TV shows/Movies that have had things edited for Political Correctness reasons?

Cafe Society
1

The movie The Lion in Winter (original O’Toole/Hepburn version) was recently shown on one of the cable channels and I watched the first few minutes of it. One of the first lines in the uncut version is when 50 year old Henry tells Alais (his teenaged mistress and the fiancee of one of his sons, though he hasn’t decided which if you haven’t seen it) that " in my time I’ve known contessas, milkmaids, courtesans and novices, whores, and gypsies, jades and little boys. But nowhere in God’s western world have I found anyone to love but you" In this broadcast they cut the “little boys” line, and in the recent remake with Patrick Stewart/Glenn Close they cut it from the script.
In an episode of Sanford & Son I saw recently Esther responds to an old family friend who claims to have had an affair with her sister Elizabeth (one that led to the birth of Lamont) with “WHAT DID YOU SAY SUCKA!” and the audience goes wild. In the original airing (and you can still read her lips) the line was “What did you say nigga?” Likewise, the episode in which Fred accuses the LAPD of racism by pointing to the people in the predominantly black courtroom and saying “There’s enough niggas in here to make a Tarzan movie!” has been pulled altogether from syndication in some markets or replaced with “There’s enough brothers in here to make a Tarzan movie!”
Saturday Night Live has pulled Charles Rockets famous “who the fuck shot me?” J.R. sketch from circulation (it blew anyway and you still can’t say that on mainstream television). Stranger is that they still distribute the Sinead O’Connor episode, BUT they substitute her dress rehearsal performance of the song War (in which at the end she tore up a picture of a starving child for “Fight the real enemy”) for the more infamous one that aired live (in which she ripped up the picture of JP2).

What are some other examples of TV shows or movies that have had controversial words, phrases or images edited in later appearances? I’m not referrring to movies/HBO shows that have had graphic sex/violence/profanity cut for release to primetime or afternoon syndication, but those that were once aired on TV but changed when the political/racial/religious/etc. climate changed after the original airing?

2

There was an episode OF WKRP in Cincinnati where Mr Carlsen’s wife is pregnant. He has a conversation with Venus about it, but doesn’t tell him that his wife is pregnant. He just talks about how he’s like a girl, but he wouldn’t mind having a boy, either. Venus assumes that he’s talking about having sex with a girl or aboy, and looks a little taken aback. At the very end, Mr Carlsen calls the booth and makes a request. They cut to Venus, looking thoroughly disgusted, while the song, “Thatnk Heavens for Little Girls” plays. In syndication, they cut the dialogue sequence to the point of incomprehensibility, and cut the audio out at the end, so the song isn’t playing.

3

Well, in the rerelease of E.T., Spielberg edited out the guns that the FBI/government agents who were hunting E.T. were carrying, replacing them with flashlights.

There was also a “Family Guy” episode that contained a scene where Stewie (the baby) has to go through airport security, but doesn’t want to because he’s carrying a lot of weaponry. So, he sings “On the Good Ship Lollypop” to the security guards, and they think he’s so cute, they let him through. He then says to himself, “I hope Osama bin Laden doesn’t learn you can do this”, then it shows bin Laden in line quietly singing “I Hope I Get It” from “A Chorus Line”. That scene was cut after 9/11.

4

The “Sanford and Son” ep in the courtroom is missing that exchange entirely. At least it is on the copy that TVLand shows. I think that the 1970s are earlier shows typically have about 4 minutes per half hour edited out to add room for commercials, so there’s a lot more being edited out, anyway.

5

The last time I saw this episode, they had substituted “Thank Heavens for Little Girls” with the baffling choice of the Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun”; however, when they cut back to Venus sitting, looking shocked and disturbed, in the booth, you could still see that he was hugging the “Gigi” soundtrack album.

Another WKRP cut I’ve noticed, from an episode where the DJs are looking over their much-improved, demographically broken-out ratings. When it originally aired, Johnny shouted, “Just look what I’m doing with teenaged boys!”

6

How about non-dialogue edits.

Just about anything that was shown for six plus months after 9/11, the World Trade Center was removed. As was any images or references to plane crashes or explosions.

7

TBS has digitally altered most of the James Bond films to conform to current day moral standards. In “Diamonds Are Forever” for example, Bond is seen snuggling up to Plenty O’Toole. In the original version, Plenty was topless (even though they didn’t show a frontal shot of her.) The TBS version digitally inserted bra straps on her shoulders & back. I know for certain that the very same scene from this film was shown without the digitally inserted bra. Apparently, back in the early 1980s (when I first saw this film on TV), it was acceptable to show a naked back of a woman, now it’s not. The PC Gods Have Spoken!

8

A lot of the wierdness with WKRP re-runs is due to the music rights from the original episodes having lapsed, and there not being enough money to renew them. Real shame, seeing how the music was so central to the entire concept of the show.

9

This site has an extensive list of things edited from Warner Brothers cartoons for sensitivity reasons.

