This is a followup to the prior thread about the Emerson's lawsuit against NBC for defaming their products in the Heroes Pilot episode when Claire sticks her hand in a garbage disposal (manufactured by Emerson).

NY Post (maybe not always the most credible source) is reporting that NBC will voluntarily cut the offending scene from future repeat airings of the episode.

Here's the article
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10042006/tv/he..._don_kaplan.htm

" October 4, 2006 -- NBC will edit out a scene from last week's "Heroes" in which a cheerleader shoves her hand in a garbage disposal to prove to herself that she is invincible.

The scene will be cut from any repeats of the show to avoid a possible lawsuit by the disposal maker.

In the show, the girl's fingers emerge from the disposal as bloody stumps but completely heal themselves in a few seconds.

Emerson, the company that manufactures the in-sink garbage disposal clearly shown in the scene, filed a federal lawsuit last Monday, seeking to block NBC from rebroadcasting that episode of the new show.

NBC officials said they did not think there were any legal problems with the show, but will change the offending scene anyway.

"While we do not believe there is any legal issue with the episode as originally broadcast, we nonetheless have decided to edit the episode for future uses," NBC officials said in a statement last night. "


Related link from TV Squad:
http://www.veronica-mars.tvsquad.com/2006/...ure-broadcasts/

If this is true, then...it's very stupid. Not that it wasn't stupid in the first place (filing the lawsuit), but now it's even more insane. O.o

Okay that's just bullsh*t. Here's hoping the 'deleted' scenes are restored for the DVD boxsets.

This is just stupid. What the heck does this lame company think happens if you stick your hand in a running disposal?

Oh I know! Your fngers turn into flowers and gold coins start flying out of your sink. *sarcasm off*

Some people need better things to do with their lives.

What kind of a stupid name is "In-Sink-Erator," anyway?

Come to think of it, that sounds like something that would've been in Maniac Mansion (a funny old adventure game from the late 80's/early 90's).

Emerson are a bunch of arse holes...I've got to the original screener which means that scene will remain intact for me!

Dang! I HATE it wen idiots win!

I'm glad I have the pilot on my computer with that scene included.

YAY for frivolous lawsuits!

Am I the only person that didn't even notice it said Emerson?

Stupid nonsense.

I was thinking that, myself. I mean, who would actually notice the disposal said anything, let alone attempt to read it in the first place? I figure the only reason Emerson noticed it was because they designed it, and were probably familiar with the word layout.

I had to go back and freeze-frame the damned thing to read what it said. If anything, Emerson brought more attention to it than Claire and her mangled hand.

I know what kinda' idiot is going to be sticking their hand down into an opertational garbage disposal..despite Claire doing it on TV!

Curse their sudden but inevitable betrayal!

you know what would be funny... if someone made an avatar of it.. from the screeners so that we could all make it our avatar for a day or something.

I would think they would like the advertisement…they could use it for marketing “Look it does not even slow down for bone, it can mangle a hand in 3 seconds. You need an In-Sink-Erator by Emerson!”

LMAO!

I didn't even pay attention to whose disposal device it was. I'm sure no one did.

Emerson is clearly trying to bring attention to their company. There is nothing wrong with that scene, if ANYTHING it shows that their device works properly, which I'm sure some don't...

*sighs* Sorry, I get agitated at bs.

Emerson has just made MANY enemies by doing this ... US!
LOL...

Okay, that's just plain bad. The good news is I still have that scene in both my iPod and iTunes, so that won't be changing anytime soon! Emerson can take that stupid In-Sink-Erator and put it you-know-where!

Who the heck ever heard of Emerson anyway. Now there known for being crybabies. Is that their add campaign?

"Buy from us, Emerson, a bunch of whiny self-important ninnies who deny the obvious. Please don't hurt our feelings. Where's my slippers, im cold."

HAHAHAHA! That is hilarious.

In other news...I was getting ready to cook something, and just happened to glance down at the sink...and what do I see? An In-Sink-Erator! Ahh!

I'm thinking about trying it out, sticking my hand down the disposer to see what'll happen.

This is pretty dumb...they have to cut the whole scene?
What a silly, silly company...

