The death of Georgie in the opening of Stephen King’s IT miniseries is horrifying as is – but a cut scene made it even worse. Pennywise the Dancing Clown is one of King’s most disturbing monsters, and Tim Curry’s nightmarish turn as the monster in 1990’s IT miniseries made him an icon. Even though the character doesn’t have much screentime, Curry’s Pennywise would haunt the dreams of younger viewers in the years ahead. This is especially true thanks to the infamous storm drain scene. This flashback scene has young Georgie Denbrough encounter Pennywise, who tries to lure him into the sewer.
In both the IT miniseries and the 2017 movie, it’s a deeply unnerving scene and one that sets the tone for the rest of the story. It should be noted that while the miniseries opts not to show any gore, IT: Chapter One features Georgie’s arm being graphically bitten off, while the doomed boy is later dragged into the storm drain. Of course, the R-rated IT movies could get away with such a scene, but it would have been nearly impossible for the ABC adaptation to depict something that violent. According to the documentary Pennywise: The Story of IT, a major Georgie scene was deleted for being too disturbing, however.
IT Cut A Scene With Georgie’s Dead Body
Originally, the IT miniseries featured a scene where a fireman would have taken Georgie’s dead, armless body to the Denbrough family home. His mother – quite understandably – would have been devastated by the reveal, with Mrs. Denbrough actor Sheelah Megill recounting filming the scene in Pennywise: The Story of IT. While not especially graphic, a scene featuring Georgie’s body was considered a little risky for television audiences, so it was removed and hasn’t been seen since. It’s worth noting that Georgie’s performer Tony Dakota later reprised the role for a short film sequel titled Georgie.
IT Cut A “Blood Oath” Scene
Just like in King’s IT novel, the childhood portion of the miniseries was scripted to end with the children performing a blood oath. This is the promise that brings them back together as adults to face Pennywise one last time. When it came to the series, there were concerns about filming a scene where a group of children cut themselves and share blood, especially due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the era. In the final version of the scene, the “Losers Club” just make the vow to one another with the blood oath element being removed entirely.
Outside of Georgie’s body, 1990’s IT had little in way of deleted scenes. That said, IT was originally shown across two nights, with the second episode featuring credits across the opening scenes. While the VHS retrained these moments, it was decided to make IT like a movie for its DVD / Blu-ray release, so the first few minutes of episode two were edited out. These involved Bill (Richard Thomas) coming back to Derry in a cab and arriving at his hotel, and while hardly essential scenes, it’s a shame they hit the cutting room floor.