Episodes Canceled/Altered/Postponed Due to World Events

[Stanislav]

I was thinking about cases in which an episode of a TV series is affected by breaking real-life world events that might make the subject matter uncomfortable or in poor taste. Situations in which a completed episode is either altered, postponed, or shelved, or where a proposed or uncompleted episode is canceled.

(BTW, I am not including in this concept cases involving the real-life death of an actor -- that could be a whole 'nuther thread all by itself. I am also not including minor/temporary edits, such as eliminating the brief shot of the Twin Towers for a time in the title sequence of The Sopranos after 9/11, etc.)

Two examples of the sort of thing I am talking about.....

I don't recall the details (and I can't find the references at the moment), but prior to the September 11th attacks, there was a Law and Order TV-movie event in the works that would have incorporated the characters from all three L&O series (including Law and Order: Criminal Intent, which was slated to debut in September 2001). As I recollect, the TV-movie would have dealt with a terrorist attack on New York City that in some respects turned out to be awfully reminiscent of aspects of the actual 9/11 attacks. I think I read that they had actually already done some limited amount of filming for the project. In any case, after 9/11 the whole idea was shelved. (Anyone who can provide additional -- or more correct -- details on this, please chime in.....I can't find the references I have previously read on the subject.)

The other example is of an episode postponed due to real-life events. On March 30, 1981, when President Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt, all 3 networks naturally suspended regular programming until Reagan was out of surgery and his condition clarified. In CBS' case, they chose to resume regular programming at 9 pm ET -- just in time for that evening's episode of M*A*S*H. However, the scheduled episode (as per TVG listings and in hindsight the next scheduled new episode to air) was "The Life You Save," in which Charles is nearly killed by a sniper, the bullet passing through his hat. Apparently, that was too close for comfort to the earlier real-life events of the day, and instead CBS substituted a repeat of an earlier Season 9 episode ("Cementing Relationships"). "The Life You Save" was eventually broadcast 5 weeks later (on May 4).

So, with those two examples as a guideline, can you think of others in the same vein?

 

[cowboybud]

An episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer called "Earshot", which dealt with a school sniper (who would up just wanting to kill himself), was scheduled to air a few days after the Columbine shootings. The WB shelved the episode, which eventually aired the following August.

 

[tlyle]

It was 1978 or 1979. ABC was airing the broadcast premier of "King Kong" (The Jeff Bridges version). During the movie, it was interupted with President Carter signing the Camp David Peace accords. If I remember that correctly, the network continued the movie after the interuption. I am sure the other networks had their programing interupted.

I also like Jeff Foxworth's joke about growing up in Atlanta (which is where I am from). He said that we only had 3 channels on TV at that time. If the president came on to do a speech, his family's night was shot.

 

[Ultimajock]

...I distinctly recall one of the Encore cable channels scrubbed showings of the 1982 TV news satire Wrong is Right in the days immediately after the September 11th attacks. The movie, you'll recall, involves not only Arab terrorist bombings inside the United States, but also (partial spoiler alert) --

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-- nuclear bombs being planted atop the World Trade Center...

...and, of course, after John W. Hinckley shot President Reagan and three others in March 1981, Stephen Cannell had the name of the lead character on his ABC series The Greatest American Hero changed from Ralph Hinkley to Ralph Hanley; the name was changed back to Hinkley during the next season...

 

[wbhist]

What was to have been the season finale of Dragnet 1968, "The Joy Riders," was shelved in the wake of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination on April 4, 1968. The episode finally aired on Feb. 13, 1969, during the Dragnet 1969 season.

When President Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, the Burke's Law episode slated to air that night, "Who Killed Jason Shaw?," ended up being shown on Jan. 3, 1964.

 

[azumanga]

It was 1978 or 1979. ABC was airing the broadcast premier of "King Kong" (The Jeff Bridges version). During the movie, it was interupted with President Carter signing the Camp David Peace accords. If I remember that correctly, the network continued the movie after the interuption. I am sure the other networks had their programing interupted.

