CHICAGO griping

No, I'm not IN Chicago. I'm watching it. On Bravo. And huffing and puffing at the television industry. The dubbing in this film on its made-for-television edition is atrocious. Apparently it's fine to show skimpy costumes, lots of skin and suggestive "dancing," but we can't hear the word "ass"? Come on! Bastard, ass, God-damn, Jesus Christ, shit and screwing are just some of the words not allowed -- instead, we hear "blockhead," "butt," "gosh darn," "Joan of Arc," "shhh," and "seeing." OK, that's insane. First of all, this is cable. And a film. We are allowed to hear all of those words on network TV, but not on cable? And worse, they ruined one of my favorite lines in the film: "I don't mean to toot my own horn, but if Jesus Christ lived in Chicago today, and he had come to me and he had five thousand dollars, let's just say things would have turned out differently." Instead, the TV audience hears about Billy Flynn changing the life of Joan of Arc? Goodness.

Oh, and they sure pick terrible times to take commercial breaks. In the middle of Mama Morton's big number! Three bars into the intro of "Nowadays." Sheesh!