America loves censoring stuff, especially entertainment: the Hays Code; the Comic Book Code; parental advisory stickers on CDs. Television has always come under special scrutiny because it was something that came into your house, and for most of its existence it has been free.
Notoriously, I Love Lucy wasn’t allowed to use the word “pregnant” on air; Maude got in trouble for having an episode about abortion; The Smothers Brothers eventually were cancelled because they wouldn’t tone down their political rhetoric; and All In the Family was in all sorts of trouble for Archie Bunker’s thoughts on women, homosexuals, and African Americans.
In recent years, as society has become more permissive and open-minded, television has broadened its subject matter. But even still, there are some topics and episodes that are too much for some viewers. In the below slideshow, check out nine popular TV series that had specific episodes that were pulled off the air. Can you think of more episodes that were pulled? Let us know if you remember any in the comments below!
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Censored TV
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The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone - “The Encounter”
Original Airdate: May 1, 1964
The Twilight Zone has never shied away from addressing social issues. On the surface, “The Encounter” seems fairly innocuous: George Takei plays a Japanese-American man who encounters a WWII vet in his search for work. The men’s conversation turn towards a samurai sword the vet took off a soldier he killed in the war. Invariably, the conversation becomes heated, with Takei seeking revenge for his fallen countrymen, and the vet seeking escape from a life which has fallen apart since coming home from the war. The Vietnam War was just revving up, and the country was still healing from Japanese internment camps and the Korean conflict, so relations with Asian communities were especially precarious. The episode contained numerous racial epithets and implied there was a Japanese-American traitor who helped plan the Pearl Harbor bombing. CBS received enough complaints that they never aired it again, and “The Encounter” was left out of syndication packages. It is available on DVD and digital formats.
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The Twilight Zone
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The Twilight Zone
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Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O - “Bored, She Hung Herself”
Original Airdate: January 7, 1970
The original Hawaii Five-O featured an episode in which a woman hung herself to death. Allegedly, a viewer killed themselves in the same manner after mimicking the episode, so CBS pulled the episode and did not include it in syndication packages. Ironically, the death in the show was not auto-erotic asphyxiation, but was meant to be a beneficial health practice done by a yogi. The episode was not even included on the DVD release. Instead, the DVD included this disclaimer: “Due to viewer reaction following the original telecast of the episode 'Bored, She Hung Herself' (Season 2, episode 16), that episode has not been re-broadcast or released in any manner since its original airing and is not included in this collection.” The episode has never never been seen publicly since its original airing.
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Hawaii Five-O
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Hawaii Five-O
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Married... With Children
Married… with Children - “I’ll See You in Court”
Married… with Children was no stranger to controversy and boycots. Misogynistic toilet humor dominated the show, but an early episode was actually pulled from US airwaves before it ever aired. The episode had to do with a motel secretly video taping its patrons having sex. Peggy and Al find a tape of their neighbors, Steve and Marcy, having sex, but they decide to have sex anyway. They sue the motel, but there is not enough “evidence” that the Bundys had sex. Fox decided that, in a series that was already racy, “I’ll See You in Court” was too racy, and it was pulled from broadcast, though it did play internationally. The episode finally aired in 2002 on Fox’s cable net, FX. The episode was released as a special one-off “lost episode” on DVD, but it is back in most syndication lineups.
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Married... With Children
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Married... With Children
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The X-Files
The X-Files - “Home”
Original Airdate: October 11, 1996
A dead infant is what brings Mulder and Scully to the tiny rural town of Home, Pennsylvania. What they found there was much worse: three deformed, inbred brothers who were impregnating their mother in order to create more deformed children. Mom was a quadruple amputee who was kept in a box under the bed. An unidentified crew member told episode star Tucker Smallwood (who was unfamiliar with the show) that “this is awful, even for us.” Fox required some of the audio to be altered during the murder of an infant before it would allow the episode to air, but even still, the network received enough complaints that they never aired the episode again. “Home” was included in syndication packages and is available on DVD and digital formats.
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The X-Files
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The X-Files
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The X-Files
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Seinfeld
Seinfeld - “The Puerto Rican Day”
Original Airdate: May 7, 1998
Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer get caught in a traffic jam during the Puerto Rican Day parade and the usual hilarity ensues. As the episode ends, Kramer gets into the spirit of the parade and wraps himself in the Puerto Rican flag. The flag ends up in the back seat of Jerry’s car, and Kramer lights a cigar with a sparkler that then ignites the flag. He tries to stomp out the flag, and gains the ire of celebrants. A minor riot ensues. The National Puerto Rican Coalition and Bronx Borough president Fernando Ferrer, a Puerto Rican, took exception to the episode and complained to NBC. The network apologized and pulled the episode. It wasn’t included in most syndication packages, but has worked its way back into the rotation (at least on TBS). It is available on Hulu and DVD sets.
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Seinfeld
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Seinfeld
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Seinfeld
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - “Earshot”
In this episode, Buffy gets scratched by a demon and takes on his ability to read people’s thoughts. Unable to control her new power, she is overwhelmed by the thoughts of the kids in the cafeteria, and overhears someone thinking, “I’m going to kill them all.” The Scooby gang narrows down the perp to Jonathan, a geeky guy who later goes on to becoming a “big bad,” but it turns out Jonathan was just planning suicide; the thought Buffy heard was the lunch lady, who was poisoning the cafeteria food. The episode was originally scheduled to air in April 1999, just one week after the massacre at Columbine High School, which left fifteen dead. The network pulled the episode, but finally ended up airing it six months later, just before the fifth season began.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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Masters of Horror
Masters of Horror - “Imprint”
You would think that anything goes in Showtime’s horror anthology series, but the episode directed by Takashi Miike was too much, even for hardened horror fans. In “Imprint,” an American journalist travels to Japan in search of a lost love named Komomo. He ends up on an island inhabited exclusively by prostitutes and is “treated” to a number of horrible stories about Komomo’s heinous childhood and tragic demise. The episode involved discussions and depictions of incest, rape, child molestation, aborted fetuses, and torture. Series executive producer Mick Garris asked Miike to tone it down a bit, and he did, but Showtime still declined to air the episode. It is available on DVD and various digital formats.
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Masters of Horror
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Masters of Horror
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Masters of Horror
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Family Guy
Family Guy - “Partial Terms of Endearment”
Family Guy had an early episode, “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein,” banned from airing on Fox because of Jewish stereotypes. However, that episode airs all the time in syndication, and seems tame. “Partial Terms of Endearment” has never aired on American television, network or cable. Lois decides to be a surrogate mother for an old college friend, but when the biological parents are killed in a car accident, Lois and Peter must decide whether to abort the baby, or have it and give it up for adoption. The episode never aired in the United States, (not even on Adult Swim) but did air internationally and was released on DVD.
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Family Guy
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Family Guy
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Hannibal
Hannibal - “Ceuf”
One of the most demented TV series in recent memory, Hannibal only had one episode that was pulled from air. “Ceuf” centered on kids who were kidnapped and brainwashed to kill their parents. Scheduled to air the week following the Boston Marathon bombing, and just a few short months after the Sandyhook massacre, NBC decided to pull the episode. Though it still aired in international markets and was available for purchase on iTunes, the episode never aired. It was included in the Blu-ray release, and a heavily “cannibalized” version of the episode was available on the NBC website that featured character developments that had nothing to do with the “case o’ the week.”
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Hannibal
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Hannibal
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Hannibal
