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There's one Family Guy episode that you'll NEVER get to see...
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00:00The longer that it's on the air, the more chances the show has to slip up.
00:03The following TV sitcoms have all been hit by the banhammer at some stage,
00:07with censors and studios putting their foot down and drawing a line under particular stories.
00:12I'm Cy for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 banned episodes of beloved TV sitcoms.
00:17Number 10, The Puerto Rican Day, Seinfeld.
00:20Often described as one of the best sitcoms ever,
00:23Seinfeld was a sarcastic, sardonic and oftentimes nihilistic show about nothing in particular.
00:28All that being said, it dared to poke fun and be outrageous in the way that real people were,
00:32in opposition to picturesque sitcom families.
00:35The show has a handful of episodes that wouldn't go over well today,
00:38but the Puerto Rican Day caused enough of a stink to be taken off TV for four years.
00:43This 1998 story sees the cast of the show caught in city gridlock due to parade celebrating Puerto Rican Day.
00:49Near the episode to close, Kramer accidentally sets fire to a Puerto Rican flag with a sparkler,
00:54and in an attempt to stop the fire, throws it to the ground and stomps on it.
00:58This induces the ire of the people around him, and they chase him off the street.
01:02The episode itself induced the ire of real Puerto Ricans, and complaints about it filtered in,
01:06including from the then Puerto Rican borough president of Bronx at the time.
01:10There were letters and even protests outside of NPC's Rockefeller home,
01:14and the station acquiesced to their demands by removing it from syndication.
01:18The cast and crew took umbrage with this, but the episode stayed off the air until 2002.
01:22Number 9, The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson, The Simpsons.
01:27Considering that it's the longest-running American animated series of all time,
01:31The Simpsons is bound to have a handful of questionable episodes.
01:34This Season 9 edition was often called one of the best of the season,
01:37but was banned due to very clear real-life events.
01:40The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson first aired in 1997,
01:43and it takes the family out of Springfield for a rare visit to the Big Apple.
01:47Thanks to Homer's friend Barney, the family car is parked, ticketed, and clamped between the twin towers.
01:52As the family sees the sights, Homer stays by the World Trade Center, waiting for the ticket man.
01:57Of course, after September 11th, 2001, the episode was removed from the air,
02:01because so much of it centred around the location in question,
02:04with the tone exacerbated by Homer's frustration,
02:06and an unfortunate joke between two men with the punchline of
02:09They stick all the jerks in Tower 1.
02:11Despite the episode being well-received,
02:13and even winning an Emmy for Outstanding Musical Achievement for its comedic musical number,
02:17it remained off the air until 2006,
02:19and even then was carefully cut down in certain regions.
02:23Number 8, the one with the free porn, Friends.
02:26Despite being on the air for 10 seasons,
02:28Friends has thankfully been a show that hasn't encountered too much in the way of censorship,
02:32which in all fairness may explain why it felt like it was on TV
02:35pretty much every hour of the day for many years.
02:38Notable exceptions to this are the one with the lesbian wedding,
02:41which attracted some rather silly controversy and censorship
02:43due to its focus on same-sex relationships,
02:46and the one with the free porn.
02:48The episode's title, as with most Friends episodes,
02:50is a pretty good description.
02:52Joey and Chandler discover a free pornography channel on their TV,
02:55and fearing they'll lose it if they turn it off,
02:58leave it on, and wind up slightly addicted to it.
03:00What's remarkable about the episode, for the most part,
03:03is how frank the show is about pornography in 1998,
03:06where it was still quite taboo in the days before the internet.
03:09However, Channel 4 in the UK weren't happy with its frequent references,
03:12and it became the only episode of the show that was dropped from repeat showings,
03:16as it wasn't appropriate to be televised earlier in the day.
03:19Channel 5 continued to show the episode,
03:21but edited it to exclude any shots of the TV when the porn was on,
03:25even though unsurprisingly, it was never explicit.
03:28Number 7, if you can't be with the one you love,
03:30Boy Meets World.
03:32It might seem quaint now, but around its highest points,
03:34Boy Meets World was a cutting-edge sitcom
03:36that navigated teenage life, relationships, and self-identity.
03:40It was created by Disney for ABC,
03:42but due to its strong viewership and name value,
03:45was picked up for syndication on the Disney Channel.
03:48Here, the House of Mouse rifled through the stories,
03:50and took issue with a handful.
03:51One of these was, if you can't be with the one you love.
03:54It kicks off following the ongoing story,
03:56where Corey has been dumped by love interest Topanga,
03:58and is pretty miserable about the whole affair.
04:01In order to try and perk himself back up,
04:03he attends a house party, and sneaks away some whiskey.
04:05He even drags his friend Sean into things,
04:07but after the pair are picked up by the police,
04:09they agree to never drink again.
04:11However, Sean gets a taste for things,
04:13and drinks the entire next week.
