What I recall about the tv cut of The Thing is the really superfluous narration by Donald Moffat, (or a sound alike?) and the scene tacked onto the ending. (Which destroys any ambiguity about whether they've stopped the alien or not.) Is the scene Starlog magazine once printed a photo of reinstated? Kurt Russel's character was playing an electronic chess game, (in reality a dressed up Apple II) and having a conversation with a blow up doll.

I'm surprised Carpenter didn't ask to have his name removed from this version the way David Lynch invoked an alias for the extended tv cut of Dune. A preservation would be nice either way.