I didn't either. But it was stupid of Heroes to show a manufacturer. Supernatural had a scene just like this last year (1.9 Home). And Stephen King has a scene like this in Firestarter. In fact, that's where my fear of garbage disposals comes from. *shudders*

That's the stupidest thing ever. It's just a freaking disposal. NBS should have put up the fight. It was a great scene, I loved it anyway. And could anyone possibly know it was Emerson? I didn't even know.

Who really cares. I hope it will be added back in for the DVD release.

NBC doesn't need to do that, the lawsuit will get thrown out.

From the Wikipedia Listing:




You mean GE couldn't feature it's own dispos-all? And yhe own the network AND the studio!

Am I the only one who thinks this whole lawsuit is completely stupid? Emerson seems to claim that this would put their garbage disposals in a bad light by showing Claire put her hand in a running garbage disposal and getting it all mangled. Truth of the matter is that would happen if anyone put their hand in any type of running garbage disposal whether it be an Emerson, GE, or Willy Wonka for all I care. The lawsuit is just another way for a big wig company to make a little extra money. The lawsuit is just as dumb as the one where those fat people sued McDonalds because eating their food on a daily basis made them fat. Completly and totally stupid reasons for a lawsuit.

Emerson is probably afraid of getting sued themselves, because you know there are idiots out there who will try to stick their hands down a running garbage disposal, and then sue NBC and Emerson. Really dumb lawsuit, but from a their stand point I can see why, at least that' the only way I can make sense of this mess

that is so crazy...it is like the time tom cruise tried to stop that episode of south park...hahha

You know I hadn't thought of it in that light, but maybe the consciously chose not to feature their own product. Maybe they'd rather people see a hand get chopped up by Emerson's product. That actually seems pretty reasonable to me, and it would lend a little more credibility to Emerson's argument. huh.

Ah. And the plot thickens...the great underlying deceit is revealed...

Emerson has the right to not want their product put in a bad light. I think the lawsuit was rather silly, however, if Emerson has some type of failsafe that does not permit anyone to stick their hands in one of these devices, and yet the network showed a scene where said device wasn't working, it could put Emerson in a bad light.

Also, it only takes one idiot to try it at home before Emerson gets sued. I think they have a right to it.

I'm not saying I agree, but NBC did the right thing by editing the episode. In the end, it doesn't affect the story. I mean, we already get it. She's able to heal herself, so it isn't any big problem.

Emerson files suit. NBC willingly edits the scene so as not to deal with further legal issues. The story isn't harmed. We'll all eventually get to buy the DVD with the original episode regardless.

Everyone comes out okay in the end.

Just tell me what should the dimensions of the pics be and I'll post them. Maybe someone could do a signature or something.

You do know that Emerson is trying to prevent NBC from airing the whole first episode entirely, right? That's why it's not going to be shown in the marathon.

Interesting MSNBC editorial about this:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/17/commentary...sion=2006101711

They can't just NOT air the episode. What idiots. I think maybe they are just trying to take it too far in the first place.

WHAT do you think would happen to your hand if you stuck it in a disposal?

well you would not get hurt, because claire didnt get hurt. AND some little kid will think they are claire. THAT i could maybe see, but no kid is going to know who made the product.

Okay, 1) That scene was a bad placement ad for Emerson--it's not like she was eating Wheaties or something. 2) We haven't read reports in papers or heard on tv of kids getting their fingers sliced off trying to imitate Claire. and 3) No one has been reported of falling off buildings trying to fly like Peter and Nathan..of course # 3 holds up because EVERYONE knows you can't fly...until you get a cape or tie a towel around your neck!

So true

It was probably a good idea to have Peter doing a few faceplants into the gravel when Nathan wasn't around later on. =)

I fondly remember the oooold Fantastic Four cartoon, where they removed the Human Torch from that version, for fear that kids would set themselves on fire.

J

Hey, people need to stop dissing the law suit people. You don't know how influencial these things are. I mean, I saw that a girl could stick her hand into an Emerson disposal unit and her fingers would grow back, so I thought, awesome, cool. But when I did it, I lost three fingers on my right hand. So I tried again with my left hand, thinking it was a fluke; apparently, it was just false advertising. Now I get to type with two fingers on my right hand and a big stump of a left hand, maybe my toes every once in a while. And may I just say, that old Fantastic Four cartoon was equally influencial. I'll never forget those third degree burns.

