 The original 1978 version of this film ran for almost 4 hours, and was shown  over 2 nights in July of 1978. This version resembled the book much more than  the current one does. Several scenes in the book, but are not in the current  version ARE in the original 1978 cut, such as scenes involving the first day  of school, a school bus, and mama getting fired because of Mr. Granger. After  the first version was shown, the movie was heavilly edited down, removing all  of Part one, exept for certain parts that were abruptly edited into Part 2.  Small portions of some of the scenes in the first part (Little Man throwing a  book on the ground, Mama putting paper over the inside cover of a textbook,  the kids digging a trap for the bus to get stuck in, Mr. Morrison introducing  himself) appear in a pre