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Post by twinkle on Mar 13, 2014 7:25:28 GMT -5
I have just noticed something quite ridiculous on the TV channel that broadcasts Little House on the Prairie each day here at 1pm. We are into mid-Series 7 and next week on Monday will air Ep.16 and then on Tuesday Ep.18 which quite blatantly omits Ep.17 Sylvia. We are all familiar with this episode I am sure so no explanation needed. Just what on earth is going on? this is midday viewing, the kids are all at school, the majority audience is mums like me taking a lunch time break - so why the censorship?
The Waltons dealt with the issue of rape in The Violated and made no secret about what had happened to the young wife living in the mountains on her own and that she had been raped several times by Slater. The Waltons is aired on the same channel as LH and precedes LH each day and yet the episode about Sylvia is once again taken out of the daytime slot and shown at 9pm instead.
There is no problem broadcasting the quite graphic and distressing LH episode where Mary's baby and Mrs Garvey die in a fire, or The Violated or even The Hostage which dealt with adult men marrying under-aged girls.
Why the nervousness about Sylvia...? I do admit that it is a particularly unsavoury episode and one wonders why the writers came up with such a story-line, but do the TV channels in the US take this same attitude towards airing this particular episode of LH?
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Post by Brenda on Mar 13, 2014 8:21:40 GMT -5
I don't remember that episode or any episode of Little House ever being censored, but I could be wrong. I don't like that episode of Little House and usually change the channel if it comes on. Something about it is much more disturbing to me than "The Violated" on The Waltons. I don't know if it's because Sylvia is underage or because she dies in the end or because her father blamed her or because Albert was willing to marry her, though he was a child himself. I think it's a combination of all of those.
I believe INSP censors The Waltons episodes that deal with the supernatural - The Changeling and The Ghost Story. Years ago when The Waltons was shown on the Family Channel, those two episodes were censored as well. I can't remember any network censoring a Little House episode, though.
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Post by goodnight on Mar 13, 2014 8:52:45 GMT -5
I wonder if they also omit the episode where Albert had become addicted to morphine after they had moved away from Walnut Grove. The scenes where he is going through withdrawal are quite intense.
I've noticed that INSP has become a bit silly with censoring of dialogue. I've been watching JAG, and I've noticed them censoring "butt" in "pain in the butt". Also, "sexual" in "sexual harassment".
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Post by patriciaanne on Mar 13, 2014 8:57:03 GMT -5
I wonder if they also omit the episode where Albert had become addicted to morphine after they had moved away from Walnut Grove. The scenes where he is going through withdrawal are quite intense. I've noticed that INSP has become a bit silly with censoring of dialogue. I've been watching JAG, and I've noticed them censoring "butt" in "pain in the butt". Also, "sexual" in "sexual harassment". |
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Post by Kathy Lee on Mar 13, 2014 9:04:38 GMT -5
Maybe prissy butt and piss ant from The Homecoming is next?
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Post by twinkle on Mar 13, 2014 9:11:20 GMT -5
I wonder if they also omit the episode where Albert had become addicted to morphine after they had moved away from Walnut Grove. The scenes where he is going through withdrawal are quite intense. I've noticed that INSP has become a bit silly with censoring of dialogue. I've been watching JAG, and I've noticed them censoring "butt" in "pain in the butt". Also, "sexual" in "sexual harassment". Actually now you mention it the episode with Albert and the morphine is always omitted during the series run and in fact I have never seen it. LH is currently on its 3rd re-run through the entire series here and last time round I had read about this episode and wondered why I could not place it...it's because I'd never seen it! This was a series designed for family viewing and yet these episodes are not shown during the daytime when grown adults are the audience....I think it's crazy. |
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Post by Alexis From Texas on Mar 13, 2014 9:12:46 GMT -5
No offense meant, but really? The Waltons and Little House are very kid friendly shows, I don't understand why anyone would censor them. I mean, you're talking a cable channel, they don't have to technically censor anything. Especially since the show was acceptable for airing on regular television decades ago. This kinda gets my dander up! I just don't understand why any censor would be that picky. Unless it has some automatic filter on it. I still think it is as stupid as can be.
I think it's not just that particular cable channel. I don't remember seeing the Sylvia episode until I had them on dvd and I would faithfully watch whatever station was showing little house growing up. I had some on vhs that I have that I could quote back and forth to you. I'm pretty sure Sylvia was never on those taped sets, either.
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Post by goodnight on Mar 13, 2014 9:13:39 GMT -5
Perhaps the episode about Sylvia is omitted so parents won't have to be explaining what happened to Sylvia. But if, as you say, it's on during the day when children would mostly be in school...
The episode with the blind school fire is one I wish was never made. It's the "jumping the shark" moment for me for Little House. It was brutal and disturbing. And the way they set it up that Alice and the baby got trapped in the house was so contrived.
