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Short Version
Due to the fact that the full version of Once More, With Feeling runs 8 minutes longer than a normal episode -- which would play havoc with scheduling -- a shorter version was cut for all airings after its premiere.
I haven't seen the shorter version, but the listed the cuts (following an outcry when the short version was aired in the UK on 19 December 2002, after the long version had been promised) as well as and , who have the most detailed list of the cuts.
The missing sections are:
 Overture: an alarm clock goes off and the gang cheerily -- Buffy less cheerily -- get ready for the new day, including Tara finding a flowery herb (the one Willow used to cast a spell on her) under her pillow while making the bed. She has it pinned to her shirt later when Dawn mentions "that fight you guys had about magic and stuff," and Tara begins to suspect what it is. |
After Going Through the Motions, Buffy enters the Magic Box and is too preoccupied by her experience to really take notice of the others greeting her and asking about Dawn getting off to school.
All of If We're Together is cut; after Bunnies and before Buffy checks outside and sees The Mustard.
After The Mustard, Dawn enters the Magic Box excited about her musical experience:
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DAWN: |
Oh, my god! You will never believe what happened at school today! |
| BUFFY: |
Everybody started singing and dancing? |
| DAWN: |
(deflated) I gave birth to a pterodactyl. |
| ANYA: |
Oh, my god. Did it sing? |
After Under Your Spell, part of Xander's suspicion that Tara and Willow aren't actually working right at that moment is cut.
While lying in bed before I'll Never Tell, Xander explains to Anya why he's taking the day off work: "My guys started dancing around me. I don't know if I can deal. It's a flab thing."
Rest In Peace is missing the verse:
You know you got a willing slave
And you just love to play the thought
That you might misbehave
But 'til you do, I'm telling you
Stop visiting my grave!
And let me rest in peace! |
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Just before Dawn's Lament, her line that "the fifteen-year-old can spend half an hour alone in her locked house" is cut.
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Dawn's Ballet - After Dawn is captured by Sweet's henchmen, she awakens lying on the pool table at the bronze. She tries to escape while the henchmen surround her in a West Side Story-esque ballet. |
Just before Walk Through The Fire, Anya's line that she's "seen some of these underworld child-bride deals and they never end well.... Maybe once" is cut.
Walk Through The Fire has a few lines removed:
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BUFFY:
So one by one
they turn from me
I guess my friends
can't face the cold
But why I froze
Not one among them knows
And never can be told
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TARA:
What can't we face
If we're together?
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Some of the dialogue between Buffy and Sweet before Something To Sing About is cut.
Dawn quoting Buffy from episode #100: The Gift is cut from the end of Something To Sing About: "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it."
After Something To Sing About, when Xander admits to being the one who originally brought in the talisman, is the exchange:
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XANDER: |
Does this mean that I have to...be your queen? |
| SWEET: |
It's tempting, but I think we'll waive that clause just this once. |
The last part of Where Do We Go From Here? including the line: "The curtains close on a kiss, God knows" is trimmed.
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Update:
When the episode was repeated in Australia in April 2003, the uncut version was shown, but it still ran for only 60 minutes of programming time. How? They sped up the entire episode slightly so that it fit, which meant all the songs sounded a bit squeakier. I wonder if this is the new strategy for the syndicated version...
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