If the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts are still shown anywhere, I’m sure they’re chosen very carefully. (Yes, I know the Bill Cosby thing is a myth.) Something like “Amos & Andy” could probably never be shown at all, but it’s moot point which came first, the likelihood of offense or the likelhood of no one watching.

While the language in Sanford and Son is clearly due to changing acceptance, I wonder if the WKRP example might just be due to a partcularly conservative syndicatee. It seems to me that similarly raunchy jokes get told on network TV all the time – I don’t think the culture has changed in that way.

It would be interesting to find the latest chronological examples of certain outrageous stereotypes being played for humor. At what point did blackface just fall with a thud? What was the last TV show to portray a Jewish character as a greedy, hook-nosed Der Sturmer stereotype? (OK, besides South Park.) And are the gay jokes on a show like Three’s Company cringeworthy now, or par for the course?

10

Recent showings of the 1950s movie The Dam Busters, I understand, excise the name of the dog mascot “Nigger”. His name was also used as a code word for “Mission Successful”, and that’s been axed as well.
Of course, the original ovie somewhat censored Paul Brickhill’s book, too. The idea of getting the altitude correct by shining searchlights from the front and back of the plane onto the water surface below (at the correct altitude the spots overlapped) is inspired in the film by spotlights on a singer at a music hall. In the (factual) book, they were inspired by spotlights targeted on a stripper.

11

Well, as far as the song goes, none of the original music from WKRP is in syndication - they decided it was too expensive to pay the rights. Even actors who referred to original songs had their lines dubbed, most famously in the episode in which the Russian now tells Bailey “Hold my order, terrible dresser.” (All you ever wanted to know about this is listed here.

For the OP, in Dr. Strangelove, Slim Pickens was reading off the items in his emegency rations in case of a nuclear war. He clearly says “A fella could have a good time in Dallas with all this stuff.” But the line was dubbed to say “Vegas” out of respect for the recent Kennedy assassination.

And there was Professor Farnsworth saying “Sweet Zombie Jesus” in the episode “Deep South” which Fox muted for the telecast.

12

True, but I first saw the edit several years ago, and every other song used in the show was left in. The edit was, AFAIK, in all the markets where that episode was shown in syndication

13

Caddyshack was on TV not long ago. Danny and Ty are talking during a round and Ty asks Danny if he uses drugs. Danny replies, “Every day” but in the edited version it’s now “No way”.

14

I saw Godspell within a week or two after 9/11. They filmed it when the Towers were still very new. Many scenes are actually on the roof. It was jolting at the time to see the Towers, but apparently not all images were pulled even that soon after. Same goes for the opening of Barney Miller, WPIX was showing them on repeats in 2001. They didn’t stop or cut the opening.
WKRP has been pretty trashed by the lack of rights to the original music. It has taken a lot away from a classic show.

Jim

15

Later releases of The Young Ones have been cut down loads. The part in ‘Boring’ that was obviously done for PC reasons is the racist policeman with dark glasses (“That’s white man’s electricity your wasting!”).

16

Fox aired it, but Cartoon Network has muted the word “Jesus” in its telecasts.
An episode of Family Guy in which Brian and Stewie visit Europe was edited in its Fox telecast. Since it first aired after 9/11, a shot of the World Trade Center in New York was removed. Also, a Tarot card reader shows Jerry Springer as a sign of the Apocolypse. On DVD and Cartoon Network showings, the Towers are intact, as is the Tarot reader’s original sign of the Apocolypse, President Bush.
The battles between John K. and the Nick censors over Ren & Stimpy are notorious. One of the most well-known changes was in the Powdered Toast Man episode. After saving the President from a zipper problem (or is it failing to?), PTM becomes the new president. He discovers some “dusty old papers” on top of the White House fireplace, and starts a romantic fire for him and his attractive secretary. When Nick reaired the episode, a close-up shot of PTM holding the “dusty old papers”- the Constitiution and the Bill of Rights- was removed. In the same episode, Nick also forced them to change the credit for the Pope character. It was replaced with the even more blasphemous- but funny- “Frank Zappa as the funny little man in the pointy hat.”

Even Nick’s newer, tamer cartoons have been edited- an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants in which Squidward becomes addicted to Krabby Patties had a scene removed in which Squidward sneaks into the restaurant late at night. He laughs at the restaurant’s lame security system- the old “water-bucket-on-top-of-a-slightly-opened-door.” However, he soon discovers that the bucket is filled not with water, but gasoline, as a mechanical hand lights a match and starts a fire. This scene was presumably removed so children wouldn’t get ideas and start fires (which has happened to Viacom in the past- Beavis and Butt-Head, anyone?) Also, in an episode of The Fairly OddParents, the title godparents disguise themselves as students and take in a Spanish class. The teacher has them repeat the Spanish phrase, “Where is the government cheese?” In reruns, this line is replaced with “Where is the stinky cheese?” and the cheese Cosmo holds up has stink lines coming from it instead of a “U.S.” ribbon. This change baffled me at first, until I discovered that the government actually does give out cheese to poor people, and the line was presumably taken as an offensive comment on the rather poor living conditions of Latino immigrants in the U.S.

