/Drug/other various edits
-The whole movie is panned and scanned to 4:3. This means some optical shots are either crunched, or sourced from the full Screen Laserdisc upscaled (I.e when Robo’s HUD is framed for Widescreen using the whole frame)
-All nudity is obscured/cut. The frame is zoomed and panned to obscure Naked men in the police station. In one instance an optical bra is matted over a topless woman changing near the beginning, like in the TV edit. When the rapist is shot in the crotch, it cuts away so you don’t see it. In the club scene, an alternate TV angle is used so you don’t see a topless woman dancing.
-Every instance of snorting coke is cut, obscured, or flat out muted if there was no way to cover it.
-Sound of Joe pissing is taken out (“mind if I zip this up” scene). Footage of him pissing is cut and replaced with reaction shots of his face.
-Alternate angle of the robber firing his machine gun at RoboCop from the TV version is used to mask him clearly mouthing “fuck me, fuck me, etc”
-Alternate footage of people’s reactions in the executive bathroom cover Dick Jones’ feet in the stall. This also includes an alternate angle of Jones walking out of the stall.
-The beginning of the scene in Bob’s house with the models is significantly shortened. There’s no Coke snorting or fooling around. There’s an alternate shot of the woman wearing gold saying “Bob?” then the door bell rings.

Alternate TV footage that went unused and why:
-A completely different take of the “we should strike” scene. The audio of “right?” comes from it, but visually the alternate shot has the topless woman’s chest covered. It was unused because of the low video quality, out of sync dialogue, and the fact that a version with the matted optical bra is used more frequently now, and is in better quality.
-A wider shot of “lets face it he lost his teeth” and “I gotta go, I got a meeting” from the ABC broadcast. Higher quality close up shots are in THIS Tv’s broadcast.
-A shot of Bob’s front door, used to cover him snorting coke off of the girl’s chest. Footage from the ABC version of the other girl is more rare and interesting than a static shot of the door (in my opinion)
-A wide shot of Bob getting shot in the leg, the second shot. The quality was very poor, and was so short, that I was able to re-create it with an existing shot in the movie.
-Censored version of Clarence running down Emil from the ITV broadcast. Basically just a reaction shot of Clarence in the car as he knocks into Emil. The shot of him driving around is much more infamous and popular (in my opinion)
-Clarence’s death from the ITV version, he runs around in a circle holding his neck and then theres a shot of Robo trying to push the girders of of him. The ABC version I used is rarer.
-Clarence getting shot the second time. The quality of this clip was such bad quality and out of sync with the audio (just another angle of the first censored shot basically). So I decided to matte out the bullet holes myself.

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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sounds great for a restoration always had a giggle at TV edits are you uploading anywhere?

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lorang said:

sounds great for a restoration always had a giggle at TV edits are you uploading anywhere?

If you send me a PM I can give you a link

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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Thank you very much for the link, watched today had a giggle at the thoughts of the ITV version that I remember.

Have to offer some feedback the editor did a great job of the sound mix however the mix of alternative footage through me out of the movie, some of the quality of the alternate footage was quite poor and didn’t mix well for a HD restoration I understand you may be limited trying to copy the TV version but perhaps create your own take on the TV version with your own edits in HD this may work better, after all the TV version is infamous for the alternate sound dubbing not necessarily the footage.
Reducing the violence via edits in HD could be an easy option and then adding the alternate sound dubs for the bad language could be the way forward.

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OMG, this sounds awesome dude, I was gonna do something like this myself for my little brother who loves the RoboCop cartoon, he’s 6 so obviously I couldnt show him the movie, but unfortunately I could only find short clips and not all of the tv cuts, so instead I, again unfortunately, decided that it was best and easier to just cut the few seconds of strong language and violence from RoboCop 3, because he is 6 I just thought that he probably wouldnt care about the story as much, and I was right, that being said I would really like the oppitunity to watch this edit, is it available somewhere?

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Tjoy2002 said:

OMG, this sounds awesome dude, I was gonna do something like this myself for my little brother who loves the RoboCop cartoon, he’s 6 so obviously I couldnt show him the movie, but unfortunately I could only find short clips and not all of the tv cuts, so instead I, again unfortunately, decided that it was best and easier to just cut the few seconds of strong language and violence from RoboCop 3, because he is 6 I just thought that he probably wouldnt care about the story as much, and I was right, that being said I would really like the oppitunity to watch this edit, is it available somewhere?

