BTW, I caught something on a 2nd viewing of the VHS that I can't believe I missed, but it should be included in my description of scenes not on the DVD. While Elizabeth attends to the ailing Daphne in the hospital, Carolyn makes a beeline for Joe, kissing his face while he pulls away. Now that is very telling!
I have that down on my notes from finally getting around to watching the first half of the pilot this morning. I'd never noticed it before either
- and I agree that it's very telling. (And it's also very in keeping with what's to come up in Eps #3 & #5. Who knew it had already been established in the pilot?)
The additional scenes greatly improve the part 1, being all character bits that make the show overall more interesting
This is purely my own deduction based on a couple bits of evidence as I've not read this mentioned anywhere and I've never spoken to any fans from other countries who've seen the pilot, but I strongly suspect that all the bits that appear on MPI's VHS but which weren't shown on NBC's broadcast were actually shown in every other country where the '91 series was shown (and it was shown in numerous other countries). I say this because 1) they were scored - meaning that at some point they were a part of the US version, and 2) the running time for the pilot in other countries is listed as being longer by several minutes than it was here. And if I can go one step further, I also strongly suspect that those bits were cut so that Domino's could run more of their commercials during the mini-series so as to maximize their arrangement/investment with NBC.