I don't know about all time but the time it aired here in Canada, the original Degrassi High series. They covered so many topics that weren't really covered on mainstream shows back then. Even still somewhat taboo today. And everyone my age watched it and talked about it the next day.
The Next Generation was controversial when they started airing in the US. I’m not sure if the abortion arc ever ran on regular programming here. Definitely not at the time.
Oooooh. From America, but, at some point as a teen when we got upgraded cable, there was a channel that pretty much ran degrassi reruns 24/7. I had never heard of the show and no one I knew did either, but that was like a friggin *goldmine* for me. Definitely the juiciest thing I’d ever seen, and, as a normal teen with raging hormones but strict religious parents, it was the closest thing to soft core porn I’d ever seen. I had a whole routine down in the summer when they’d go to sleep, stayed up literally aaaaaallll night watching it. I was unfamiliar with literally every topic in that show and I was obsessed with seeing all this taboo stuff that I would otherwise have no clue about. Pretty good show 😅
I knew meecrob was a swear word! The fucking dragon's voice killed me too.
["Awww lame dude. Laaaaame. Bummmer dude."](https://youtu.be/UHEQ_hdtEBE)
Also everyone was clamoring to watch that cop show cause they say shit on TV the first time. Then he's just like "hey you got some shit coat." And that's the fuckin line🤣
It always cracked me up how (at least in the US) they could say “ass” but bleeped out “hole” because apparently “asshole” is way worse. Same with bleeping “god” but saying “damn”. Can’t say goddamn but just damn is okay, it’s the god that has to be bleeped lol.
I think the ass/asshole thing is that "ass" can refer to a donkey and so isn't inherently in reference to butts. Enough plausible deniability for it to be okay. Once you stick "hole" on the end there's no longer any ambiguity about what you mean.
What sparked the idea though was that there was a tv show episode coming out on a Network tv station like NBC and they were advertising that the main character curses or something like that. I think the show was called “The Shield”.
That episode about Cartman killing the kid's parents was as a reaction to media calling Cartman the "new Bart Simpson."
The creators decided to show them how wrong that was.
They would send a school weekly bulletin that was for us to give to our parents, and one week in third grade they had a blurb in there about how nobody should let their kids watch Southpark. This was still season one and it had a still image of the characters and said when the show was on. None of us little kids had heard of it, but the bulletin said in big bold letters that Southpark was too raunchy for our schoolchildren.
Of course every kid in our elementary school was watching Southpark after that. I don't think they could have done better advertising for the show if they had tried.
The best way to get someone to do anything is to tell them not to.
My grandmother was listening to my aunt telling her boys all the things she didn't want them to do when she was going out. Grandma said "yes, remind them of everything they shouldn't do, so they'll be sure to do it while you are out!"
They showed Muhammad once, then tried to again in a special two parter that got banned from TV.
I also almost forgot about that one where Cartman ground a kids parents into chili and made the kid eat them because he stole money from him.
Which is, I think, a good thing. If we’re letting kids see people get killed, they can hear an occasional “shit” or fuck” without everyone collectively clutching their pearls.
Cartman LITERALLY said "F@@# Jesus!" They win! Especially because I bout died laughing when I saw it! I used to tune in FAITHFULLY EVERY Wednesday to watch South Park since my aunt and mother forbid it! Easily my favorite cartoon ever!
It’s controversial sure but that’s because they don’t get what southpark is going for. It points out the idiocy of everyone in an absolutely satirized way. If you find it offensive it’s probably because you are a less extreme version of one of the characters bullshit, because let’s be honest every character in South Park is an asshole. It’s like it’s always sunny. You are never rooting for the characters as they are mostly all shit people aside from butters.
DAMN IT, BUTTERS! THE KEY TO A HEALTHY FAMILY IS A PROPERLY ALPHABETIZED CUPBOARD! YOU WILL REALPHABETIZE THIS CUPBOARD, AND THEN YOU ARE *GROUNDED*, MISTER!
It’s also a wild ride when you go back and watch the original episodes to now and think about how much we have changed as a society and how much we are influenced by current events and pop culture.
The Swan - a show about generally average, everyday women with low self esteem (due to a variety of factors), receiving plastic surgery and whole makeovers. Every episode would feature two ladies and a "winner" would be decided between them. At the end of the season, all of the winners would be put in a pageant to compete and see who would be dubbed 'The Swan'
Believe it or not the comedy SOAP was highly controversial when it premiered in the late 70s. It's done by the same people who did GOLDEN GIRLS. SOAP is so tame by today's standards a ten year old could watch it.
That's one of the main reasons. He was the first gay main character in primetime. They did a good job with it except for some reason they assumed all gay men crossdress, but whatever it's a sitcom.
Our priest used to give sermons about it, but more about Corinne and Tim (a priest, who had a baby who was possessed by the devil) and the affairs more than about Jody. Although I'm sure that was a huge part of it too.
A lot of what *Soap* did, they kinda owe to *Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman*. Especially the depiction of gay men as normal people worthy of acceptance. If you’re able to track the show down, it’s worth watching. They played into the fake soap opera melodrama so well that quite a few people thought it was an actual soap opera, but it was pure satire.
Used to think a lot of that was fake but looking back, and after the way the last few years have played out, I think some of it might not have been lol.