04:15Jack, his half-brother, discovers this and scolds him,
04:18revealing that abuse of alcohol runs in the family.
04:20With a synopsis like that,
04:22it's not surprising that Disney wanted to stay away from it.
04:24It was perfectly viable on ABC,
04:26where its target demographic understood and empathised with it properly,
04:30but the Disney Channel had a wider spread of viewer ages,
04:32and thus they refused to air it.
04:34Surely a case of better safe than sorry.
04:37Number 6.
04:38Comedians.
04:39Beavis and Butthead.
04:40Perhaps one of the most recognisable mascots of the MTV era,
04:43Beavis and Butthead were part of the wave of culture
04:45that was all about pushing buttons,
04:47low-hanging fruit,
04:48and appealing to the disenfranchised Generation X.
04:51With its apathy of all things right and proper,
04:53heck, one of them is called Butthead,
04:55the show was often in hot water,
04:57and was the target for some pretty scathing criticism,
04:59none more so than after the airing of the episode Comedians.
05:02The story in question sees the two Texan teenagers attempting stand-up comedy,
05:07which goes about as well as expected.
05:09After the audience walks out of the comedy club,
05:11Beavis accidentally sets it on fire,
05:13and the two watch and laugh about how funny the situation is.
05:16Unfortunately, an incident in Moraine, Ohio,
05:18exactly a month after the episode aired,
05:20dragged the show into its most dire controversy.
05:23Austin Messner, a five-year-old boy,
05:25had burned his house down with his mother's cigarette lighter,
05:28killing his young sister.
05:29His mother blamed the show and the influence it had on her son.
05:33Despite neighbours proclaiming that the family didn't have cable
05:35and couldn't have seen it,
05:36MTV chose to re-edit Comedians and then eventually can it for good.
05:40In 2008, Messner confirmed himself
05:42that not only did the family not have cable,
05:44he had never seen the show in his life,
05:46and he didn't plan to.
05:48Number five,
05:48My Jiggly Ball,
05:50Scrubs.
05:51In 2010,
05:51Netflix and Hulu made the choice to re-examine the content on their platforms.
05:55Specifically,
05:55they were stripping back any shows that used blackface,
05:58a low-bar gag that has negative connotations
06:00due to its connections to performative caricatures
06:03and harmful stereotypes.
06:0530 Rock,
06:05The Office and Community were affected,
06:08while NBC's Scrubs had three episodes removed from streaming services.
06:12These were season three's My 15 Seconds
06:14and season five's My Chopped Liver and My Jiggly Ball,
06:17which just so happens to be a fan favourite.
06:19The episode has the show's typical moral quandary
06:21about the American healthcare system,
06:23but also centres on a gag about a fake sport
06:25that the janitor uses to lure JD out into the parking lot
06:28to get pelted by balls.
06:30The blackface moment,
06:31like the others in the show,
06:32is typically inconsequential
06:33and comes as part of a cutaway fantasy
06:35where JD imagines his perfect roommate,
06:38a mix between love interest Elliot and best friend Turk.
06:41It's stupid,
06:42and the show's willingness to put Sarah Chalk in blackface
06:44feels hollow and dated.
06:46Showrunner Bill Lawrence has said
06:47that he felt embarrassed by the episodes,
06:49but said that they would probably return to streaming services
06:51after some editing.
06:53Over two years later, however,
06:54they still remain absent.
06:56Number four,
06:57A Royal Flush,
06:58Only Fools and Horses.
07:00If you're a viewer outside of the UK,
07:02you'll almost certainly need a primer
07:03for what Only Fools and Horses is.
07:05A beloved sitcom that aired during the 1980s,
07:08it starred British acting institutions,
07:10David Jason and Nicholas Lindhurst,
07:12as two London-based brothers wheeling and dealing
07:14and doing what they could to make money.
07:16Though they were often scam artists
07:18and traded in illegal goods,
07:19the show framed them as two men
07:21just doing what they could to get by
07:22while looking out for each other,
07:24which is actually what perturbed many
07:25about the episode,
07:26A Royal Flush.
07:28This 1986 Christmas Day special
07:30saw Rodney get close with an upper-class family,
07:32and his brother Del Boy
07:33acts progressively more uncharacteristically aggressive.
07:36He verbally abuses Rodney
07:38and even threatens an audience member
07:39of a theatre show.
07:40Fans often called the episode
07:42one of the worst in the show's run,
07:43and creator John Sullivan tended to agree.
07:46When it came to 2005,
07:47when the show was being remastered for DVD,
07:49Sullivan personally saw to it
07:51that a whole 18 minutes of the 76 were cut,
07:53and a laugh track recorded by an audience of fans
07:56was added to soften Del Boy's harsh behaviour.
