27 TV Episodes So Controversial They Were Pulled From the Airwaves — Or Never Even Aired at All

Episodes that went too far — or at least someone thought they did
27 TV Episodes So Controversial They Were Pulled From the Airwaves — Or Never Even Aired at All
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The proverbial “line” we always hear about is a fine one to walk. And from the looks of these situations, there are a ton of different lines to walk. For example, Boy Meets World and Beavis and Butt-Head seem like they’d have totally different lines, but the one thing those lines had in common was that they were both crossed!

Here are a whole bunch of TV episodes that crossed their line…

Hawaii Five-0

HAWAII FIVE-0 Bored, She Hung Herself CRACKED.COM This episode featured a (hopefully) fictional form of yoga that involves auto asphyxiation. Someone accidentally died trying to replicate it, and the episode was nuked Due to viewer reaction following the original telecast.

Beavis and Butt-Head

BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD Comedians LAFF WOLE AMATEUR NITA CRACKED.COM B&B accidentally burn down a comedy club (but only after Beavis suggests they go intentionally burn sh* elsewhere). The pro-arson episode was pulled after two children died in a trailer fire, ostensibly inspired by this episode.

The X-Files

THE X-FILES Home CRACKED.COM It's now a fan-favorite episode, but Fox tried very hard to bury this freaky tale of habitual incest, genetic mutation, and infanticide.

Law & Order

LAW AND ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT The Glory That Was... ONE POLICE PLAZA CRACKED.COM This episode has been scrubbed from DVDS and Amazon, most likely due to pressure from the International Olympic Committee and the Brazillian government. It heavily implied high-level bribery was responsible for the 2016 Olympics being held in Rio de Janeiro.

Sesame Street

SESAME STREET A month's worth of programming CRACKED.COM This may come as a shock, but the state of Mississippi once suffered from a bad case of institutionalized racism. In 1970, their Commission for Educational Television declared they were not ready for the show's highly integrated cast of children, and banned it for a month.

The Simpsons

THE SIMPSONS The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson CRACKED.COM Originally aired in 1997, Fox took it out of rotation for several years following 9/11, since the World Trade Towers feature pretty prominently in the episode. They say New York City is the 6th Simpson! Anyway, the episode is still slightly edited when it runs almost 20 years later.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION The High Ground CRACKED.COM In this episode, Data predicts that a terrorist organization will succeed in reunifying Ireland in the distant year of 2024. The BBC kept it off of British airwaves until 2007, and it still hasn't run in Ireland.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Earshot CRACKED.COM This story, about a school shooter in a bell tower, was set to air one week after the 1999 Columbine shooting. Even though we find out that this ostensible murderer was merely planning on killing himself, the WB chose to postpone it a few months. Y'know, long enough for everyone to forget about Columbine.

Boy Meets World

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM A PROM-THEMED EPISODE OF BOY MEETS WORLD ACTUALLY GOT BANNED BY DISNEY. It involved Cory and Topanga going to senior prom together, and Cory trying to get a room so he and Topanga can have sex - but then they both realize they're not ready yet, and they don't go through with it.

Blackface

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM 30 ROCK HAD EPISODES FEATURING BLACKFACE, WHICH GOT PULLED FROM STREAMING. To explain that, Tina Fey said As we strive to do the work and do better in regards to race in America, we believe that these episodes featuring actors in race-changing makeup are best taken out of circulation.

Mike and Molly

MIKE AND MOLLY Windy City CRACKED.COM This 2013 episode, about a tornado hitting Chicago, was supposed to air on May 20 -- the day a huge tornado hit the town of Moore, Oklahoma. In solidarity, they held the episode for 10 days, or just enough time for non-Oklahoma residents to forget about the whole thing.

Scrubs

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM SCRUBS' BLACKFACE EPISODES ACTUALLY GOT PULLED FROM STREAMING SERVICE HULU. There were three episodes in total, and show creator Bill Lawrence and ABC Studios requested that they all be pulled.

