Alternate versions

Due to the damage on the film's master, all current video/television prints are missing the dramatic music as Joan destroys her rose garden.

CBS edited 10 minutes from this film for its 1983 network television premiere.

Some scenes were altered for the TV and cable release of "Mommie Dearest". Aside from editing out the bad language, there is a notably different version of the scene where Joan hacks down her prize roses, where for some reason the musical background to this scene was completely removed, and the abrupt cut from L.B. Mayer's face to Joan kneeling dementedly in the rose garden with her garden shears is accompanied by a bone-chilling scream.

Some prints also contain a different take of the scene where Joan and Alfred argue over the cost of the New York apartment, most notably Alfred's reaction to Joan's stubborn insistence.

The "edited for television" version of "Mommie Dearest" alters one of the film's most famous lines. When Joan roars at the Pepsi board "Don't fuck with me, fellas!", the edited version substitutes a shot from behind Joan's head so that we can't read her lips, and the line is changed to "Don't mess with me, fellas!" The word "mess" is awkwardly edited in, and is obviously from some other line or take.