2) Some of the Petrox crew are playing cards on deck when Captain Ross, over the ship's speaker, orders them to assemble for a meeting.  They are mystified because the ship is changing course. This scene actually remains in the published screenplay, so it must have been dropped fairly late.  Also, you'll notice that the voice over the loud speaker isn't really John Randolph ("Captain Ross").  They must have edited the scene out before getting Randolph to loop his dialogue and, when they put it back for the TV long version, they just kept the voice which the actors had used for cueing.

3)  Earlier, Wilson told his men to "Take him below and lock him up until he's hungry enough to stop spouting apeshit." Later, the camera pushes in through a porthole to show Jack locked up and getting more and more pissed off.  He rises and bangs on the door, demanding some food, then takes off his jersey and lies down on the bunkbed.  The scene was probably dropped just because it didn't really serve any purpose (except maybe to give the female viewers a thrill. You may recall, in later life, Bridges was famous for his washboard abs.)

3) Having rescued Dwan from the life-raft, you will recall we are treated to a montage of idyllic scenes aboard the Petrox Explorer. This scene was cut out in which Jack comes upon a crewman, Garcia, peering upside down through the porthole into Dwan's cabin to watch her shower in the nude.  A second crewman holds Garcia's legs.  Jack, the gentleman, sneaks up on them, hands a life-preserver down to Garcia, then tickles the other crewman until he drops Garcia into the water.  It's a cute scene and it's a shame they dropped it.  They may have felt it just wasn't believable  because, in reality, it would be very dangerous.  For a moment, it looks as if Garcia is going to be sucked into the ship's prop!

4) After Kong escapes from his escape-proof cage, there is pandemonium.  Wilson tries to flee but comes face to face with an irate Petrox exec brandishing a cane, who tells him, "Petrox will find you!  You can hide on the moon!  We'll find you!" Obviously, once it was decided to have Kong kill Wilson, this scene became pointless.  Even so, it is awkward.  If you were trapped in a panicking mob with a forty foot gorilla stomping around, would you stop to chew out your employee? 

5) In the theatrical release, Wilson was stomped by Kong.  In the published screenplay, we think Wilson was stomped, then realize only his hat was crushed.  In this long version, the foot comes down on Wilson, then lifts to reveal -- the crushed hat.  It is a very confusing shot. Was Wilson still alive, but just off camera, as in the screenplay?  Or are we to infer that Wilson literally stuck to the bottom of Kong's foot!  Either way, they left the crushed hat on the editing room floor.

6)  As Kong stomps down a New York street, he encounters a car which he picks up and throws into the side of a building.  They may have dropped this scene because the car looks like a toy car when Kong picks it up. Also,  they may have felt it was unnecessarily malicious on Kong's part. It's a shame because it's a pretty cool scene. Strangely, publicity shots from this scene cropped up in magazine articles advertizing the movie, from which I suspect it must have been dropped very late.

7)  A military top brass is shown cancelling the jet fighters and sending in helicopters instead.  This is followed by shots of the jet fighters "standing down".  It is an oddly pointless scene.  However, I have heard that originally the filmmakers were going to use jet fighters to strafe Kong on the WTC.  Unable to get American fighters, they had planned to use Canadian aircraft.  This deal fell through and they went with helicopters. But that explains why early versions of the movie poster show only jets, the helicopters being added in later.  Also that explains why the jet in the posters is red and white -- the colours of Canada.

8)  As Jack and Dwan run down a NY street, Jack tries to hotwire a car without success.  The scene was probably dropped just because it wasn't needed.