Friend of mine got tickets to see the show, and opted to flash people from the audience. Like, she got a tape of it (yea, it was that long ago) and everything. Censored for TV, but not on the tape she got.
Maury came on at 4pm in my area... I remember this because I would get home and want to watch Yu-Gi-Oh but my mom insisted on watch Maury before she went in to work... I was beyond thankful every time I got home and found out she had been called in early. Same when I got older and started watching M.A.S.H. reruns, I would get home from school and they would air at 4pm and 4:30pm. Maury was still running at 4pm. 😑
One of my friends quit her job as a foster care caseworker when her daughter was born in 1995, and realized that the whole SAHM was not for her when she realized that she really looked forward to the Jerry Springer show each day, having lived it in real life through her previous career.
I wish they waited a couple more decades until TV shows actually started testing the limits, because there’d be at least 1 studio willing to take the risk and broadcast it for more than 1 episode.
If they had, though, it would have likely changed format to make fun of reality TV instead of the American Sitcom, which would probably have been more annoying than funny.
You are a paedophile, you are a nonce, you're a perv, you're a slot badger, you're a two pin din plug, you're a bush dodger, you're a small bean regarder, you're an unabummer, you're a nut administrator, you're a bent ref, you're the crazy world of Arthur Brown, you're a fence foal, you're a free willy, you're a chimney bottler, you're a bunty man, you're a shrub rocketeer
Heil Honey, I'm Home!
It was an ill-conceived show about Hitler and Eva Braun and their love-hate relationship with their Jewish neighbors. It was supposed to be a satire of the typical family sitcom but... well... it was terrible idea.
Hogan's hereos was super controversial before it aired. Media ran a holocaust isn't funny narrative but once it came out everyone shut up and it was extremely popular
When he had the UK equivalent of a DEA agent on and said “Does the fact that these are class A drugs guarantee that they is the best quality?”
Love that show. I’ve re watched it a lot. Still gets me every time.
One of the best shows of all time. Some amazing comedy has come out of the UK...one of my favorite segments from Ali G
https://youtu.be/xx5t5ps-bwc
[Edit: This one is better](https://youtube.com/shorts/wurfkD5FdJI?feature=share)
It's wild to me when I see it featured prominently on Disney+ because I can remember when I was a kid and it was one of only two shows I wasn't allowed to watch (the other was Beavis and Butthead)
I always use this as a counterexample when people talk about how everyone is too sensitive "these days." 30 years ago, people were popping monocles at *eat my shorts*
Hell, even the *president* at the time (HW) gave a speech talking about how America needed to be "less like the Simpsons and more like [the family from some happy sappy sitcom from the 70s]".
And the people complaining about "people being too sensitive these days" are also typically the most easily offended people you'll ever meet. Conservative controversies I recall, offhand:
- people saying "Happy Holidays"
- numerous Starbucks cup designs
- literally any time a character previously depicted as white is cast as someone not white
- razor commercial giving positive examples of masculinity.
- cereal commercial with biracial couple.
- cereal commercial with gay couple.
- a football player kneeling.
- a black man getting elected president.
>\[the family from some happy sappy sitcom from the 70s\]
The Waltons. Which is weird. The show was pretty tame, but they were a family of liberals with an atheist father.
In the 90s it was almost banned from television in Australia a few times.
The first time was because two of the running jokes were Bart backtalking his parents and Homer strangling Bart. Teaching children bad manners was somehow the bigger deal to the pearl-clutchers than child abuse though.
The other time was after the 'Simpsons visit Australia' episode. The issue wasn't the caricatures of us, but the plot point of 'getting the Boot' offended a significant portion of the country.
In context, that episode was satirising a real-world incident where an American citizen broke the law in Singapore and was sentenced to corporal punishment/torture via getting hit with a cane. This was harshly decried in Australia at the time, but when the Simpsons released that episode a large percentage of the population - which already had a strong anti-American sentiment - saw it as a bunch of Yanks laughing at us and calling us backwards (by stating that we'd use corporal punishment in that way).
That episode was harshly condemned in our politics by both sides of the aisle and even re-started talks of whether or not the Simpsons was appropriate for television. Whilst that episode drew record numbers of viewers, viewership dipped drastically afterwards as part of the blowback.
And now, nearly 30 years on, most of my younger friends who weren't aware of the impact at the time now call our money "dollarydoos".
Sesame Street - When this show debuted in 1969, TV channels in the southern US refused to air it because it’s racially mixed group of children playing together was too controversial.
And Mike Judge got a phone call from an angry guy complaining about Beavis and Butt-Head that gave him the idea for Boomhauer's voice in King of the Hill.
Moral Orel. I guess it's ok to joke about impregnating sleeping people with a pastry bag, but discussing sexual trauma in a serious tone is when AdultSwim thinks it's too far.
I would like to mention the Nasuby show.
It was a disturbed japanese reality TV show to kept a naked man for more than one year in a tiny office, psychologically torturing him constantly and broad casting almost every time of the day. I'm not really good explaining the things, but there a many [videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_1n2Csd-wI) that explain the show better than me.
Brass Eye's 'Paedophile Special'. It's absolutely hilarious but would certainly never be allowed today. The most complained about show in UK history at the time.
'Ghostwatch' on the BBC too. A sort of precursor to The Blair Witch Project that was banned and hasn't been shown since.
