From Being Too Controversial To Being A Safety Hazard – 12 TV Show Episodes That Actually Got Banned

"There was instant outrage. NBC was inundated with complaints, and protests were staged outside their offices."

There are plenty of reasons why a TV episode can be banned. Sometimes the subject matter is deemed to be too offensive or inflammatory, and other times an episode can be actually dangerous to watch – thus networks decide to take the episode off the air.

Comedy Central

So, here are 12 TV episodes that got banned:

1. "The Puerto Rican Day" – Seinfeld

NBC

Seinfeld was fairly controversial in its day, but it largely managed to stay on the right side of what's acceptable to show, crossing it here and there with certain gags. However, there was one episode that received so much backlash that it was taken off the air. 

The episode contained various jokes that could be deemed to be offensive, but the criticism came from one moment where Kramer burns and stamps on a Puerto Rican flag. There was instant outrage. NBC was inundated with complaints, and protests were staged outside their offices. 

NBC responded with an apology, and they also pulled the episode from syndication.

Here's the clip:

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2. "Electric Soldier Porygon" – Pokémon

TXN

This episode of the beloved series was never aired outside of Japan, and never more than once, for a very good reason. When it was shown, the flashing red and blue lights caused over 600 children to have seizures and many were hospitalised.

Naturally, Pokémon went off the air for a few months in order to edit episodes to ensure this wouldn't happen again. While this episode was never shown again, the incident did garner international attention.

3. "The Encounter" – The Twilight Zone

CBS

The Twilight Zone ran episodes on syndication for years and years, but this episode was taken off screens for over 50 years. The reason it was banned was due to the racial overtones that ran throughout the episode. 

The Encounter centred around an American veteran of World War II who finds a Japanese Katana in his attic which he'd taken from a Japanese soldier who he killed after he had surrendered. The sword keeps coming back to him, despite his attempts to discard it, and it bears an inscription "My sword will avenge me."

Fenton, the veteran, then comes into contact with a young Japanese-American man looking for work, and their tensions begin to rise. The young man, Takamori, reveals that his father betrayed the U.S. during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and Fenton expresses a lot of anti-Asian sentiments. 

The episode perpetuates harmful stereotypes of Japanese people and also includes un-backed-up claims that Japanese-Americans were treacherous during Pearl Harbour. It was false statements such as these that led to the internment of thousands of U.S. citizens during the war, just because of their ancestry. 

It garnered much criticism from Japanese-Americans at the time of its release in 1964 and was taken off the air until 2016. You can now see the episode on streaming sites. 

Here it is:

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4. "The City Of New York Vs. Homer Simpson" – The Simpsons

Fox

The episode, released in 1997, had no major problems at that time, but naturally, after the events of September 11th, things changed. In the episode, the family go to New York City to retrieve the car that Barney had abandoned there. The car is parked in front of the World Trade Centre, and a lot of the imagery and jokes surrounding the car are in the shadow of the building. 

With the tragedy still fresh in everyone's minds, the network made the decision that the sight of the building would be triggering for viewers, and they removed it from syndication. The ban was lifted in 2006, however, it still remains one of the episodes shown the least, and they even edited out some of the original scenes which show the World Trade Centre. 

Here's a clip:

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5. “The One with the Lesbian Wedding” – Friends

NBC

This episode of the beloved series was one of the earliest depictions of same-sex marriage on US television screens, but some networks refused to show it, citing objectionable content. Coming decades before same-sex marriage was legal in various US states, clearly, these networks had a problem with showing it on TV. 

NBC were prepped for a wave of backlash that never came – the episode got rave reviews and high ratings. Speaking about first airing the episode, co-creator Marta Kauffman said: “NBC put 104 operators on for fear of getting a million phone calls. They got two.”

Have a look here:

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6. "If You Can’t Be With The One You Love…" – Boy Meets World

The Disney Channel

In this episode, Shawn and Cory are at a party and decide to drink alcohol, which later lands them in trouble with Cory's parents. Later in the episode, it's revealed that Shawn has a drinking problem, something which he decides to confront. 

