Five Banned TV Show Episodes

While TV shows do their best to make sure they don’t push the limits too much while they write an episode, sometimes things get taken too far, leaving the show producers wondering what happened. And after seeing a few moments where this has happened and the show actually had to be pulled from the airwaves, I’ve decided to give you a few of them. So hopefully you caught a few of these before they got sent to the sin bin, because chances are high that you’ll never be able to see them again. These are five banned TV show episodes.

5. “Turban Cowboy” – Family Guy

As everyone knows–and can agree–the Boston Marathon bombings last year were tragic, so one wouldn’t think that anyone would poke fun at what happened. With that in mind, FOX had pulled an earlier aired episode of the the show Family Guy in which Peter Griffin was seen running over participants of the event to win. Of course, it wasn’t intended to poke fun at the bombings–airing a month or so before the incident–but FOX saved face by making sure it wasn’t out there for anyone to see.

4. “I’ll See You In Court” – Married…With Children

Not airing in the States until 13 years after it was actually taped, the plot followed Peggy and Al Bundy recording another couple being intimate and vice versa, making the two go head-to-head in a court battle–sounds juicy–and pretty regular by today’s standards. The Bundy’s get caught again in the courtroom after losing out in court, and are caught on tape again. The episode finally aired in 2002 on FX, but even then it was cut a bit, with a few raunchy lines being left out.

3. “Prom-ises, Prom-ises” – Boy Meets World

For anyone who grew up in the ’90s like I did, the show Boy Meets World was one that seemed to really relate with us while growing up. Whether it was friendships, school or relationships, we could always rely on Cory Matthews and his buddies to teach us what we needed to know. But the show came under a bit of a controversy a few times when they referenced their characters wanting to get busy–which, for the Disney Channel, was no-no. In this specific episode, Cory and Topanga talk about losing it at prom, and the straight-laced execs at Disney thought it’d be best to just keep it PG, originally pulling the episodes until reruns began on ABC Family and MTV2.

2. “The Puerto Rican Day” – Seinfeld

Feeling pressure from the National Puerto Rican Coalition, one of the all-time funniest shows on TV pulled an episode entitled “The Puerto Rican Day,” which was originally seen in 1998. After accidentally lighting a Puerto Rican flag on fire with a sparkler, Kramer stomps on the blazing flag before being attacked by a mob of Puerto Ricans, who eventually throw Jerry’s empty car down a stairwell. That’s pretty bad as it is, but when Kramer says the line, ” it happens every day in Puerto Rico,” there weren’t too many people who found it too amusing. Though NBC did apologize, the episode can be seen in syndication on some networks today.

1. “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson” – The Simpsons

Having to travel to New York City in order to retrieve his car, Homer Simpson finds himself among horrible drivers, street vendors and quite the adventure of trying to find a bathroom in the World Trade Center. Like the Boston Marathon episode on Family Guy, this The Simpsons episode was pulled because of the tragedy of 9/11, with the reference of the World Trade Center seemingly too sensitive for people. In recent years, the episode has found its way back onto the airwaves in syndication, however.