| NEWS 5: The Simpsons - banned episodes update In 1997, Sky One banned season 9's The Cartridge Family because of its firearm content. But they still saw fit to put it on video ('Too Hot For TV!') and charge us to see it. How very suspicious. Anyway, BBC2 have shown the episode uncut at 6pm on numerous occasions, so that's hopefully the end of that. But there have been two more episodes that were banned in some way. ------------------ The City of New York versus Homer Simpson, the premiere of season 9, was made in 1997. In the episode, Barney drunkenly drives Homer's car to New York and parks it at the World Trade Center, so Homer must get it back. Because these scenes were seen as 'offensive' because of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. -------------------- The episode has been shown in syndication in the US, cutting references to the towers, and RTE Network 2 in Ireland showed it uncut within a few years (but mentioned that 'the episode was made before the attacks' at the start of the programme). The BBC gained the rights to the episode around 2001, but it was never shown on BBC2. Sky have since regained the rights to season 9 episodes, and showed NY vs Homer on Sky One on Sunday 7 August 2005, but according to Wikipedia, it was still "with several cuts". -------------------- I didn't see all of the episode on Sky - I'm not sure if they cut out the scene with the guys yelling at each other across the towers (probably the most objectionable bit of the episode). That scene - and the episode as a whole - was making fun of stressed-out, angry New Yorkers. If the World Trade Centre scenes had taken place elsewhere, at two nondescript buildings for example, they would have been able to show it after the attacks without offending, but would also have been less funny. It may be slightly controversial to say this, but the idea that people in the WTC actually would yell at each other across the Plaza, and hang washing between the towers, is a funny one, and none of the episode should be lost just because it is assumed that people 'can't handle it'. We could handle Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'" video, after all! Link - Peel Futurama debate whether this episode should be shown ------------------ Finally, Sky have restricted the season 13 episode Weekend At Burnsie's to after the watershed - it was first shown at 21:00 on Sunday 6 October 2002. The reason is drugs. Like The Cartridge Family, this episode deals with a contentious political issue - in this case medical marijuana, which Homer takes after getting his eyes pecked by birds; anyway, I guess there were one too many "stoner" references. It's good that Sky didn't ban it entirely, but I bet we're the only country that banned it at all! Link - Digital Spy forum - a thread that began just after the premiere of the episode was shown on Sky One. |
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| ^ The World Trade Center: controversial. Hmm. (Cred: www.greatbuildings.com) |