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Post by twinkle on Mar 13, 2014 15:48:08 GMT -5
No offense meant, but really? The Waltons and Little House are very kid friendly shows, I don't understand why anyone would censor them. I mean, you're talking a cable channel, they don't have to technically censor anything. Especially since the show was acceptable for airing on regular television decades ago. This kinda gets my dander up! I just don't understand why any censor would be that picky. Unless it has some automatic filter on it. I still think it is as stupid as can be. I think it's not just that particular cable channel. I don't remember seeing the Sylvia episode until I had them on dvd and I would faithfully watch whatever station was showing little house growing up. I had some on vhs that I have that I could quote back and forth to you. I'm pretty sure Sylvia was never on those taped sets, either. I am in the UK where we have what is called a 'water-shed' for TV shows which kicks in at 9pm after which almost anything goes regarding language, sex scenes etc. Pre-watershed (up until 9pm) shows are censored for such because TV chiefs assume that all kids go to bed by 9pm and after that time it is safe to let shows air as made, bad language and all. Considering some of the made-for-tv movies which feature some rather adult themes that are shown on this very same channel in the late afternoon after The Waltons and Little House I cannot for the life of me understand why the channel bosses see fit to pull Sylvia from being broadcast during the day! I think in 2014 daytime TV audiences are sophisticated enough to decide what they deem right to watch. I am going to write to this channel and demand an answer as to why they deem Sylvia as 'improper' viewing for adults during the day. It has certainly got my 'dander' up too.....I do not like such decisions being made for me. This is only Little House for petes sake! |
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Post by JeannePhx on Mar 13, 2014 22:36:18 GMT -5
Hmmmm...thank goodness I have the DVD sets and don't have to put up with this nonsense........  |
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Post by carol on Mar 13, 2014 23:09:26 GMT -5
I didn't like t he Sylvia episode either. I didn't see the need to kill her in the end. Just having her lose the baby would have been enough. Plus her father was a sleeze. I remember when it originally ran it had a parental discretion disclaimer at the beginning. I was 16 by then so my parents weren't bothered if I saw it or not. I also hate the Blind school fire episode.I absolutely refuse to watch it.
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Post by daniela on Mar 13, 2014 23:26:38 GMT -5
That burning blind school episode gave me nightmares..literally! It also made my stomach hurt. I thought about it for weeks after. Even now when I watch Little House and the kids are younger, I always think, "huh, poor Mary...she's in for the worst luck in life ever!" Geez..did the writers hate Mary? I remember getting scared of the Slyvia episode too. It wasn't because of what happened, it was that mask! What a scary mask he had when he was watching her. Yes...I am a chicken  |
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Post by goodnight on Mar 14, 2014 8:25:30 GMT -5
I didn't like t he Sylvia episode either. I didn't see the need to kill her in the end. Just having her lose the baby would have been enough. Plus her father was a sleeze. I remember when it originally ran it had a parental discretion disclaimer at the beginning. I was 16 by then so my parents weren't bothered if I saw it or not. I also hate the Blind school fire episode.I absolutely refuse to watch it. It seemed like the man who played her father (I think the actor's name was Royal Dano), was often typecast as obsessively overprotective fathers. It seems to me like he was in another Little House episode that is not shown often because it's a 90 minute one. A girl had a baby out of wedlock and hid it. She kept leaving messages in bottles which Laura found. The girl's mother had run off because she couldn't stand her abusive, control freak husband. And Laura eventually found the baby. Charles helped the girl reunite with the baby's father. I may be wrong about Royal Dano being in that one. And that's another example of Waltons and Little House using similar plots. There were 2 examples of this plotline in the Waltons. The one where Lutie Bascomb burned down the school and the one with the girl that Ben helped. |
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Post by jrijr on Mar 14, 2014 8:31:00 GMT -5
The LH episode that always "freaked me out" - aside from the blind school burning with Mary and Adam's baby and Mrs. Garvey - is the episode where Caroline scrapes her leg, and it becomes terribly infected. Charles and the kids go off, and Caroline stays home, getting worse... and there are instances where help was nearby, but she missed it. Something about the music, the story, and the Bible verse of "cut off thine own leg..." makes me turn the channel each time I catch it.
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Post by patriciaanne on Mar 14, 2014 22:28:45 GMT -5
There were many "dark" episodes on LH. I think that's why I don't watch it now. That, and I think I just don't relate to those early "pioneer days." I don't watch Dr. Quinn either. I'm looking for a bit of escapism when I relax with a tv show--something comforting. The Waltons, although certainly based on reality, does that for me. For all the serious problems of the time, there are enough episodes of normal, non-life-threatening, sometimes light-hearted topics that I find nice to watch. LH had those too, but it seems on a ratio basis--not enough for me.
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