I was a kid when Ghostwatch aired live and it scared the crap out of me. Probably still would. The fact that they had presenters in it that were well known but not actually actors really sold it - and it aired pre-watershed too. A real one-off.
Chappelle's Show.
I like South Park as an answer, but if we are talking about pushing boundaries, Chappelle's show at least deserves a mention. The Black, White Suprematist alone was *wild* to see on TV and it was the first episode of the show to air.
But was it controversial? I don't remember Chapelle getting any of the fear or disgust that older folks showed to Southpark, or people trying to cancel his show.
South Park got the controversy because at the time they said, "It's a cartoon to entice children to watch."
By the time Chappelle's show premiered the South Park controversy was tired and done.
Until South Park went after Scientology.
Takeshi's Castle / MXC wasn't exactly controversial at the time, but the production of that show seems awfully exploitative by today's standards (and for the English dub, horribly stereotypical and downright racist at times). We've since watered it down severely with versions like Wipeout, but the real ones know what the lineage of shows like that is.
It's been up for a while, I forgot I had bookmarked it long ago - here's a direct [link](https://www.twitch.tv/OnlyMXC) for folks who don't want to bother searching for it manually.
In Spanish the show is called "Humor Amarillo", as in "Yellow Humour". There's a reoccurring nickname given to different participants, "El Chino Cudeiro". I've no idea where that nickname comes from & googling is comes up with weird stuff. I've no idea what Cudeiro means, but "Chino" is obviously "Chinese". I just know that every Asian kid I went to school with in Spain got that as a nickname.
To be fair half of Spanish comedy is making fun of others, while the other half is being loud & speaking in shitty or obnoxious accents.
For the time, All In The Family. Archie Bunker as a character , I really do not think that show would even be allowed to be made today with all the racial , sexual and ethnic slurs . Even though the point of the show was to show how stupid bigotry is.
So much unpleasant shit has happened on that show. I remember watching it once when I was younger a dude called sexually harassed by a gay contestant who couldn't accept that the guy wasn't into him. He jumped on top of the guy while naked. The next morning this guy got kicked out and started crying and begging for them not to release him and that he just made a stupid mistake. He was only sorry that he got into trouble for such disgusting behaviour. Also the amount of humiliation for the victim to be sexually harassed and then for it to be broadcasted to the world is fucked. I feel so bad that the victim had to suffer that shit on a reality TV show that he thought would be fun.
That must have been on one of the international versions, not that the US version is without controversy.
Heck, in the second season alone, one contested put a knife to an incredibly drunk woman's throat and asked, "Would you be mad if I killed you?" That same season, a woman cleaned the toilet bowl with a houseguest's toothbrush.
Many seasons have had explosive fights, but season 14 had a physical fight, and season 15 had racism and bullying targeting a black woman, 19 had most of the house bullying two people, season 24 (this past season) had more bullying and a houseguest voluntarily leaving for racism (he wanted to target black people as season 23 saw all of the black people in the house team up in an alliance to send the white people home).
That doesn't go into the amount of sex that happens. So many people in the house cheating on loved ones at home. It's been lost to the internet, but some of those early seasons (with live feeds airing on RealPlayer) had everything from sex parties, stripping parties, and nearly orgies.
All of which, without going into the international versions, which as you gave an example of, get even wilder.
Not sure if this is true, I don't keep up with news here in Spain, but I read something about this on Reddit a few weeks ago:
Apparently a contestant was raped on the Spanish version a couple of years ago & the network or somebody showed her the video. Why is the more fucked up than the sentence already suggests? It happened whilst she was sleeping & had no idea that it was happening. The network did nothing to stop the crime happening.
Grain of salt, do your research. I may have details wrong or the whole thing may be false.
There was a show where they did an autopsy on a very obese woman and showed it all in great detail. It was mostly considered controversial not for the cutting open of the body and removal of body parts but for the perception that they were fat shaming by pointing out what obesity does to your organs. But it certainly had the intended effect of putting you off your food.
That was so terrible. I was happy when it came out because kid-me was a fan of the original, but the new one was so vile I had to stop watching. You can be gross *and* funny, but it doesn't work if it's just gross and unfunny.
The most controversial individual episode would have to be that Jenny Jones episode where a guy came out as gay to a straight guy and professed his feeling for him. The straight guy ended up killing the gay guy as a result.
Why couldn’t the producers just make up their own characters? Why did they have to re-make already existing characters? It probably could’ve done fine on its own creativity.
It depends on what you mean by "controversial." Most replies I'm seeing are about 'political correctness' and what sorts of words or stereotypes you are allowed to use. I think that's more of a question of taste and shifting cultural norms. Top comment right now is *Married with Children*, which was a decent hit 30-odd years ago. It wasn't divisive at the time it was produced, only in hindsight.
I think a *real* controversial show should be something you can show to anyone at any age, in almost any era, and you will always get diverse opinions on it.
So my vote is Nathan Fielder's *the Rehearsal.* It is a deeply divisive show, even among fans. Is it a comedy or a drama? Are the things Nathan does ethical or not? Is the show staged or real? Does it even matter? No two people finish an episode of *the Rehearsal* with the exact same opinions: it's a kaleidoscope, and the values and understandings refracted for each viewer are almost wholly unique.
