That isn't to say that this film is untouched, however. For years, The Ten Commandments came from a special print that was edited for television and then transferred to 1" videotape, and the edits, while minor, are noticeable to the naked eye.
The most obvious editing, for the sake of commercials, happens on long shots that lead to commercial break. The Ten Commandments is notorious for having a long shot that focuses on something like a piece of the cloth Moses is wearing, or Ramses face in anger, before fading into the next scene. Because the original VistaVision dissolves are quite long, the film print used for the telecast fades to black early in the shot, making it half as long. These edits are not included in this essay.
Speaking of film, the edits are done on the film print used for the broadcast, as opposed to editing on the video (as was done with The Sound of Music). This is clear from the fact that when an edit is made, the audio delay of the edit (sound is eight frames ahead of the frame), is present. For example, when the telecast cuts a baby stabbed on screen, the dialogue from the last scene is heard after the cut is made. This would not have happened if the edit was done on the videotape.
The comparison seen here was taken from the 1982 telecast, which was the same version run from the 1970s and into the 1990s. As newer broadcast formats and high definition TV became more prominent, however, new transfers of the film came out, meaning new edits. Still, as is apparent here, the film is left practically untouched content wise.
Starting from the beginning of the telecast, this is what was edited out of the original film for the telecast:
00:00:00-00:01:36 : The overture has been removed from the telecast.
00:01:36-00:03:55: The famous prologue by Cecil B. Demile explaining where he researched the story of Moses for the script of the film has been replaced with a text scroll that last about 10 seconds, seen in the second and third screenshots below.
00:08:30-00:08:35: Telecast puts an "Edited for Television" caption over the first shot of the sky.
00:10:45-00:10:50 After the pharaoh says "So let it be written, so let it be done," and his adviser says "So speaks Ramesis the first!", the shot of a Roman stabbing a baby is removed, with a hard cut into the scene, as opposed to the original fade.
00:31:18-00:31:21: A shot of Yoshebel being crushed by the stone while Moses builds his city is removed.
00:31:27-00:31:29: Another shot of Yoshebel being crushed by the stone is removed.
00:31:35-00:31:39: A shot of the stone closing in on Yoshebel is removed.
00:42:37-00:42:52: As Rameses and Nefretiri discuss their relationship, and Rameses says "You will be my wife," the telecast cuts him saying "You will come to me whenever I call you, and I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is your own affair...but I think you will."
01:12:20-01:12:22: As the old man in the mud pit confronts the soldier about the way women are objectified by the pharaoh's men, after the soldier says "This will change your image", the soldier throwing the knife into the man has been spliced out of the telecast, going directly to him falling into the mud.
''02:15:28-02:15:38: Intermission card is removed from telecast.
DISC 2:
00:00:00-00:02:13: Telecast omits entr'acte and begins second half of film after a commercial break.
01:30:38-01:35:43: Exit music is not present in telecast.
What is most interesting is that while there are content edits made, they are all done in the first half of the telecast. This isn't to say that the second half is less violent or sexually suggestive than the first half, but because a whole evening of programming was blocked out, it could be that the network felt the later part of the evening could show more explicit material. For example, Pharoah's men drowning in the sea is not edited in the telecast, but Yoshebel being crushed by the stone is heavily edited.
The film is practically left untouched, interestingly enough, and although it's been 40 years, the network still pulls in enough steady ratings for the film to be shown annually. Still, nothing can capture the magic of the film being shown on a big screen in its VistaVision Technicolor glory.