The first episode of Futurama featured a man taking a pnumatic tube to JFK Jr. Airport, a play on New York’s Idylwild Airport, which was renamed in honor of JFK after his assassination. This joke took a rather sour turn after the real JFK Jr. died in a plane crash, and the line was changed to Radio City Mutant Hall in reruns.

A number of Simpsons episodes have had lines replaced for various reasons. Although SNPP.com has a list, it is by no means complete- it is missing some of the changes for later seasons. However, most of these weren’t for PC reasons, although some were. Here are some I can think of off the top of my head…

-In the episode Marge Gets A Job, Mrs. Krabbapel states that one of the many lame excuses Bart has used to get out of class is that he had Tourette’s syndrome. After an actual child with Tourette’s wrote in and complained, this line was changed to “rabies.” The Tourette’s line was restored in syndication, although the rabies overdub was used on the DVD, due to a mistake (according to an insider who wrote SNPP).
–In another episode (I forget which), Bart comes down with some sort of disease. In a flashback, we see that it came from a monkey which was hiding in a basket Milhouse had at his house. Originally, Milhouse commented, “I got it at Pier One.” Apparently, Pier One complained, so the store’s name is replaced with the fictional “Trader Pete’s” in syndication.
-In Team Homer, we see a shot of a shoddy trophy case Homer built. Inside is an Academy Award reading “Best Supporting Actor Haing S. Ngor.” Homer has crossed out Ngor’s name and written his own in. After Ngor was assassinated, the name on the award was changed to Don Ameche in syndication and on DVD, since it could be implied that Homer killed Dr. Ngor in order to steal his Oscar.
-In the Super Bowl episode, a satire of incomprihensible Super Bowl ads ends with the line “The Catholic Church- we’ve made a few changes.” The ultraconserative Catholc League for Religious and Civil Rights, appearantly not getting the joke, complained and forced them to change the line to “The Church.” The word “Catholic” was reinstated in syndication.
-In the opening of one episode (again, I forget which), Homer is given a list of things to do by Marge, and he hasn’t done any of them. One of them is painting the garage door, which he started on a long time ago, and another is removing yellow ribbons from a tree. Homer comments that he shouldn’t, since there’s going to be more hostages eventually, anyway. This gag only appeared in the episode’s second airing on Fox- it was removed from the first airing since the United States was having a hostage crisis in Kosovo at the time, and was removed for time purposes in syndication.
-One episode opens with the chalkboard gag “butt.com is not my e-mail address.” After it was discovered butt.com was an actual pornographic website, the name was changed to “butt.butt” in reruns, although “butt.com” was reinstated in syndication.
-In the episode Viva Ned Flanders, Homer’s line “Barney’s birthday is April 20th- same as Hitler’s” was changed in reruns to “Barney’s birthday is July 15th- same as Lassie’s,” presumably due to the Columbine incident, which intentionally occured earlier that year on April 20, 1999- the date was chosen because it would have been Hitler’s birthday.
-The episode where the family appears on the reality show The 1895 House opens with the Simpson household being fumigated for bugs. The man doing the fumigation says the poison is so strong, it has Lee Marvin’s picture on it. Originally, the line was supposed to be that it was so strong, James Coburn’s picture was on it, but Coburn had died before the episode aired. The Coburn line was used in the repeat airing, by which time both Marvin and Coburn had died.

Portions of this post were taken from another post of mine, originally posted September 2, 2005.

17

Another Simpsons change I just remembered: one episode opens with a marathon in which Bart cheats. Mr. Burns is seen competing in a rickshaw pulled by Smithers. After Smithers gets tired, Burns whips him and says, “You call yourself a Chinaman?” After a complaint from an Asian group who pointed out the term “Chinaman” is offensive, the line was changed to the similar, but less offensive, “You call yourself Chinese?”

18

Speaking of which - does that mean we’re going to have the same problem with “My Name is Earl”, or did WKRP use whole songs while “Earl” uses snips here and there?

-Joe

19

WKRP was produced in the 1970s, before the advent of VHS and DVD. Nowadays, I’m sure producers take into consideration potential home video royalties when using copyrighted songs. The Simpsons uses a lot of copyrighted songs, and has had success on DVD. But then again, so does Malcolm in the Midddle, which has had only one season out on DVD thus far due to the royalty costs for copyrighted songs. (Coincidentailly, all four shows are or would be released on DVD by Fox- as the producer of The Simpsons, Malcolm, and My Name is Earl, and as the rights-holder for WKRP and all other shows originally produced by MTM Productions.)

20

In the original “Fantasia,” during the Pastoral Symphony scene there was a shot of a stereotyped black centaur shining the hoofs of a white female centaur. This shot was edited out.

And of course they won’t even release “Song of the South” now because of its portrayal of blacks. I doubt there will ever again be a big-screen release of “Gone With the Wind” for the same reasons. The TV show of “Amos and Andy” has for all intents and purposes been banned from the small screen, as has “The Jack Benny Show,” because of the portrayal of Rochester (who was actually portrayed much more positively than most blacks of that period).