The Germans episode. I don’t recall racial slurs maybe the US version cut them out? Or maybe my memory is bad.
This is in the UK only as mentioned early in the article.
It was only pulled in the UK . But did the US get the censored version?
Again from the article:
I saw it on PBS way back in the early 80s so I guess that version was not cut?
No it wasnt. PBS back in the day was much more adventurious. They even aired a play with nudity. Steambath.
This is what the BBC reports.
j
I don’t know why it was pulled, and I don’t think it should be, but, from memory, here are the pretty objectionable parts:
He goosesteps like a Nazi and pretends to be Hitler
He’s afraid of the black doctor
He calls that nurse ugly to her face
It’s overall pretty hard on the Germans
Polly does a terrible impression of James Cagney
OK, that last one isn’t a real reason.
Apropos my thread in ATMB, the first or second episode (the one with O’Reilly) is pretty hard on Irishmen. In other episodes, he calls Manuel a wop (which is odd to this American), and the Major is pretty racist in one of the episodes.
He’s such an anti-hero that him acting badly seems OK to me, but I’m not the BBC censors. For example, the authorities in Blazing Saddles are uniformly awful and racist, so when they say racist things, it just shows how awful they are.
Hmmm, I taped that on VHS way back when. I got rid of them sometime in the last decade.
The Major, in his own addled way, refers to South Asians and Africans (or maybe West Indians; I don’t remember off the top of my head) as “Ws" and "N***s,” while Basil calls the Germans “K****s.”
The BBC has a lot of work to do if it intends to eliminate all such references from every older show. Fortunately, I bought the complete boxed set of FT years ago.
John Cleese responds - stating that the aim was to ridicule racism by putting the words into the mouths of idiotic characters so show how stupid they were - make fun of the racists, show them how ridiculous they look…
This is the scene which caused it to be pulled: Fawlty Towers: Women are strange creatures - YouTube
Warning: contains the N word multiple times.
I work in the TV industry for a different company. We have also pulled one or two programmes which might not be suitable in the current context. Difference is that we didn’t write a press release.
At last, a voice of sanity crying out in the wilderness.
Yet had UKTV shown it they would have had many complaints. And the potential of some really bad press. So from a business perspective it makes perfect sense not to show it and I would have made the same call. However the press release smacks of virtue signalling. You do this sort of thing quietly to avoid the bad press. You do not invite bad press by shouting about it.
Though it raises the channel’s profile I suppose.
Guess I don’t recall that part of the episode.
The very first comment under the video: “So who’s here after the show was pulled?”
6 replys so far. 
I’ve seen it many times, including in streaming services. As a kid(I saw the show in the 80’s), our jaws dropped at the scene, but it is clearly the Major that is clueless and senile.
The Jeffersons used the N-word as did a memorable SNL sketch with Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor. I don’t recall whether All In The Family did or did not.
All in the Family did have one episode, at a party at the Jefferson’s house where George first finds out that Jenny, Lionel’s fiancee, has a white father. When Jenny’s parents start bickering, George says loudly to Louise, “You see that Louise? The next thing you know he’ll be calling her a N*****!”
Archie, who’s standing a little off to the side, says, “Geez, I haven’t used that word in ten years.”
Actually, he is now a bit insane with extremely dodgy views of things like Brexit, while living in the Carribean…