Editing Saturday Night Fever (section)

===Television broadcast===
When [[HBO]] acquired the [[pay television]] rights to ''Saturday Night Fever'' in 1980, both versions of the film were aired by the network: the PG version during the day, and the R version during the evening (HBO, which had primarily operated on a late afternoon-to-early overnight schedule at the time, had maintained a programming policy restricting the showing of R-rated films to the nighttime hours, a rule that continued long after it switched to a 24-hour schedule full-time in December 1981). The R-rated theatrical version premiered on the network at midnight [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern Time]] on January 1, 1980.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

For the film's network television premiere, airing on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] on November 16, 1980, a new milder version was created to conform with network broadcast standards.<ref>{{cite web |title=ABC promo Saturday Night Fever 1980 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2JVxGFXGfo |website=YouTube |access-date=26 September 2023 |date=March 28, 2012}}</ref> The network television version was a slightly shortened cut of the PG-rated version. In order to maintain runtime, a few additional scenes deleted from both theatrical releases were added to make up for the lost/cut material, making the ABC version among the longest cuts of the film.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} These added scenes included Tony dancing with Doreen to "[[Disco Duck]]", Tony running his finger along the cables of the [[Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge]], and Tony's father getting his job back. The last two deleted scenes were included in the 2017 director's cut.

Starting in the late 1990s, [[VH1]], [[TBS (American TV channel)|TBS]] and [[TNT (American TV network)|TNT]] began showing the original R-rated version with a [[TV Parental Guidelines|TV-14 rating]], although with nudity removed/censored, and the stronger profanity either being edited or (on recent airings) silenced.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} However, this version of the TV cut included some innuendo included in the original theatrical release that was edited or removed from the PG version. [[Turner Classic Movies]] has aired the film in both versions: the original R-rated version (rated [[TV Parental Guidelines|TV-MA]] on the network) is the cut commonly broadcast, although the PG cut has been presented as part of TCM's family-oriented "Funday Night at the Movies" and "Essentials Jr." film showcases.