Actually, ABC interrupted the "Battlestar Galactica" movie, continuing it right where they left off when the report ended. NBC had King Kong (but probably not that same night).

 

[azumanga]

(BTW...I am also not including minor/temporary edits, such as eliminating the brief shot of the Twin Towers for a time in the title sequence of The Sopranos after 9/11, etc.)

Though when the fourth season began in 2002, the edit became permanent.

Back to programming changes -- I do recall Nickelodeon pulling its Nicktoon, "Invader ZIM", off the schedule for a few weeks, as the series involved an alien wanting to invade earth.

 

[mleach]

An episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer called "Earshot", which dealt with a school sniper (who would up just wanting to kill himself), was scheduled to air a few days after the Columbine shootings. The WB shelved the episode, which eventually aired the following August.

Somewhat related to this topic though I am not totally sure exactly how much of this is true or not but I remember hearing over the years that back in the late 90s Showtime had plans on doing a gay comedy-drama called "The Front Range Bears" about a group a hairy gay guys living in Denver & Fort Collins, Colorado. However once Columbine took place the whole idea was dropped. Problem? Columbine took place in Littleton, Colorado which is a suberb of Denver. I would imagine Showtime felt that doing such a show based in a metro area where such a tragic event had taken place would cause controversy.

However even though "The Front Range Bears" never saw the light of day, Showtime went on to its next "gay project", that being of course "Queer as Folk". And rather than being based in Denver or Fort Collins, QAF was set in Pittsburgh instead.

 

[radiorob2.0]

It was 1978 or 1979. ABC was airing the broadcast premier of "King Kong" (The Jeff Bridges version). During the movie, it was interupted with President Carter signing the Camp David Peace accords. If I remember that correctly, the network continued the movie after the interuption. I am sure the other networks had their programing interupted.

I was watching that night when that happened. Needless to say as an eleven year old I was a little upset, who cares about world history this is King Kong you are interrupting.

 

[Andy Coleman]

When the Virginia Tech killer went on a rampage the ABC soap One Life To Live had a storyline in place where the teenage character Star Manning was being obessed by a fellow student and she wasn't aware. of the guy's feelings toward her. he was a more less a outcast and Star had talked to him in some class and he became obessed with her. Well the storyline was written the guy asks her out she refuses he becomes enraged had kills some students and shoots Star's boyfriend Cole while he would be trying to save her and after a month of shows he the guy would be killed by Todd Star's father and Star would lose her virginity to the guy because he would rape her. Well due to Virginia Tech the storyline was written differently after a month of story had been taped. Now the guy stole a car with Star and friends and threatened to kill himself if Star didn't tell him she loved him. Our sweet Star told the guy that she loved him as a friend and Cole told him to kill him and the poor kid realized that Cole was a good person and that Star was safe haveing him as a b/f. he left the show instead of getting killed but leaving for counseling.

 

[therealjm12]

Of course many TV shows were interrupted or altered soon after the death of JFK. The one that comes to mind for me was an episode of McCale's Navy. In this particular show the PT boat 109 pulled into the base skippered by a young Commander that just happened to be from Boston. The original showing aired before the death of JFK but on the rerun that part was edited out. I have seen it since, in syndication, and that scene has been restored. I'm glad it was.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Of course many TV shows were interrupted or altered soon after the death of JFK. The one that comes to mind for me was an episode of McCale's Navy. In this particular show the PT boat 109 pulled into the base skippered by a young Commander that just happened to be from Boston. The original showing aired before the death of JFK but on the rerun that part was edited out. I have seen it since, in syndication, and that scene has been restored. I'm glad it was.