Send me a PM

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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Wow, never heard of this until now… then again, after the Superman movies and their alternate cuts for TV this isn’t surprising. I sent you a PM (if you can share a link), I hope you could find this material in good shape, I’ve seen a few clips and they don’t look good.

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Perene said:

Wow, never heard of this until now… then again, after the Superman movies and their alternate cuts for TV this isn’t surprising. I sent you a PM (if you can share a link), I hope you could find this material in good shape, I’ve seen a few clips and they don’t look good.

I did. I used upscaled footage from old VHS tapes and a few DVR recordings of the TV version that aired recently (within the past 2 years).

I’ll send it to you

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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 (Edited)

MGM took down my Mega link. All videos about it on my Youtube channel are now unlisted. PM me for details

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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Damn MGM!

“The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.”
-Sheev Palpatine, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

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 (Edited)

MEGA will never be reliable. Avoid them at all cost. I am trying today to download some files and after 1.5 GB they want me to wait 5 hours to continue, otherwise I’ll have to use a paid account. I can rely on Ultrasurf or try other stuff but after a while this gets tiresome (and never work when we want). I need to download over 15 GB of data today, and this is my current situation… Then there’s the fact you never download or upload things from there at max speed. I always have to send more than one file/part using 2 browsers, to get good results.

I suggest Google Drive for backups and sharing. Create a copy to share with others (if you want you may even use a different Google account, I created additional others for me) and another copy for you (for backup purposes), never shared with anyone, and using a different digital fingerprint/hash.

Of course the “creating a copy” command from Google Drive will only make a duplicate, which is 100% the same, no, you need to change any data in the file for it to have a different hash while using a MD5 software to check what it is. The easiest way to do this is using MKVToolnix and saving in Matroska, and then internally modify any track name.

Advantages: 1) Google Drive offers max upload/download speeds. 2) There’s no risk of the company going down tomorrow (unlike Dropbox and others which I doubt it will be around 10, 20 years from now); 3) Even if a file is hit with a strike, if you are the owner just log into your account/Google Drive and you’ll be able to download again (it’s just not accessible for the public). This isn’t possible with MEGA, once hit with a strike you either file a counter-notice or the whole thing is gone. 4) No expiration for account or files due to inactivity.

I once uploaded Cosmos 1x01 (HDTV rip) to my Google Drive account and never shared with anyone. Then I discovered it was hit with a strike. That was because this copy is shared worldwide. I reuploaded the file only by changing in MKVToolnix how the tracks are named, and voila! The file is to this date still there, years after this. It stopped being detected by their machines: https://torrentfreak.com/google-drive-uses-hash-matching-detect-pirated-content/

For Google Drive there are 3 options for sharing: 1) public, 2) semi-private (only known if you tell someone the link to download, and after this you take a risk the rest of the world will find it), and 3) private. Even for personal documents I only use semi-private. The links for my contents I saved in a closed for the public (and not cached) blog hosted in blogspot.


As for Youtube be very careful of them. They are even less reliable. I shared an one minute clip from “Central Station” (the movie) only with the objective of showing how good the new Blu-ray is. The SOBs that own this movie hit me with a copyright strike! Of course I filed a counter-notice claiming fair use, but GOOGLE REJECTED without even forwarding to them. This was the 1st time ever I had a counter-notice rejected. The strike is still valid for a couple of months. So don’t commit the same mistake I did, to think a mere minute of a project you made being showed in Youtube will not be targeted by these cowards.

If needed put these videos in Google Drive, too, since it can display them and has another advantage: the streamed video is 100% lossless. With Youtube you’ll only see a reencoded version of it, with the lossless one 100% gone after you upload. Or try Dailymotion/a similar site.

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I want to see this edited version, i can download?

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So it seems like a link on my Mega account to a smaller encode in not as good quality is still up. So I can still share that probably

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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Is this still available anywhere?

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4d4m1 said:

Is this still available anywhere?

It was taken down. I can try to re-up it and hide the name or something

Hello, although I have uploaded many things in the past, my Mega account was taken down recently. If you are looking for something I’ve previously said I uploaded, I may not have it anymore or know where it is. I’m sorry

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kchrules said:

4d4m1 said:

Is this still available anywhere?

It was taken down. I can try to re-up it and hide the name or something

I am Interested in this also. It is a shame that it won’t be shared

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Hi KCHrules is there any chance of a reupload of this please?

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Man you’re real dedicated my fan edit of Devs is nowhere near as detailed as yours.

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This looks great may I watch you’re awesome fanedit?

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Hi,

Does anyone know if this can be re-uploaded at all?