Bowdlerise/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

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* Some rebroadcasts of ''Phyllis'' on TV Land / [[Nick at Nite]] cut out the first few minutes of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8--8V7bVeI the opening sequence] and starts the credits instead with the title superimposed on the scene at Fisherman's Wharf.

** Note that BBC Kids, like BBC America, is only part-owned by [[The BBC]]. Their relationship to the BBC proper is similar to that of the various UKTV channels in the United Kingdom. They should under no circumstances be mistaken for real BBC channels.

** Those heavily censored episodes also aired on the Ontario-based kids' channel [[YTV]]. Because they were also available on [[PBS]] at the same time in fully uncensored version, lack of viewers forced YTV to pull the plug on the show. Honestly? Very much a [[Mercy Kill|mercy killing]].

* In ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', when the Spanish Inquisition arrives late in court, Cardinal Ximénez exclaims, "Oh bugger!" This scene was frequently removed, since 'bugger' was considered too profane back then.

** It depended on where in the United Kingdom you were watching. Famously the "Oh, bugger!" line was cut from the BBC Scotland broadcast whilst — correct me if anyone knows different — the rest of the United Kingdom got to hear it.

** In the first US broadcast of selected ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' episodes in 1974, NBC carefully bleeped out offensive words in the line "They washed their arms, their legs, and then they washed their {{spoiler|naughty bits}}." At eleven-thirty at night. How times change.

* Towards the end of the first season, ''[[Power Rangers]]'' got hit fairly hard with Bowdlerization following parental outrage over violence and reports of kids getting injured from imitating the fight scenes. Episodes began devoting a lot more to the 'plot' part, and what fighting there was usually consisted of the Rangers fighting an endless stream of mooks while the [[Monster of the Week]] hung hurled "witty" lines at them. Once enough mooks had been beaten, the Monster would grow giant, brainlessly charge the Zord, and get fried.

*** Also Averted in "Team Spirit."

** Also In Shinkenger Master Xandred drinks Medicine instead of sake (rice wine) as in Shinkenger See [[Frothy Mugs of Water]]

* Spoofed on an episode of ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'', of all things. Mike and Carol are trying to convince Bobby that Jesse James was a criminal and ''not'' a hero, so they let him watch a movie about Jesse James that's airing on television, hoping that the movie's violence will scare Bobby into seeing Jesse James for the ruthless criminal he actually was. However, said movie is bowdlerised to the point that it cuts out the violence completely, making Jesse James seem more like a roguish hero of sorts. As a result, Bobby becomes even ''more'' enamored with the outlaw, and Mike and Carol are not happy.

* An early episode of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' featured cast members singing the song "Let's Kill Gary Gilmore for Christmas". When the episode's rerun aired after Gilmore's execution, this segment was replaced by a different skit.

* In an episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', Dr. House prescribes cigarettes to a patient suffering from an inflammatory bowel. In France, the cigarettes were changed to two bowls of rice.

* The Gospel Music Channel (available to [[Direc TV]] customers) airs family-friendly programs such as ''[[Amen]]'', ''[[Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman]]'', and ''Promised Land''. Despite the already wholesome content of these shows, mild curse words such as "hell" and "damn" are edited out, as are many references to or depiction of sexual activity -- even if it's consensual and between a married couple.

* The EO, a Dutch evangelical public broadcast organisation, likes showing nature shows. What they don't like too much is the concept of evolution by natural selection. To solve this, they alter [[David Attenborough]] documentaries to suit their creationist ideologies while still presenting them as BBC documentaries. Attenborough was not amused.

* Hallmark Channel bowdlerizes several of its shows, including reruns of ''[[Cheers]]''. Words such as "bitch", "slut" and even "butt" are censored. Oddly, Carla's insult to bald John Hill, "Two heads like that would make a perfectly good butt," is censored when the episode is rerun, yet featured uncensored in the network's ads for the show. Also, the penultimate line in the entire series, when Sam realizes the bar is his true love and says, "I'm the luckiest son of a bitch on Earth," is chopped to "I'm the luckiest son on Earth."

* The ''[[Glee]]'' episode featuring songs from ''[[Rocky Horror]]'' had them all butchered to network standards. Justified by the actual school production censoring the show in-universe.

* When rerunning episodes of ''[[Eerie Indiana]]'' on Saturday mornings, Fox Kids bizarrely edited part of the episode Zombies In [[P Js]]. In the episode, residents of Eerie turn into shopping zombies when they fall asleep and there's a sequence of Marshall and Simon slapping each other in the face all night to keep from falling asleep. Eventually, however, this fails and they go sleep-shopping with the rest of the town. When Dash finds them later, he's unable to wake them up until he slaps Marshall. In the Fox Kids edit the scene of Marshall and Simon slapping each other is left in but the shot of Dash slapping Marshall is edited out, cutting from Dash snapping his fingers in front of Marshall's eyes to Marshall rubbing his cheek and looking angry, and rendering Dash's line "Thanks, I needed that," senseless.

* When the [[Disney Channel]] aired reruns of ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' several episodes in seasons 5-7 had to be edited because at that point the show wasn't really a kids show anymore and had more mature themes and suggestive content. Many sex references and instances of swearing were removed and at least three episodes were not shown at all due to their content, one that dealt with teen drinking and two that featured sexual situations and dialogue.

* When ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' made its debut on [[Channel 4]] in the UK, it was shown on Saturday afternoons at 5:30 with the pilot in an hour-long slot; this likely tipped off fans that something was up, as the pilot lasts 70 minutes without commercials (admittedly there is an edited version for syndication in a standard hour-long length, but the series is still not designed for teatime viewing with the family). Indeed, the series did have to be cut for the slot, and was let go by the channel.

 

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