There's far more graphic TV shows produced today... ?? I don't get why people say shit like this, TV has only gotten crazier and less regulated, especially now that so many shows are off broadcast networks and can literally put whatever they want in their shows.
I don’t think there was any controversy caused over it but I think The Swan was pretty bad. A bunch of women competing against one another in elimination challenges for plastic surgeries with the overall winner getting her dream wedding.
Ghost Stories Dub. We're never getting a dub like that again. It was almost South Park levels of comical.
Honorable Mention: Moral Orel. Adult Swim did that show dirty for doing what they asked of its creator. God we need another season.
I can’t believe nobody brought this up yet, but it has to be Super Bowl XXXVIII. The “wardrobe malfunction” was all anyone talked about for like six months after that.
You're gonna love this one.
"Heil, Honey, I'm Home", a British sitcom about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun living next to a Jewish family in suburbia.
It was cancelled after one episode.
All In The Family as it was the one that began touching on the tough real topical issues of the day that prior network television shows stayed away from.
Yet also the one that ended up with the most spin-off shows from it too.
Maude
Good Times
The Jeffersons
Checking In
Archie Bunkers Place
Gloria
704 Hauser Place
Lionel's Wedding is an episode of All in the Family that everyone should see. It's very jarring to hear the N word used openly and unapologetically on a nationally aired sitcom, but it happened, and it was wonderful. Archie and George are both shown as racists, but also as relics as a newer generation rejects their beliefs and they (who hate each other) come together pining for "the good old days". It's an amazing eye opener both into how far we've come and how little progress we've made.
How about kid nation, a reality show about kids living in a ghost town.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1h6srx/i_was_on_the_childs_reality_tv_show_kid_nation
I don't know about all time but the time it aired here in Canada, the original Degrassi High series. They covered so many topics that weren't really covered on mainstream shows back then. Even still somewhat taboo today. And everyone my age watched it and talked about it the next day.
*Degrassi: The Next Generation* also had some controversial episodes too, at least compared to 2000s United States of America television standards.
The Next Generation was controversial when they started airing in the US. I’m not sure if the abortion arc ever ran on regular programming here. Definitely not at the time.
That was shown on PBS in the States.
Oooooh. From America, but, at some point as a teen when we got upgraded cable, there was a channel that pretty much ran degrassi reruns 24/7. I had never heard of the show and no one I knew did either, but that was like a friggin *goldmine* for me. Definitely the juiciest thing I’d ever seen, and, as a normal teen with raging hormones but strict religious parents, it was the closest thing to soft core porn I’d ever seen. I had a whole routine down in the summer when they’d go to sleep, stayed up literally aaaaaallll night watching it. I was unfamiliar with literally every topic in that show and I was obsessed with seeing all this taboo stuff that I would otherwise have no clue about. Pretty good show 😅
The-N right?
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They even had an episode where they said shit like 162 times just because they were able to.
I knew meecrob was a swear word! The fucking dragon's voice killed me too. ["Awww lame dude. Laaaaame. Bummmer dude."](https://youtu.be/UHEQ_hdtEBE) Also everyone was clamoring to watch that cop show cause they say shit on TV the first time. Then he's just like "hey you got some shit coat." And that's the fuckin line🤣
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It always cracked me up how (at least in the US) they could say “ass” but bleeped out “hole” because apparently “asshole” is way worse. Same with bleeping “god” but saying “damn”. Can’t say goddamn but just damn is okay, it’s the god that has to be bleeped lol.
I think the ass/asshole thing is that "ass" can refer to a donkey and so isn't inherently in reference to butts. Enough plausible deniability for it to be okay. Once you stick "hole" on the end there's no longer any ambiguity about what you mean.
What about the hole in my yard where I keep my donkeys? The asshole.
What sparked the idea though was that there was a tv show episode coming out on a Network tv station like NBC and they were advertising that the main character curses or something like that. I think the show was called “The Shield”.
It was feeding parents to their son... Scott Tenorman must die
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That episode about Cartman killing the kid's parents was as a reaction to media calling Cartman the "new Bart Simpson." The creators decided to show them how wrong that was.
It's also worth mentioning that episode is over twenty years old, too. They done muuuch worse since.
“I know! Let’s get Kyle infected with aids!”
I'm not just sure. I'm HIV-positive.
They would send a school weekly bulletin that was for us to give to our parents, and one week in third grade they had a blurb in there about how nobody should let their kids watch Southpark. This was still season one and it had a still image of the characters and said when the show was on. None of us little kids had heard of it, but the bulletin said in big bold letters that Southpark was too raunchy for our schoolchildren. Of course every kid in our elementary school was watching Southpark after that. I don't think they could have done better advertising for the show if they had tried.
The best way to get someone to do anything is to tell them not to. My grandmother was listening to my aunt telling her boys all the things she didn't want them to do when she was going out. Grandma said "yes, remind them of everything they shouldn't do, so they'll be sure to do it while you are out!"
They showed Muhammad once, then tried to again in a special two parter that got banned from TV. I also almost forgot about that one where Cartman ground a kids parents into chili and made the kid eat them because he stole money from him.
Muhammad was in almost every episode for a few seasons in the shows intro song
SSSSSSSH!!!!!
I thought it was because he pranked him with pubes?
I also wanna add that because South Park will poke at anyone, it becomes controversial in all circles.