The Simpsons (Again)

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THE SIMPSONS PULLED AN EPISODE INVOLVING MICHAEL JACKSON. BAD It's called Stark Raving Dad, and it had a character voiced by MJ-after renewed child sexual abuse allegations were levelled against him in 2019, it got pulled from syndication, streaming, and future DVDs.

SpongeBob SquarePants

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM A VIRUS-CENTRIC EPISODE OF SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS GOT PULLED FROM THE AIR. The episode Kwarantined Crab was removed by Nickelodeon in 2021, apparently due to sensitivities surrounding the global, real-world pandemic.

Black-ish

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THERE'S AN UNAIRED EPISODE OF BLACK-ISH, BUT THE REASONS AREN'T 100% CLEAR. you you The reason given was creative differences, but it seems that the decision was partly made because of a scene where characters argue over whether athletes have the right to kneel during the national anthem.

Workaholics

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM CHRIS D'ELIA HAD HIS WORKAHOLICS EPISODE GET PULLED FROM STREAMING PLATFORMS. In that ер, he played a child molester - which was just too disturbingly close to real life.

Pokemon

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM A POKEMON EPISODE NEVER GOT SHOWN IN THE US BECAUSE OF GUN VIOLENCE. In the ер, a character pulls a gun on Ash and his friends, and Ash only escapes death through his quick wits - he talks the guy out of firing the gun.

Cow and Chicken

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM THERE'S A BANNED COW AND CHICKEN EPISODE THAT MADE FUN OF LESBIANS. It's called Buffalo Gals, and it involves pretty crass lesbian jokes - for example, the titular Buffalo Gals show up at Cow and Chicken's home and quickly start munching the carpet.

Cheers

CHEERS Sam is diagnosed with AIDS. Sam was slated to contract AIDS at the height of the epidemic, but co-creator Les Charles said the specter of AIDS was taking all the humor out of it. CRACKED.COM

Sesame Street (Again)

SESAME STREET Snuffy's parents get divorced. The episode was written and filmed in 1992, but they decided to can it when they noticed it was traumatizing children in focus groups. They didn't touch the topic again until a 2012 digital short. CRACKED.COM

The Soup Nazi

SEINFELD The Soup Nazi as an actual nazi. This was a proposed episode wherein the Soup Nazi would return to the other Nazis - the actual former Nazi war criminals - with his soup recipes, later seeing lots of young boys with blue eyes from experimentation with the soups. CRACKED.COM

Married... With Children

MARRIED WITH CHILDREN Al and Peg's illicit sex tape. The Bundys find out their sexual escapades have been recorded by the sleezy motel they were staying at. FOX wouldn't air it in the US for thirteen years. CRACKED.COM

Hannibal

HANNIBAL Poorly-timed familicide. The Oeuf, an episode about kidnapped children murdering their parents, was pulled at the last minute. It was scheduled to air a week after the Boston Marathon Bombing and a few short months after the Sandy Hook massacre. CRACKED.COM

Friends

FRIENDS Chandler goes to a male strip club. The show was steeped in homophobia, especially Chandler's character. When writers wrote an episode around Chandler going to a male strip club because he really liked the sandwiches, Matthew Perry stepped in and told them to cool it. CRACKED.COM

The Angry Beavers

THE ANGRY BEAVERS The beavers break the 4th wall. In the series finale that was written and recorded, Norbert and Daggett find out that they're cartoon characters AND that they've been cancelled. Nickelodeon ultimately decided it made them look bad, so it never aired. CRACKED.COM

Seinfeld

SEINFELD Elaine gets a gun. ald bis In The Bet, Elaine purchases a gun on a dare. However, despite getting the green light, the cast and crew refused to film it. CRACKED.COM

Family Guy

FAMILY GUY Lois wants an abortion. In The Partial Terms of Endearment, Lois is a surrogate mother for a couple who die unexpectedly. She and Peter spend the episode arguing over abortion. Fox pulled the plug, and it's still never aired in the US. CRACKED.COM

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