The Godfather Saga is a TV miniseries that combines The Godfather and The Godfather Part II into one film. It originally aired on NBC over four consecutive nights in November 1977. The Godfather Saga is also known as The Godfather: The Complete Novel For Television, The Godfather: A Novel for Television, and The Godfather Novella. The television version was the basis for a shorter, 1981 video release known as The Godfather 1902–1959: The Complete Epic. Following the release of The Godfather Part III in 1990, a third unified version was released to video in 1992 entitled The Godfather... Trilogy: 1901–1980. Francis Ford Coppola asked his editor Barry Malkin to make a 7-hour version for television; Coppola reportedly did this project to raise money for Apocalypse Now, which was severely over-budget at the time. The resulting film was in chronological order. The Godfather Part II had cut back and forth between scenes in the early 1900s and contemporary scenes, and bracketed the period of The Godfather. Malkin also toned down the violence, sex and language for a television audience.
more