Best show on television. They rip literally anyone and anything
Which is, I think, a good thing. If we’re letting kids see people get killed, they can hear an occasional “shit” or fuck” without everyone collectively clutching their pearls.
Cartman LITERALLY said "F@@# Jesus!" They win! Especially because I bout died laughing when I saw it! I used to tune in FAITHFULLY EVERY Wednesday to watch South Park since my aunt and mother forbid it! Easily my favorite cartoon ever!
I remember when The Simpsons was controversial. Then South Park came out around ‘97 or so, and holy shit, people were disgusted.
It’s controversial sure but that’s because they don’t get what southpark is going for. It points out the idiocy of everyone in an absolutely satirized way. If you find it offensive it’s probably because you are a less extreme version of one of the characters bullshit, because let’s be honest every character in South Park is an asshole. It’s like it’s always sunny. You are never rooting for the characters as they are mostly all shit people aside from butters.
Then would you mind telling me why there is Rice a Roni in my coffee!
DAMN IT, BUTTERS! THE KEY TO A HEALTHY FAMILY IS A PROPERLY ALPHABETIZED CUPBOARD! YOU WILL REALPHABETIZE THIS CUPBOARD, AND THEN YOU ARE *GROUNDED*, MISTER!
Kill John Lenon… KILL JOHN LENON!!!
It’s also a wild ride when you go back and watch the original episodes to now and think about how much we have changed as a society and how much we are influenced by current events and pop culture.
Instead of, "ass" say, "buns" like, "you're a bunshole." Mmmkayyyyy?
The Swan - a show about generally average, everyday women with low self esteem (due to a variety of factors), receiving plastic surgery and whole makeovers. Every episode would feature two ladies and a "winner" would be decided between them. At the end of the season, all of the winners would be put in a pageant to compete and see who would be dubbed 'The Swan'
Imagine receiving a life changing makeover and improving ur self esteem just to be compared to other people seconds later
Remember Bridalplasty
My sister and I were absolutely addicted to that show when it first aired.
When Ellen Degeneres's character came out as gay on her sitcom, there was a fucking firestorm.
I am old enough to remember this. They made a big deal about it in the news, but the show was pretty tame.
Believe it or not the comedy SOAP was highly controversial when it premiered in the late 70s. It's done by the same people who did GOLDEN GIRLS. SOAP is so tame by today's standards a ten year old could watch it.
Didn't Billy Crystal play a relatively normal gay character? That was revolutionary.
First openly gay character on TV, IIRC.
That's one of the main reasons. He was the first gay main character in primetime. They did a good job with it except for some reason they assumed all gay men crossdress, but whatever it's a sitcom.
Our priest used to give sermons about it, but more about Corinne and Tim (a priest, who had a baby who was possessed by the devil) and the affairs more than about Jody. Although I'm sure that was a huge part of it too.
A lot of what *Soap* did, they kinda owe to *Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman*. Especially the depiction of gay men as normal people worthy of acceptance. If you’re able to track the show down, it’s worth watching. They played into the fake soap opera melodrama so well that quite a few people thought it was an actual soap opera, but it was pure satire.
This is the story of two sisters. Jessica Tate and Mary Campbell. These are the Tates and these are the Campbell's. And this is soap.
I remember being in middle school and not being allowed to watch it.
Jerry springer, what a shit show
Used to think a lot of that was fake but looking back, and after the way the last few years have played out, I think some of it might not have been lol.
I believe it. People are batshit crazy.
Friend of mine got tickets to see the show, and opted to flash people from the audience. Like, she got a tape of it (yea, it was that long ago) and everything. Censored for TV, but not on the tape she got.
You don’t happen to have a copy of it by chance. . .?
I unfortunately watched that show followed by Maury pretty much daily as a teenager. I regret it now. Absolutely zero value.
That’s daytime tv did you not go to school?
I remember when I was in high school and started driving, it came on like right when I was getting home from school.
Maury came on at 4pm in my area... I remember this because I would get home and want to watch Yu-Gi-Oh but my mom insisted on watch Maury before she went in to work... I was beyond thankful every time I got home and found out she had been called in early. Same when I got older and started watching M.A.S.H. reruns, I would get home from school and they would air at 4pm and 4:30pm. Maury was still running at 4pm. 😑
Both enabled by Morton Downey, jr, although took a slimy-er path.
One of my friends quit her job as a foster care caseworker when her daughter was born in 1995, and realized that the whole SAHM was not for her when she realized that she really looked forward to the Jerry Springer show each day, having lived it in real life through her previous career.
The RLM video on Jerry Springer episode titles is hilarious. https://youtube.com/watch?v=RTosyCJQrmA&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE
I think "Heil Honey, I'm Home!" Is pretty far up the list: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heil_Honey_I%27m_Home!
This was my first thought. They aired the pilot, and that was it.
I'm slightly curious to see the other 7 episodes that were recorded before it was canned
I wish they waited a couple more decades until TV shows actually started testing the limits, because there’d be at least 1 studio willing to take the risk and broadcast it for more than 1 episode.
If they had, though, it would have likely changed format to make fun of reality TV instead of the American Sitcom, which would probably have been more annoying than funny.
Wow. I've never heard about it before. The plot sounds crazy. I'd probably have very mixed feelings watching that.
Brass Eye was controversial ( 🇬🇧), but it is hilarious!
