The recent Gilligan’s Island thread got me trying to remember every episode I’d ever seen of it, and I had a sudden realization: There are a couple of episodes from the B&W first season that I’ve seen maybe twice in my entire life. Like they nearly NEVER air those. I then thought of all the syndicated reruns of shows I’d seen originally and it occured to me that there’s almost always a few episodes that are rarely if ever shown in syndication. Is this just faulty memory or bad luck? Or is the “almost never shown episode” phenomenon real?
That Japanese soldier episode of Gilligan’s Island is one (I think)
The Twilight Zone had a couple: An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge (the only episode from a foreign source) and “The Encounter” (features a WWII vet and his Japanese neighbor (George “Sulu” Takei). It had some unpleasant racial elements).
^^^TZ also had one with Robert Duval called “Miniature” (iirc) which, like “The Encounter” was rarely seen until the 90s. I think a plagiarism suit was the cause.
Harlan Ellison co-wrote (rewrote, actually) a “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” script called “The Pieces of Fate Affair,” in which he used thinly disguised names of several authors. Judith Merrill was pissed because of the character named Judith Merle, raised a ruckus, and that ep was rarely syndicated.
Sir Rhosis
The first (B&W) season of I Dream of Jeannie rarely gets aired.
In fact, a lot of B&W series of the 50s have vanished from the airwaves. I’ve never seen reruns of the original Dragnet, for instance. Similarly, and 30-minute dramas other than Twilight Zone seem gone.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sugar truck episode of the Simpsons on my local affiliate. “Bart on the Road” (where Bart and friends go to see the World’s Fair in Knoxville) is also played rarely, though I have seen it a few times (like, three).
It’s extremely rare that you get to see the (in)famous “Not without my Anus” episode of South Park, which is a bit of a shame since it’s the episode where Saddam gets killed the first time.
I know it pissed a lot of people off the first time, but it’s been a couple(5? 6?) years and somehow I doubt it’s going to inspire mass protests if CC puts it into the regular rotation.
Kind of like Fox pussying out and refusing the show the Weinstein Episode of Family Guy. The most offensive thing in the episode was William Shatner singing the lead in “Fiddler on the Roof”. The “Special people’s games” episode was much worse.
Sorry. End Rant.
I distinctly remember the fact that I saw “The Enterprise Incident” for the first time long after seeing the rest of Classic Trek. Admittedly, it could have been luck of the draw… but the subject matter could have bothered somebody in charge of the local station’s programming.
There’s a Ren and Stimpy epidsode with the Pope clutching Powdered Toastman’s buttocks. That never gets shown. It’s on the DVD, though.
Hasn’t the Puerto Rican flag episode of Seinfeld been pulled from the syndicated lineup?
There’s the episode of Drew Carey about Mimi’s Polish heritage that’s been heavily edited to remove the Polish jokes.
Interestingly, because most syndicated shows are 30 minutes long, the hour-long episodes are rarely aired. I remember several years ago a local station in Rochester, N.Y. patxched two of these together to make a two hour “movie” that they ran in one of their ovuie time slots.
Some of the old 1950s “Dragnets” have shown up on VHS. By the way --The show started out on radio. Several years ago I heard some of them on Boston radio.
After it originally aired, it was pulled from the syndication line-up, but it has recently been put back in. I think the part with Kramer burning the Puerto Rican flag was snipped out, though.
True, but the syndicated half-hour shows are generally comedies. Shows like (to pick a few) “Have Gun Will Travel,” “Wyatt Earp,” and “The Millionaire” are just not syndicated any more, despite being big hits in their time, (as well as being influential shows).
There’s also “Dobie Gillis.” It’s been getting some mention the past day due to Bob Denver’s death, but no one’s showing it on the air. Generally any show filmed in B&W has been confined to the dustbin, with a few exceptions for a handful of early sitcoms.
Two early episodes of Saturday Night Live were never rerun, the ones with Milton Berle and Louise Lasser hosting. Lorne Michaels didn’t like their performances.
There’s supposedly a Christmas episode of I Love Lucy that’s been pulled from syndication.
The Famous Amos episode of Taxi rarely gets shown, and also the one where Jim becomes Jim. Two of my favorites.
Early 1980s-era SNL episodes are also never rerun.
Didn’t the Simpsons episode with Homer at the World Trade Center get pulled after 9/11?
Reality Chuck, you are clearly misunderstanding me.
What I was saying was that the hour-long episodes of the original Twilight Zone (there was one season of such long shows) are rarely aired – the half-hour ones get a lot of play, but, because of this, one only sees the hour-long episodes of TZ on rare occasions.
Yeah, that’s the one I was thinking of but couldn’t put my finger on. There was, however, a night when it was running in North Carolina at least, but not in NY. It’s a shame too, because that was a great episode.
“Ewwww, mountain dew?!?! I’ll have the crab juice.”