# "Rare" episodes of syndicated reruns? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442 "2005-09-07T00:23:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/61 "2005-09-08T21:04:57Z")
Look at the character designs of the mutants male members of the M— I mean, Hellfire Club. They look kinda familiar. I call homage. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/62 "2005-09-08T21:38:49Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Buffy actually shot an episode where a student was planning a school shootout, which was set to air right after Columbine. It’s never seen the light of day, and probably never will. I think you’re wrong, Annie. That episode is “Earshot,” the student in question was Jonathan (later one of the Evil Nerd Trio), and I’ve seen it several times. They just didn’t air it until the end of the season. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/63 "2005-09-08T21:41:50Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > Look at the character designs of the mutants male members of the M— I mean, Hellfire Club. They look kinda familiar. I call homage. I think we should focus on the character designs of the female members, with an eye towards persuading Famke Jaansen to don the Black Queen garb in X3. Of course, that’s only because I’m a pervert. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/64 "2005-09-08T21:43:45Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > An episode of _the Avengers_ - “A Touch of Brimstone” was banned from American airwaves for being way too racy for middle America in the mid-1960s. The story had Mrs. Emma Peel infiltrating the nefarious London “Hellfire Club” as the whip-wielding [Queen of Sin](http://theavengers.tv/forever/peel1-21a.htm). That episode was not broadcast in the States until the early 90’s, when A&E reran the entire series - including the unaired (stateside) Cathy Gale episodes. > > As an interesting aside, the comic book series “the X-Men” featured a multi-issue storyline in which they are pitted against evil aristocratic mutants known as the Hellfire Club. The X-Man Jean Grey (actually the Phoenix, who asssumed Jean Grey’s identity…oh, never mind. For the sake of simplicity - it’s Jean Grey) was hypnotized into becoming the Hellfire Club’s whip-wielding [Black Queen.](http://jbgallery.ourbunch.net/sketch-xmen/images/pheonix_byrne-1.jpg) > > Coincidence? I think not. Homage? Considering most folks stateside did not even know about the original, it’s doubtful. Lifted idea that Claremont tried to pass off as his own? … Wouldn’t it be John Byrne trying to pass the idea off as his own? He and Claremont were co-plotters at that point, I believe, and JB would certainly be on point for character/costume design, if not wholly responsible. Tis the Marvel way. ---
**Author:** ![Bomzaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Bomzaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bomzaway)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/65 "2005-09-08T22:38:42Z")
File these under, “maybe it’s just me, but…” One episode of the original Star Trek that I never can seem to catch is _The trouble with tribbles_. Arguably one of the most well known episodes, but I’ve never seen it in its entirety. I’ve seen every other episode at least three times, but not that one. Also, the SNL episode with Joe Montana where he says, “I think I’ll go upstairs and masturbate.” I’ve heard about it from a number of different people, but never saw it. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/66 "2005-09-08T22:46:41Z")
> [@The Chao Goes Mu](#): > > Which one was that? The “Home” episode of the X-Files was about an investigation of a discovered dead newborn with massive genetic mutations (of unusual number and severity). It turned out that the mother was having sex with all of her sons. Overall the episode was very disturbing, showing the characters with massive physical abnormalities, and acting in a very bestial way and using crude, but deadly, booby-traps to defend against any invaders to their homestead. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/67 "2005-09-09T04:36:34Z")
> [@The New Guy](#): > > Rick Ludwin, NBC Vice President: “…Lorne was so upset with the way Milton had steamrolled his way over everyone that he never wanted that show to see the light of day again.” Naw. I bet what really happened is that Lorne took Uncle Miltie up on his bet, and lost, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/68 "2005-09-09T05:08:27Z")
> [@Bomzaway](#): > > Also, the SNL episode with Joe Montana where he says, “I think I’ll go upstairs and masturbate.” I’ve heard about it from a number of different people, but never saw it. I remember this one. I wasn’t a football fan at the time, so I had only the vaguest idea of who Montana was. I recall it being the first time I ever heard the word “masturbate” on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/69 "2005-09-09T05:22:46Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > Two episodes of the original _Star Trek_ - “Plato’s Stepchildren” and “The Empath” - weren’t shown on the BBC for many years; I believe the reason was that both episodes contained depictions of torture that contravened broadcasting standards guidelines. (I’m pretty sure that both episodes were broadcast, though, the last time the BBC did _Star Trek_ re-runs.) If “Plato’s Stepchildren” is the episode I think it is (“I’m tweedledee, he’s tweedleduml. Two spacemen dancing to a drum!”), and if you were talking about US television rather than the BBC, I would suspect that the bit of coerced interracial snuggling between Cap’n Kirk and Uhura might have been the difficulty. (Remember, Star Trek has been in re-runs for a LOOOOONG time.) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/70 "2013-03-31T14:56:03Z")
I recently ran across a Dudley Do-Right cartoon I’d never seen before. [The Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudley_Do-Right) says “Stokey the Bear” had been pulled for years because the US Forestry Service was unhappy with a parody of Smokey the Bear setting forest fires. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9tNrWYVfzU) ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/71 "2013-03-31T16:23:11Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > A more recent non-syndicated episode would be the _Frasier_ installment with Christine Baranski. She played “Dr. Nora”, a thinly-veiled caraciture of “Dr.” Laura Schlessinger. Supposedly, the episode was shelfed because the Schlessinger’s ill-fated talk show was being produced by the same company that made _Frasier._ (According to the producers of _Frasier_, Laura Schlessinger or someone from her show objected to her being ridiculed, and insisted that episode be taken out of syndication.) Since this zombie has been resurrected, I’ll mention that this episode of Frasier was aired in syndication on Friday. So clearly not gone forever. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/72 "2013-03-31T17:22:33Z")