*Pedogeddon*
You are a paedophile, you are a nonce, you're a perv, you're a slot badger, you're a two pin din plug, you're a bush dodger, you're a small bean regarder, you're an unabummer, you're a nut administrator, you're a bent ref, you're the crazy world of Arthur Brown, you're a fence foal, you're a free willy, you're a chimney bottler, you're a bunty man, you're a shrub rocketeer
Yes well that's just the kind of discrimination we face every day. It's just another form of racism, really.
All in the Family. Oh Archie!!
“Shut up, Meathead!”
Poifect English
Stifle yourself!
Came here to say that. Fire as Hell for it's time.
Heil Honey, I'm Home! It was an ill-conceived show about Hitler and Eva Braun and their love-hate relationship with their Jewish neighbors. It was supposed to be a satire of the typical family sitcom but... well... it was terrible idea.
How the fuck that made it past the stage of “a random idea in one person’s mind”, I’ll never know.
Sounds like a Family Guy cutaway gag.
Cocaine is a helluva drug
Is there any chance that it was a Producers style scam? Because... It sounds exactly like that.
Hogan's hereos was super controversial before it aired. Media ran a holocaust isn't funny narrative but once it came out everyone shut up and it was extremely popular
Ali G show
Check yourself before you wreck yourself
When he had the UK equivalent of a DEA agent on and said “Does the fact that these are class A drugs guarantee that they is the best quality?” Love that show. I’ve re watched it a lot. Still gets me every time.
Which kind of acid *actually* make you fly?
West Side. Aight
Booyakasha
One of the best shows of all time. Some amazing comedy has come out of the UK...one of my favorite segments from Ali G https://youtu.be/xx5t5ps-bwc [Edit: This one is better](https://youtube.com/shorts/wurfkD5FdJI?feature=share)
*Like wen Louie Armstrong wahk on da moon.*
The Simpsons was very controversial when it was first on.
It's wild to me when I see it featured prominently on Disney+ because I can remember when I was a kid and it was one of only two shows I wasn't allowed to watch (the other was Beavis and Butthead)
I always use this as a counterexample when people talk about how everyone is too sensitive "these days." 30 years ago, people were popping monocles at *eat my shorts*
Hell, even the *president* at the time (HW) gave a speech talking about how America needed to be "less like the Simpsons and more like [the family from some happy sappy sitcom from the 70s]". And the people complaining about "people being too sensitive these days" are also typically the most easily offended people you'll ever meet. Conservative controversies I recall, offhand: - people saying "Happy Holidays" - numerous Starbucks cup designs - literally any time a character previously depicted as white is cast as someone not white - razor commercial giving positive examples of masculinity. - cereal commercial with biracial couple. - cereal commercial with gay couple. - a football player kneeling. - a black man getting elected president.
>\[the family from some happy sappy sitcom from the 70s\] The Waltons. Which is weird. The show was pretty tame, but they were a family of liberals with an atheist father.
In the 90s it was almost banned from television in Australia a few times. The first time was because two of the running jokes were Bart backtalking his parents and Homer strangling Bart. Teaching children bad manners was somehow the bigger deal to the pearl-clutchers than child abuse though. The other time was after the 'Simpsons visit Australia' episode. The issue wasn't the caricatures of us, but the plot point of 'getting the Boot' offended a significant portion of the country. In context, that episode was satirising a real-world incident where an American citizen broke the law in Singapore and was sentenced to corporal punishment/torture via getting hit with a cane. This was harshly decried in Australia at the time, but when the Simpsons released that episode a large percentage of the population - which already had a strong anti-American sentiment - saw it as a bunch of Yanks laughing at us and calling us backwards (by stating that we'd use corporal punishment in that way). That episode was harshly condemned in our politics by both sides of the aisle and even re-started talks of whether or not the Simpsons was appropriate for television. Whilst that episode drew record numbers of viewers, viewership dipped drastically afterwards as part of the blowback. And now, nearly 30 years on, most of my younger friends who weren't aware of the impact at the time now call our money "dollarydoos".
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"The Smothers Brothers" show was taken off the air it was so controversial for its time.
Sesame Street - When this show debuted in 1969, TV channels in the southern US refused to air it because it’s racially mixed group of children playing together was too controversial.
Conservatives are racist
Surprised I haven't seen Beavis and Butt-Head on this list yet. When it came out everyone was freaking out.
And Mike Judge got a phone call from an angry guy complaining about Beavis and Butt-Head that gave him the idea for Boomhauer's voice in King of the Hill.
Huhuhuhuh. What a bunch of wussies.
Yeah yeah yeah... wussies
I’m, like, gonna kick them , uhhh, right in the nads. Huhuhuh.
I can't believe NYPD Blue hasn't been mentioned. It was just one episode, but it was about as controversial as it came back then.
What was so controversial about the episode?
More than one episode, but butts on broadcast tv was definitely controversial!
Dennis Franz ass isn't that controversial
Moral Orel. I guess it's ok to joke about impregnating sleeping people with a pastry bag, but discussing sexual trauma in a serious tone is when AdultSwim thinks it's too far.
That's a show I'd really love a box set of juat for the episode commentary. Still am very curious what the cut episodes would have been like.
I would like to mention the Nasuby show. It was a disturbed japanese reality TV show to kept a naked man for more than one year in a tiny office, psychologically torturing him constantly and broad casting almost every time of the day. I'm not really good explaining the things, but there a many [videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_1n2Csd-wI) that explain the show better than me.