Speaking of the JFK assassination, does anyone know whatever became of the rest of the episode of "As the World Turns" that was interrupted on Nov. 22, 1963 to announce this tragedy? Was the Nov. 22 episode ever rebroadcast in its entirety after the assassination coverage (even though the show was broadcast live at the time) or did the storyline pick up as if there was no interruption (or was the ATWT storyline at the time altered slightly as a result of the last 15 minutes of that day's show being missed completely)?

 

[Stanislav]

Speaking of the JFK assassination, does anyone know whatever became of the rest of the episode of "As the World Turns" that was interrupted on Nov. 22, 1963 to announce this tragedy? Was the Nov. 22 episode ever rebroadcast in its entirety after the assassination coverage (even though the show was broadcast live at the time) or did the storyline pick up as if there was no interruption (or was the ATWT storyline at the time altered slightly as a result of the last 15 minutes of that day's show being missed completely)?

We've discussed this before in one of the JFK threads, and I think the consensus was that for the sake of continuity, they probably started the same episode over when normal programming resumed. Don't forget, not only did the Eastern and Central zones get a fragmented, truncated version of the episode, the West Coast didn't see it at ALL that day.

The first bulletin occurred at about 1:40 pm ET. At that point, there had been one full "act" of ATWT, a commercial break, and then about 4 minutes more of ATWT when interrupted. When they returned in progress after the first bulletins, they were in the midst of another break -- commercial, bumper, network promo and ID, 30-second local origination, then the ATWT bumper, but interrupted again before they got to the the next act. Then there was one more brief return to ATWT, but less than 2 minutes worth was seen before another commercial break, which was then interrupted and the bulletin slide stayed up the rest of the half-hour.

I was working on a transcript of that 1/2 hour recently, and this is the appoximate sequence of events as televised (times are approximate, based on watching a web video of the episode):

1:30:00 – Opening theme and intro to ATWT

1:30:30 – Commercial: Niagra Spray Starch

1:31:30 – ATWT begins

1:35:50 – Commercial: NuSoft Fabric Softener

1:36:10 – Back to ATWT

1:40:00 – BULLETIN interrupts ATWT: Walter Cronkite reads first wire reports over “CBS News Bulletin” slide.

1:41:00 – Commercial: Taster’s Choice Coffee

1:42:00 – ATWT Bumper, “Route 66” promo, CBS “Eye” logo ID

1:42:30 – 30-second local break (network feed dark)

1:43:00 – ATWT Bumper

1:43:03 – BULLETIN cuts the bumper short: More details from Cronkite.

1:45:18 – ATWT rejoined in progress

1:47:00 – Commercial: Friskies Puppy Food

1:47:40 – Commercial: Friskies Dog Food (This interrupted commercial would be the last piece of regularly scheduled programming seen on CBS for the next 4 ½ days)

1:47:50 – BULLETIN cuts off commercial: Cronkite returns. Bulletin slide stays up for the duration of the time slot.

1:59:40 - Cronkite announces a 10-second break for stations to ID, and for all afffiliates to join the network.

1:59:50 – The CBS “Eye” logo is briefly seen, followed by 10 seconds of dead air (during which local stations would have inserted their own ID slide)

2:00:00 – Cronkite returns, now seen on-camera.

So, in reality, there was really only a little less than 11 minutes of actual ATWT -- less than half the amount of footage in a half-hour show of the era -- actually broadcast.

I do assume that there may have been some "tweaking" of the scripts when the show resumed 5 days later. Remember, soaps traditionally built up to Friday's episode being a bit of a "cliffhanger" -- usually ended with some unresolved issue or big revelation that would keep people buzzing about it over the weekend. The interrupted episode was on a Thursday, and would have been re-started on a Tuesday, so that may have thrown off the pace/timing a bit, necessitating some rewrites. But I don't think there were any major changes made to the overall storyline that would have been related to the JFK shooting.

 

[firepoint525]

I believe you meant to say that the interrupted episode was on a Friday, as November 22, 1963, fell on a Friday. Easy for me to remember, since I was born on November 29, 1963, which was the following Friday.