Television is just chop full of lies. I don't think I'll believe anything anymore. I'm just gonna go drive my car into a wall and pray to God I can REALLY walk away from it . . .

I must say, you type very well. =)

J

What I don't get is why would NBC delete the WHOLE scene. It would be easier just to have cgi cover it up or replace the name. Deleting the scene would ruin the flow of the overall show, as well the intensity of what the scene represents. Clearly this girl drives for a normal life, but being indistructible still means she has to be careful (to say the least)

An email from Emerson I got when I sent them feedback. My original message isn't included but it was something like...I would have never know who the garbage disposal was made by if not for their lawsuit clogging up the justice system...blah blah blah. I can't remember it word for word. This is the reponse if anyone is interested.


Thank you for your email about InSinkErator and your loyalty to our products.

I appreciate your comments about the lawsuit we filed against NBC. I find "Heroes" to be a very entertaining show and, believe me, we didn't take NBC to court to take it off the air or damage the show in any way, and we didn't file this suit just to gain publicity for our products. We don't seek out
this kind of publicity.

The real issue is that we filed our lawsuit to protect our brand name. Both federal and state law REQUIRE that you protect your trademarks. If we don't fight the unauthorized use of the InSinkErator name, we run the risk of losing it as a trademark. And we've built the name up over 70 years of doing business in America, building products that last for people like yourself. I hope you won't hold it against us that we took this action that we hope to resolve quickly.

Again, thanks for taking the time to email your thoughts to us. We value your opinions.

I feel this is ridiculous. It's like Poulan suing the producers of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" for depicting chainsaws in a negative light.

If you didn't know that you shouldn't stick your hand in the garbage disposal then maybe it was good that scene existed.

Blah.

This is entirely correct. If you don't protect your trademark you risk it becoming public domain.

It's a sad day when the companies start controlling what we watch. People get their hands caught in garbage disposals all the time, do the get sued too?

I can see both sides of this argument, especially in light of it being a requirement to protect a brand name. Will i dislike the litigious nature of our modern society, sometimes, you HAVE to, because otherwise people get away with things or don't learn a lesson.

Despite what that email response says, there will be publicity for them out of this, and an old marketing adage is that "any publicity is good publicity" The proof is in the pudding too, most of us didn't even notice it in initial airing, now we have all gone back and looked, and contacted the company etc...

As to the Heroes producers, realistically, they are in the wrong, in this modern age of product placements etc, they need to be exceedingly careful of taking off any product name unless they have been paid advertising dollars to display it. You may not think of the garbage disposal as a product, but it is, same as the fridges, and cars and everything.

I think the whole thing is a bit of a sorm in a teacup, but rather than remove that scene altogether, i really feel the show should be goin back and spending the couple of thousand on digitally removing the brand name, its a cool scene!

Hell, that was one of the best scenes so far. It taught us a very important lesson: If it weren't for regeneration, Claire Bennet would have become a statistic long ago.

My bros and I call her "Darwin". Not cause she's more evolved... because she should have been a shoo-in for the prize.

Seriously, who gets their neck broken from an accidental tackle?\

Remember, Xerox and Post-It and Wite-Out didn't protect their copyrights. The company has to make at least a token effort. I think that Team Kring should just edit the footage so that the logo is blurred out, shouldn't be too hard.

Agreed. If the name trademark is the offending part of the scene, remove the name not the scene. That should be very easily done. It's only on screen for a few seconds so it's not like it would even be much more work than cutting the scene and rerendering.

BTW, thank you for the email from Emerson. That actually cleared up a number of questions.

I think if you are dumb enough to stick you hand in a running garbage disposer then you're just a candidate for the Darwin Awards. Why are we reducing everyone else's rights to protect these morons?

Oh boo hoo Emerson. I don't see how the product showing up in one scene is a risk to their brand name becoming public domain. Now Cu-tip, they need to worry.

What's next? Are chainsaw manufacturers going to sue New Line for the misuse of chainsaws in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies?

EDIT: Beaten to my analogy already. Just the first one that came to mind.