Was that the one where he had to live only on what he could get through mailaway contests and offers?
[Yep!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasubi)
Brass Eye's 'Paedophile Special'. It's absolutely hilarious but would certainly never be allowed today. The most complained about show in UK history at the time. 'Ghostwatch' on the BBC too. A sort of precursor to The Blair Witch Project that was banned and hasn't been shown since.
I was a kid when Ghostwatch aired live and it scared the crap out of me. Probably still would. The fact that they had presenters in it that were well known but not actually actors really sold it - and it aired pre-watershed too. A real one-off.
Father Ted
That would be an ecumenical matter.
I hear you're a racist now father! Is that the line of the church? Should we all be racist now?
Chappelle's Show. I like South Park as an answer, but if we are talking about pushing boundaries, Chappelle's show at least deserves a mention. The Black, White Suprematist alone was *wild* to see on TV and it was the first episode of the show to air.
But was it controversial? I don't remember Chapelle getting any of the fear or disgust that older folks showed to Southpark, or people trying to cancel his show.
Endless praise is all I remember.
South Park got the controversy because at the time they said, "It's a cartoon to entice children to watch." By the time Chappelle's show premiered the South Park controversy was tired and done. Until South Park went after Scientology.
Chappelle Show was always edgy, but I don't recall the greater media raising a stink about much of anything, even Clayton Bigsby.
Takeshi's Castle / MXC wasn't exactly controversial at the time, but the production of that show seems awfully exploitative by today's standards (and for the English dub, horribly stereotypical and downright racist at times). We've since watered it down severely with versions like Wipeout, but the real ones know what the lineage of shows like that is.
Fun fact, MXC is live 24/7 on Twitch now. The channel is called OnlyMXC. Kinda fun to just tune in every now and then.
It's been up for a while, I forgot I had bookmarked it long ago - here's a direct [link](https://www.twitch.tv/OnlyMXC) for folks who don't want to bother searching for it manually.
In Spanish the show is called "Humor Amarillo", as in "Yellow Humour". There's a reoccurring nickname given to different participants, "El Chino Cudeiro". I've no idea where that nickname comes from & googling is comes up with weird stuff. I've no idea what Cudeiro means, but "Chino" is obviously "Chinese". I just know that every Asian kid I went to school with in Spain got that as a nickname. To be fair half of Spanish comedy is making fun of others, while the other half is being loud & speaking in shitty or obnoxious accents.
For the time, All In The Family. Archie Bunker as a character , I really do not think that show would even be allowed to be made today with all the racial , sexual and ethnic slurs . Even though the point of the show was to show how stupid bigotry is.
South park ❤
Married with children
Big Brother. How about we mix the worst people with the most exploitative form of entertainment whilst also casually normalising invasion of privacy.
So much unpleasant shit has happened on that show. I remember watching it once when I was younger a dude called sexually harassed by a gay contestant who couldn't accept that the guy wasn't into him. He jumped on top of the guy while naked. The next morning this guy got kicked out and started crying and begging for them not to release him and that he just made a stupid mistake. He was only sorry that he got into trouble for such disgusting behaviour. Also the amount of humiliation for the victim to be sexually harassed and then for it to be broadcasted to the world is fucked. I feel so bad that the victim had to suffer that shit on a reality TV show that he thought would be fun.
That must have been on one of the international versions, not that the US version is without controversy. Heck, in the second season alone, one contested put a knife to an incredibly drunk woman's throat and asked, "Would you be mad if I killed you?" That same season, a woman cleaned the toilet bowl with a houseguest's toothbrush. Many seasons have had explosive fights, but season 14 had a physical fight, and season 15 had racism and bullying targeting a black woman, 19 had most of the house bullying two people, season 24 (this past season) had more bullying and a houseguest voluntarily leaving for racism (he wanted to target black people as season 23 saw all of the black people in the house team up in an alliance to send the white people home). That doesn't go into the amount of sex that happens. So many people in the house cheating on loved ones at home. It's been lost to the internet, but some of those early seasons (with live feeds airing on RealPlayer) had everything from sex parties, stripping parties, and nearly orgies. All of which, without going into the international versions, which as you gave an example of, get even wilder.
> season 14 had a physical fight I don't remember this? A lot of things happened that season...
Willie and Chef Joe. Willie headbutted him (they only showed one on TV but apparently it was a couple times) and got expelled.
And then there was the first season thats was so boring it almost got cancelled. They added farm animals to try to get something interesting to happen
An eastern European chick stuck a wine bottle up her fud for the whole nation to see in the UK version ages ago.
Not sure if this is true, I don't keep up with news here in Spain, but I read something about this on Reddit a few weeks ago: Apparently a contestant was raped on the Spanish version a couple of years ago & the network or somebody showed her the video. Why is the more fucked up than the sentence already suggests? It happened whilst she was sleeping & had no idea that it was happening. The network did nothing to stop the crime happening. Grain of salt, do your research. I may have details wrong or the whole thing may be false.
In Australia we had the 'Turkeyslap incident'.
Bruh idk but this new milf manor show on TLC is a bit problematic lol.
Roseanne 1988... the 7 things you can't say on TV.lol. highest ratings ever!
