Intro: TV censorship is a touchy subject. You can interpret it differently, and it often varies from country to country. While some might argue that it’s necessary to keep viewers from being exposed to inappropriate content, others might say that it’s an infringement on freedom of speech. Whatever your opinion may be, it’s hard to deny that TV censorship has been a hot topic over the years. Here are five TV shows that were censored for various reasons.
1.Sesame Street, “Episode 847” (aired once in 1976)
This episode of Sesame Street was meant to teach children how to deal with the death of a loved one. At the time, minimal television programming dealt with this theme, so producers at PBS needed to get it right. It was banned because it was considered too sad for children. However, when they finally screened the episode for executives at the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW), the actors moved them to tears. It was eventually aired in 1981, but only after being reworked to make it suitable for children. What happened? In this episode, Big Bird waits by the window every day for his friend Snuffy to arrive on the bus. One day, he doesn’t get off the bus with everyone else. Big Bird becomes anxious and asks others to know where Snuffy is, but nobody can tell him where his friend has gone. Eventually, Big Bird finds out that Snuffy has been hospitalized for an operation on his nose.
2.Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection
It is the only movie on this list that isn’t a TV show, but it’s too good, not to mention. Columbia Pictures had an outbreak of zombie-like creatures in their film studio where they were filming the horror/comedy Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection (2012). The director wouldn’t let them stop production because he didn’t want to incur the cost of shutting down. The actors had to improvise when fighting off the zombies, which is why you’ll notice so much wrong “swordplay” in this movie. Reanimated is a 2008 remake of the 1968 horror classic Night of the Living Dead. Except that it’s not a “remake.” It’s an entirely new version that closely follows the original film while adding newly discovered and re-edited footage and including updated special effects. It’s almost as if someone found a massive box of raw film reels from the original movie and decided to make another version with them. In one particular scene, a zombie gets stabbed in the head by an ice pick. In the director’s cut, you can see blood shoot out from where the choice penetrates his brain while he screams in pain. The fact that the zombie is played by (the very talented) Sid Haig makes it all the more terrifying. However, there’s a massive problem with this scene: the blood was censored in TV prints of the film for obvious reasons.
3. Seinfeld, “The Puerto Rican Day” (originally aired in 1998)
Since this episode celebrates Puerto Rican heritage, the cast decided to throw a Puerto Rican parade in New York City. Everything goes smoothly until Jerry accidentally gets into a fight with one of the marchers, who turns out to be an escaped (and very bipolar) convict. It causes chaos for everyone involved. The scene where Kramer’s car almost runs over two Puerto Rican children is pretty intense, but check out the clip where George’s car runs through a parade banner. When the boys are at the parade, they go up to Jerry’s friend, who has a bloody nose due to his fight with an escaped convict (later revealed as Bania). It is common practice for TV censors to make sure blood appears consistent throughout an episode. But in this case, the dark red blood used on the set looked black on camera, so they had to go back and shoot a bloodier take. Unfortunately, all subsequent takes of the scene used light red blood for some unknown reason, rendering the dark red blood in previous shots meaningless. As a result, most TV prints miss footage of that scene due to continuity issues with Jerry’s friend’s face. But you can watch and download the uncut footage from The PirateBay to cure your curiosity.
4. The Last Temptation of Christ:
This 1988 Christian film, based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, centers around Jesus’ internal struggles between his mission and earthly desires. Among other things, it includes a dream sequence in which Mary Magdalene performs oral sex on Jesus. However, after several complaints were made against the film’s content, director Martin Scorsese was forced to release two versions: an edited version that was acceptable to the MPAA and a director’s cut, which contained all of the content found in the original.
5. Boy Meets World, “Promises, Promises” (originally aired in 1998):
Some of the students in Cory’s class were shown watching a pornographic video they had stumbled upon in course, and they covered their eyes during the explicit sex scenes. When it aired on Disney Channel in 1998, all shots where the boys cover their eyes were removed for time and replaced with clips from later episodes. The episode centers around a high school couple trying to have sex, and its ratings were in jeopardy after they screened it for network censors. Eric kisses Donna while her shirt is pulled up enough to expose her bra/breast in the scene in question. It caused a lot of drama between the two networks involved in making the show. ABC didn’t want to air an episode that featured a sex scene, but the show was mainly on TGIF, which meant it followed shows like Step By Step and Family Matters – all of which were family-friendly.
Conclusion:
TV censorship is essential because it deals with freedom of speech. It’s hard to deny that TV censorship has significantly affected how we consume media today. Many shows out there have been censored over the years, but these four TV shows are worth checking out! So watch these underrated gems and see what they’ve got in store for you!