Back in the mid-1970s, I was a fanatical ST:TOS rerun watcher. For about two years, I watched every showing on the five-day schedule, meaning that I probably saw every ep about four times. In all that time, I saw the final episode, “Turnabout Intruder,” exactly once. I don’t know why. We are slowly rewatching the better episodes on Netflix, and I am surprised/dismayed at how many of them I no longer recall at all. We’ve watched at least three that were new to me from beginning to end… very strange. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/73 "2013-04-01T04:04:51Z")
There was a Seinfeld episode where Elaine and her boyfriend misjudge other’s ethnicity (she thinks he is black, and he thinks Elaine may be Hispanic - in the end they are both disappointed to be dating white people)- I haven’t seen it since it was first run, and I watch Seinfeld reruns all the time. It was a somewhat controversial, but certainly not on the order of the Puerto Rican Day episode. I wonder if it was pulled from syndication too. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/74 "2013-04-01T05:09:39Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > There’s supposedly a Christmas episode of _I Love Lucy_ that’s been pulled from syndication. > [@mobo85](#): > > …I read one that Desi Arnaz did not make this episode a part of the syndicated package because he didn’t want networks showing it outside of Christmastime… It’s a clip show, with the framing story shot in colour. Oh, and Santa Claus visits; the real one. There was also a Desilu Xmas special in '59, but has the gang playing themselves instead of their TV characters. > [@BiblioCat](#): > > I know I’ve seen that one a few times in reruns. The dead woman is a cousin, and Archie is hoping to inherit a sterling tea set that belonged to a mutual family member (with an eye to selling it). The dead cousin’s partner wants to keep it since the two women had tea together every day after work and it holds happy memories. IIRC Archie was way more upset about losing the expensive tea set than he was over the lesbianism. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/75 "2013-04-01T13:43:50Z")
> [@syncrolecyne](#): > > There was a Seinfeld episode where Elaine and her boyfriend misjudge other’s ethnicity (she thinks he is black, and he thinks Elaine may be Hispanic - in the end they are both disappointed to be dating white people)- I haven’t seen it since it was first run, and I watch Seinfeld reruns all the time. It was a somewhat controversial, but certainly not on the order of the Puerto Rican Day episode. I wonder if it was pulled from syndication too. It definitely wasn’t. I’ve seen that episode a bunch of times in syndication. > [@alphaboi867](#): > > It’s a clip show, with the framing story shot in colour. Oh, and Santa Claus visits; the real one. Some channel ran a Lucy marathon round Christmastime and this episode was included. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/76 "2013-04-01T15:44:24Z")
The original **Hawaii Five-O** series has been packaged for syndication several times, but one episode that has never made the cut and which even today is not included in the otherwise complete DVD set is a 1970 episode called “Bored, She Hung Herself” [sic] which revolves around a woman whose unorthodox exercise technique results in her accidental suicide by auto-asphyxiation. Supposedly, after the show was aired, a viewer tried to duplicate the exercise and also died. The word “reportedly” is always attached to this last part, and I don’t think there’s ever been an official word on the story. But the fact remains that this is the _only_ Five-O episode you can’t see officially. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/77 "2013-04-01T15:57:09Z")
> [@davenportavenger](#): > > 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). Simpsons episodes in syndication are subject to airing limits, for some reason. This is why you tend to see newer episodes far more than older ones. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > 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. That’s because black and white episodes appear dated. The two biggest exceptions to this rule seem to be The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show, because most fans consider themselves the funnier episodes. (The Andy Griffith Show has an excuse; Don Knotts is pretty much only in the B&W ones.) > [@HPL](#): > > 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. Fox refused to air it because the original ending to “I Need a Jew” was, “Even though they killed my Lord, I need a Jew.” Adult Swim had the line changed to, “I don’t think they killed my Lord.” > [@kunilou](#): > > There’s supposedly a Christmas episode of _I Love Lucy_ that’s been pulled from syndication. Most syndicated shows don’t air their Christmas episodes out of season. For example, I have never seen the _The Dick van Dyke Show_ episode “The Alan Brady Show Presents” aired at any other time. Also keep in mind that the _I Love Lucy_ Christmas episode was lost until 1989. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/78 "2013-04-01T16:50:37Z")
The Simpsons World Trade Center episode is now being shown in syndication in NYC. I do think it’s a good thing. Nobody shold pretend the Towers never existed, and never forget what happened to them. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/79 "2013-04-01T17:16:06Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > It definitely wasn’t. I’ve seen that episode a bunch of times in syndication. Yeah. I saw it a couple of months ago. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442/80 "2013-04-01T18:15:36Z")
I’ve seen _The Empath_ way too often in syndication - or the start, since I tend to turn it off. They were clearly out of budget that point and filmed it in a set which cost $2.98 to create. Mannix started with the premise that Mannix was working for a “modern” detective agency which used computers (mainframes back then), and the conflict was with his old fashioned ways against the super modern IBM way. I think he started his own agency by Season 2, so people would get confused seeing the first season, I suppose. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rare-episodes-of-syndicated-reruns/320442.md?page=5)