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In the first Superman film, there's a scene at the end of the film where Lex Luthor has Miss Teschmacher hanging from a rope, where he then drops her to the lions (in my memory, it was crocodiles, but after checking the Wikipedia article, I found out it was lions). Superman then swoops in and saves Miss Teschmacher, remarking to her "By the way, Miss Teschmacher, your mother sends her love." (it was that line that really stuck with me). I remember the scene when I saw the film, but then when it came out on video and first DVDs, the scene was missing. It was only later that the scene was restored to the film.

I'm just wondering if anyone can find out why that one scene was cut from the movie when it was put out on video? It's only about 1 extra minute of film, but it also resolves a few plot points: Lex trying to take revenge on Miss Teschmacher for her allowing Superman to escape; Superman confronting Lex before dropping him off at prison (without the scene, we don't see how Superman found Lex again); and a little reference to Lex's claims that one of the nuclear weapons he launched was headed for Hackensack, New Jersey (where Miss Teschmacher's mother lives). Yes, it's a campy bit (Luthor is playing the piano before he drops Miss Teschmacher), but it resolves quite a few plot points, and is no campier than Lex ripping his toupee off in the next scene.

If anyone can provide some links with any information, I would really appreciate it!

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+1 for Superman banging Miss Teschmacher's mother. –  Mathew Foscarini Nov 8 '12 at 1:22

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The Superman Wikipedia entry has some information on this, specifically the altered cuts created for television. It doesn't appear that this scene was originally in the theatrical version of the film, but was added later along with another 40 minutes of footage to present a 3 hour version of the film that could be shown across two nights on ABC. Wikipedia says the reason was:

Apparently, in their contract with ABC, the Salkinds (producers) were able to get money for every minute of footage shown on TV. So as a result, they crammed in as much footage as possible for the TV networks in order to maximize their revenues.

The Superman Wiki provides further information about the home video releases:

Subsequently, both the theatrical and television versions were distributed in syndication by Warner Bros., which regained control of the film in 1985, but only the theatrical version was issued on home video until 2001, when the special edition DVD featured a 151-minute cut.

So it seems that the scene in question was not part of the initial theatrical release and was added along with 40 other minutes of footage for television airings. It was not included on home video releases as it was not part of the theatrical release.

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