The Godfather Saga
The Godfather Saga is a TV miniseries that combines The Godfather and The Godfather Part II into one film. It originally aired on NBC over four consecutive nights one threehour segment and three twohour segments in November 1977. The Godfather Saga is also known as The Godfather The Complete Novel for Television, The Godfather A Novel for Television, and The Godfather Novella. The television version was the basis for a shorter, 1981 video release known as The Godfather 19021959 The Complete Epic. Following the release of The Godfather Part III in 1990, a third unified version was released to video in 1992 entitled The Godfather Trilogy 19011980.
The television film incorporated additional footage not included in the original films, including Don Fanucci being attacked by street thugs, Vito Corleones first encounter with Hyman Roth, Vito killing two of the mafiosi who worked for Don Ciccio and were instrumental in his familys death, Michael Corleones reunion with his father after his return from Sicily, and Sonny Corleones taking charge of the family after his father is severely wounded. The previously deleted scenes totaled almost 75 minutes.Hal Erickson summarized the results as follows, While this rearrangement was reasonably coherent, the rhythm and pacing of the original theatrical versions of the two films was severely damaged. The inclusion of scenes previously removed from the theatrical prints also stretched out what was already an overlong project. Even allowing for the achievement of pulling off this gargantuan editing assignment, The Godfather Saga is a lumpy affair which seems to stop and start at irregular intervals and never truly picks up momentum. ........
Source: Wikipedia