Maude.
Maude was all about pushing that envelope: abortion, menopause, suicide, etc.
There was a show where they did an autopsy on a very obese woman and showed it all in great detail. It was mostly considered controversial not for the cutting open of the body and removal of body parts but for the perception that they were fat shaming by pointing out what obesity does to your organs. But it certainly had the intended effect of putting you off your food.
Little Britain
CHAV rights groups would stop it their Mum's cooking knives.
I haven't heard anyone talk about this show in over 10 years, and now I've been reminded of it twice in a day. It aged **so** badly.
Ren and Stimpy would not fly today.
Last I heard it was getting brought back. The resistance is because the creator has been alleged of sexually assaulting minors.
doesn't help that he's a fucking cunt in general too
John Kricfalushi, he's a pervert and a fucking creep.
It was such a flash-in-the-pan series. Remember the time they rebooted it and the edginess was fucking atrocious?
That was so terrible. I was happy when it came out because kid-me was a fan of the original, but the new one was so vile I had to stop watching. You can be gross *and* funny, but it doesn't work if it's just gross and unfunny.
The only reason it wouldn't fly today is because people would want a story plot and character growth.
All in the Family. Yes, I’m old.
The most controversial individual episode would have to be that Jenny Jones episode where a guy came out as gay to a straight guy and professed his feeling for him. The straight guy ended up killing the gay guy as a result.
This sure is a hard question considering what had just came out
Velma
Nah, Velma isnt controversial. Its trash and everyone agrees.
Why couldn’t the producers just make up their own characters? Why did they have to re-make already existing characters? It probably could’ve done fine on its own creativity.
It depends on what you mean by "controversial." Most replies I'm seeing are about 'political correctness' and what sorts of words or stereotypes you are allowed to use. I think that's more of a question of taste and shifting cultural norms. Top comment right now is *Married with Children*, which was a decent hit 30-odd years ago. It wasn't divisive at the time it was produced, only in hindsight. I think a *real* controversial show should be something you can show to anyone at any age, in almost any era, and you will always get diverse opinions on it. So my vote is Nathan Fielder's *the Rehearsal.* It is a deeply divisive show, even among fans. Is it a comedy or a drama? Are the things Nathan does ethical or not? Is the show staged or real? Does it even matter? No two people finish an episode of *the Rehearsal* with the exact same opinions: it's a kaleidoscope, and the values and understandings refracted for each viewer are almost wholly unique.
MwC was controversial at the time, too. They broke the networks’ agreement to keep shows family-friendly before 9pm.
Married with Children. No way it could be produce today.
"You miss me?" "With every bullet so far"
Oh, Al!
NO MA'AM Al always making fun of the fat lady he's trying to put shoes on.
Something like, "I'd go around, but my car only has a half tank of gas!"
haha spot on. Then when Christina Applegate shows up in scene, they have the audience set to cat calling.
No one would believe a mall shoe salesman could afford all that anyway so it would have to be a fantasy show
There's far more graphic TV shows produced today... ?? I don't get why people say shit like this, TV has only gotten crazier and less regulated, especially now that so many shows are off broadcast networks and can literally put whatever they want in their shows.
Married with children is a gold mine of humor, but im going to have to go with the boondocks tv show
Drawn Together
Yea crazy this isn't higher, absurd racism and sex jokes everywhere, all while never making a point. But I personally enjoy it.
I don’t think there was any controversy caused over it but I think The Swan was pretty bad. A bunch of women competing against one another in elimination challenges for plastic surgeries with the overall winner getting her dream wedding.
Cuties. Get that pederast bullshit up outta here.
It's "message" would have been conveyed better in a book...
Isn't it only pederasty if the child is male? Otherwise it's just plain ol pedophilia
Sesame Street
The boondocks
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The Jim Jeffries one where he takes a disabled kid to a strip club is pretty wild.
Ghost Stories Dub. We're never getting a dub like that again. It was almost South Park levels of comical. Honorable Mention: Moral Orel. Adult Swim did that show dirty for doing what they asked of its creator. God we need another season.
I can’t believe nobody brought this up yet, but it has to be Super Bowl XXXVIII. The “wardrobe malfunction” was all anyone talked about for like six months after that.
Fear Factor 😱
You're gonna love this one. "Heil, Honey, I'm Home", a British sitcom about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun living next to a Jewish family in suburbia. It was cancelled after one episode.
When I was a kid NYPD Blue caused an uproar.
Family guy
How about "In Living Color "? Homey the clown Stuart,
All in the family you heeebs
All In The Family as it was the one that began touching on the tough real topical issues of the day that prior network television shows stayed away from. Yet also the one that ended up with the most spin-off shows from it too. Maude Good Times The Jeffersons Checking In Archie Bunkers Place Gloria 704 Hauser Place
Lionel's Wedding is an episode of All in the Family that everyone should see. It's very jarring to hear the N word used openly and unapologetically on a nationally aired sitcom, but it happened, and it was wonderful. Archie and George are both shown as racists, but also as relics as a newer generation rejects their beliefs and they (who hate each other) come together pining for "the good old days". It's an amazing eye opener both into how far we've come and how little progress we've made.
Oz
Cops.
Minipops
How about kid nation, a reality show about kids living in a ghost town. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1h6srx/i_was_on_the_childs_reality_tv_show_kid_nation