The episode ran for one showing, but The Disney Channel decided to pull it from reruns, as dealing with more mature topics such as teen drinking and alcoholism wasn't really in line with their ethos. 

Have a look here:

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7. 200 and 201 – South Park

Comedy Central

Many episodes of South Park have been censored, but episodes 200 and 201 were shown only once, before being taken off the air. This is due to their depictions of the prophet Muhammad, something that caused major backlash and even caused Comedy Central to step up security at their offices after an extremist website posted threats to South Park creators and the network.

8. "Episode 847" - Sesame Street​​

PBS

This episode of the famous children's show was banned from being aired after a wave of complaints that it was too scary. The reason was that this particular episode starred legendary Wizard of Oz actor Margaret Hamilton, reprising her role as the Wicked Witch of the West.

You can see why young children may have found it too scary, at one point she even threatens to turn Big Bird into a feather duster. The episode was taken off the air, and it wasn't even made available for home viewing. Thankfully though, the footage that was once thought lost resurfaced on the internet just last year!

Have a look here:

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9. "Mister Skinnylegs" – Peppa Pig

Channel 5

Children's shows often have to be careful about the message they're sending young minds, and with this episode, the message, and how useful it is, really depended on where it was being shown. In the episode, Pepper's father calms her down when her brother brings a spider into the room, saying: "There's no need to be afraid Peppa. Spiders are very, very small and they can't hurt you".

In the UK, this may help to rid kids of a fear of spiders, which is fine, but when it was shown in Australia, the connotations were very different. The episode was removed from Australian screens, because telling children that small spiders cannot hurt you there is actually a dangerous message to send, because they literally can. 

Have a look:

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10. "Partial Terms Of Endearment" – Family Guy

Fox

Family Guy has crossed a number of lines in its long life on our screens, but the one you cannot cross, apparently, is abortion. In this episode, Lois becomes a surrogate mother for her old college friend, who then dies in a car crash. They must then decide whether to keep the baby or not. Peter is shown a video by an anti-abortion protestor and thus vehemently believes Lois has a right to keep the baby, meanwhile, Lois wants to get an abortion. In the end, they decide on an abortion.

The Fox president at the time had this to say about not airing the episode: "It's an extremely fragile subject matter at an extremely fragile economic time... Of all the issues, this is the one that seems to be the most of a hot button... [The episode] felt like it could cause trouble, and it was just not worth it." 

Creator, Seth Macfarlane wasn't happy with the decision, saying it was due to "people's inability to handle and dissect controversial narratives." 

Take a look:

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11. "Accidents Will Happen" – Degrassi: The Next Generation

CTV Television Network

In a similar vein, this episode of the cult Canadian show wasn't shown by the US distributors due to the subject of abortion. In the episode, a 14-year-old gymnast has an unplanned pregnancy and decides to get an abortion. With Degrassi having a lot of potentially controversial episodes, actor Jacob Epstein was surprised that the abortion episode was the one that US distributors decided not to air, calling it a "real shocker."  

One of the show's writers, Shelley Scarrow, had this to say: “Abortion deserves dramatic representation. It’s something that we run into, and yet it’s like the third rail — you just don’t touch it."

Have a look:

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12. "Home" – The X Files

Fox

The X Files was always pushing boundaries with what they could show on television, and returning writers Glen Morgan and James Wong wanted to really push the boat out with "Home", and they did. The episode included incest, and burying newborns alive, and was extremely gruesome and explicit. 

The subject matter was so horrible that "Home" became the first episode in the history of US television to receive a TV-MA rating. After it was aired, however, a lot of viewers and producers alike believed the show had gone too far, and it was banned for three years. Its return to screens came as part of a one-time-only Halloween showing. 

This is the trailer:

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What other TV episodes were banned? Let us know in the comments below!