07:59This writer's cut version
08:00replaced the original in syndication
08:02and all future releases for 15 years,
08:04all the way until 2021,
08:06when the original was also supplied alongside it
08:08on the latest Blu-ray release.
08:11Number three, 201, South Park.
08:13Just to prove how bizarre South Park's history is,
08:16this banned episode was actually nominated
08:18for a Primetime Emmy,
08:20and in all fairness,
08:20it was a good time to honour the show's achievements
08:22as it was celebrating its 200th episode.
08:25One of the most controversial shows of all time,
08:27South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker
08:29drew from as much of their previously contentious content
08:32as possible for this double bill episode.
08:34200 was the set-up.
08:36Tom Cruise leads a legion of mocked celebrities
08:38to the town of South Park,
08:40and promises a class-action lawsuit
08:42unless they can produce the Prophet Muhammad.
08:44201 sees the second half of this
08:46and features many religious figures,
08:48including Muhammad himself,
08:49a hugely divisive choice,
08:51considering that previous cartoon drawings
08:53of the Prophet in newspapers
08:54had resulted in riots.
08:56Threats to the studio
08:57and the lives of Parker and Stone
08:59were pretty prevalent
09:00before the episode even aired,
09:02but it did get one showing on April 21st, 2010.
09:05However, 201 was heavily censored.
09:08Black bars obscured Muhammad
09:09and all of his dialogue was bleeped,
09:11which rendered the show's final moments a mess,
09:13but a statement in itself.
09:15However, 201 was never shown again,
09:17not on TV or on the South Park website.
09:20Number two,
09:20I'll See You in Court,
09:22Married with Children.
09:23Michael G. Moe,
09:24creator of Married with Children,
09:26calls I'll See You in Court
09:27the lost episode of the show on two fronts.
09:30One, because it never aired,
09:31and two, because the team behind the show
09:33lost control of the situation around it.
09:35In this proposed 1989 episode,
09:38Marcy Rhodes recommends
09:39that the Bundys rekindled their love life
09:41by having sex in a seedy motel room.
09:44However, here they discover
09:45that the Rhodes' own game
09:46of horizontal refreshments
09:47has been caught on film.
09:49Regardless, the Bundys have sex anyway,
09:51and together the couples attempt
09:52to sue the motel owner.
09:54Like most great sitcoms,
09:55Married with Children was a boundary pusher
09:57at the time,
09:58and was no stranger to controversy.
10:00However, this episode's dialogue
10:02and subject matter in 1989
10:04was too much for Fox.
10:06Where the studio typically asked
10:07for one or two changes per episode,
10:09the list for I'll See You in Court
10:11had over a dozen requests.
10:13Editing it down would have left very little.
10:15It took a full 15 years
10:17for this episode to be released to the public,
10:19only for intrigued fans and critics
10:20to find it rather banal
10:22and not all that titillating.
10:23The episode had developed an unknown allure
10:25that was more exciting
10:26than its so-called misgivings.
10:29At number one,
10:29Partial Terms of Endearment
10:31Family Guy
10:32Family Guy has always been a show
10:34that isn't afraid to be crude,
10:35insensitive,
10:36or just simply challenging,
10:37and has gotten into trouble
10:38a few times for it.
10:40However, there have only been
10:41two episodes banned in the US.
10:43The first is pure unfortunate happenstance.
10:46Turban Cowboy features a cutaway gag
10:48where Peter competes in the Boston Marathon
10:49with his car knocking down runners.
10:51A month after the episode aired,
10:53a bombing at the competition
10:54caused this episode to be pulled,
10:56but it eventually returned years later.
10:58However, despite being aired
10:59overseas,
11:00partial terms of endearment
11:01has never been shown in America,
11:03and it's a long way
11:04from ever having that opportunity.
11:06The reason being that the episode
11:07handles the rather controversial
11:08topic of abortion.
11:10Lois reconnects with a college friend
11:11and her partner,
11:12and they ask her to be a surrogate,
11:14carrying a child to terms for them
11:15as they cannot conceive themselves.
11:17Despite Peter's arguments otherwise,
11:19she agrees.
11:20Later, the parents are killed
11:21in an accident.
11:22Following this,
11:23Lois has to make the hard choice
11:24about what to do with the baby.
11:26Fox refused to show the episode
11:27and even Adult Swim,
11:28who carried the more controversial stories
11:30that Fox didn't,
11:31wouldn't touch it.
11:32It was eventually released on DVD,
11:34but the episode has never been shown on TV,
11:36and it remains the only Family Guy story
11:38missing from Disney+.
11:40And that's the list.
11:42Let us know what you thought of this video
11:43down in the comments below.
11:44Which of these banned episodes have you seen,
11:46and which do you think
11:47didn't deserve the treatment they got?
11:48Make sure you like this video,
11:50share it with your friends,
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11:54where you can get more content
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11:57I've been Cypher,
11:57WhatCulture,
11:58and have a good week.
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