- Originally with a straightforward plot about a homicidal sniper acting alone and a SWAT team hunting him down, the network-TV version adds 30 minutes of side story, making the sniper a hired hand for a band of robbers, acting as a cover-up for an art heist. This version was conceived during negotiations between Universal Pictures and NBC in 1978, because NBC refused to air a film centered around a homicidal sniper. This version is sometimes aired on broadcast TV in the USA. In this version, the copyright and legal information titles are left out!
- The only known copy of the alternate 1979 NBC television cut, the commercial-less TNT recording from the late '90s (as available on the Shout! Factory Blu-ray), clocks in at 141-minutes. However, it was time-compressed for this airing by 3%. The actual runtime of this cut would run 146 minutes were it played back at the proper speed.
- The network-TV version was cut 45 minutes shorter, keeping the 30-minute robbery plot but losing almost half the length of the original plot. This version is the most often one shown on broadcast TV in the USA.
- Also, although Larry Peerce's name remains in the credits of the alternate version ("A Larry Peerce-Edward S. Feldman Film"), "Gene Palmer" is credited as director and Francesca Turner a co-screenwriter.
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