 

[Stanislav]

I believe you meant to say that the interrupted episode was on a Friday, as November 22, 1963, fell on a Friday. Easy for me to remember, since I was born on November 29, 1963, which was the following Friday.

My bad -- for some reason, I always think it was a Thursday and have to be reminded of my error. Just a bad sector in my brain's hard drive, I guess.....

 

[FreddyE1977]

It was 1978 or 1979. ABC was airing the broadcast premier of "King Kong" (The Jeff Bridges version). During the movie, it was interupted with President Carter signing the Camp David Peace accords. If I remember that correctly, the network continued the movie after the interuption. I am sure the other networks had their programing interupted.

I also like Jeff Foxworth's joke about growing up in Atlanta (which is where I am from). He said that we only had 3 channels on TV at that time. If the president came on to do a speech, his family's night was shot.

I hate to disagree, but I very clearly remember that it was the long-hyped series premiere of Battlestar Gallactica that got interrupted
on ABC by the Camp David Accords.

It was before my time, but I have heard that an episode of Route 66 dealing with a political assassination was scheduled to air
on the evening JFK was killed. Supposedly it never aired, but was shown to an audience in Buffalo, NY, where the episode was
filmed, many years later.

 

[Stanislav]

It was 1978 or 1979. ABC was airing the broadcast premier of "King Kong" (The Jeff Bridges version). During the movie, it was interupted with President Carter signing the Camp David Peace accords. If I remember that correctly, the network continued the movie after the interuption.

I hate to disagree, but I very clearly remember that it was the long-hyped series premiere of Battlestar Gallactica that got interrupted
on ABC by the Camp David Accords.

Yup -- as related just a few days ago in my TDITVH for September 17:

1978: The ceremony formalizing the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt is televised live from the White House East Room. The live breaking event interrupts the much-ballyhooed premiere (the uncut 148-minute pilot) of ABC’s Battlestar Galactica. Instead of rejoining the program in progress, ABC takes the highly unusual step of resuming the show from the point at which it was interrupted.

 

[firepoint525]

ABC (I believe it was), the network that carried the movie Elvis and Me, based on Priscilla's book, interrupted it for a special announcement (I believe it was the vote on Contra aid or something), but they, too, resumed the movie at the point where they had interrupted it. The viewers didn't miss anything. But just to be sure, I watched it again (uninterrupted, this time) on the satellite feed (for the west coast) later that evening!

 

[azumanga]

I was working on a transcript of that 1/2 hour recently, and this is the appoximate sequence of events as televised (times are approximate, based on watching a web video of the episode):

1:30:00 – Opening theme and intro to ATWT

...

1:42:00 – ATWT Bumper, “Route 66” promo, CBS “Eye” logo ID

1:42:30 – 30-second local break (network feed dark)

1:43:00 – ATWT Bumper...

I find it unusual that they went to a station break 12 minutes into the program, instead of the standard periods at the hour and half-hour. For a half-hour soap like ATWT (at the time), I thought they wouldn't throw it to stations until the show was over.

 

[Ultimajock]

I was working on a transcript of that 1/2 hour recently, and this is the appoximate sequence of events as televised (times are approximate, based on watching a web video of the episode):

1:30:00 – Opening theme and intro to ATWT

...

1:42:00 – ATWT Bumper, “Route 66” promo, CBS “Eye” logo ID

1:42:30 – 30-second local break (network feed dark)

1:43:00 – ATWT Bumper...

I find it unusual that they went to a station break 12 minutes into the program, instead of the standard periods at the hour and half-hour. For a half-hour soap like ATWT (at the time), I thought they wouldn't throw it to stations until the show was over.

...however, for most of the 1950s, most soaps were only 15 minutes. I'm not sure when they switched to half-hours, but it may be the case that the breaks at :15 and :45 were simply holdovers from that period and CBS hadn't found it necessary to switch over to a solid half-hour clock by that time...