For a lot of tweens and youths rising up within the mid-to-late-Nineties, Friday nights meant a bucket of popcorn and sitting down in entrance of the TV for an evening of ABC’s “TGIF” programming lineup. Exhibits like “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “Sister, Sister,” and “Boy Meets World” catered to teenagers whereas nonetheless being family-friendly sufficient for primetime community TV, however sometimes they delved into subjects that have been a bit of extra grownup to truly have one thing to say to their teen audiences. “Boy Meets World” finally ended up in syndication on The Disney Channel, together with a number of different “TGIF” favorites, however there have been three episodes that initially aired on ABC that Disney Channel refused to air themselves.
Banned episodes are nothing new on the earth of tv — heck, “Frasier,” “Household Man,” and “Buddies” all have episodes that have been banned from airing in a single kind or one other — however the three that have been prevented from airing on Disney Channel are a bit of irritating as a result of it seems like a sort of conservative censorship that finally harms the younger audiences it seeks to guard. Despite the fact that the episodes weren’t good, they spoke to points that teenagers really cope with and had constructive messages total, however the people at Disney simply weren’t having it.
Disney Channel wasn’t comfy with teenage ingesting
The primary episode that Disney Channel banned was season 5, episode 15, “If You Cannot Be With the One You Love,” which featured a storyline about Shawn (Rider Sturdy) and Cory (Ben Savage) ingesting some whiskey as a result of Cory and his long-time girlfriend Topanga (Danielle Fishel) broke up. The episode seems like a “very particular episode” that tries to evangelise in regards to the risks of ingesting, and Sturdy mentioned on the “Pod Meets World” podcast that he took concern with the episode as a result of it resorted to some old-school scare ways. After some goofy bits with the teenagers ingesting and inflicting hassle, Shawn finally ends up performing “as if he is a 45-year-old alcoholic who’s like I am unable to cease, however I gotta maintain doing this. And I do not suppose that is life like for someone who’s tried alcohol as soon as.”
It isn’t the worst episode of “Boy Meets World,” nevertheless it does try to condense an advanced dialog about teen ingesting and alcoholism into below a half-hour. Episodes about teen ingesting are fairly widespread on teenage sitcoms, however that is undoubtedly one of many sillier ones. Regardless of being strongly anti-alcohol, Disney determined to ban the episode, doubtless simply because it handled alcohol in any respect. The opposite two episodes they banned handled one other topic notably sensitive to Disney: intercourse.
Two episodes coping with intercourse have been banned
One other episode to get the Disney axe was “Promenade-ises, Promenade-ises,” which was episode 22 of season 5, following the teenagers as they handled promenade evening expectations and whether or not or to not have intercourse for the primary time. On one other episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast, the forged revealed that the episode made them uncomfortable — and never as a result of their characters have been contemplating having intercourse, however as a result of there wasn’t a single point out of contraception. In the long run, Cory and Topanga resolve to attend and never have intercourse, and the entire thing is handled very fastidiously in order to not rattle mid-’90s ABC censors. The opposite intercourse episode to get reduce was the season 6 episode “The Fact About Honesty,” by which Cory and Topanga resolve that they do wish to make their relationship bodily, whereas Shawn and his girlfriend, Angela (Trina McGee) understand that they don’t seem to be comfy with their present relationship association.
Like “Promenade-ises, Promenade-ises,” “The Fact About Honesty” is cautious in coping with intercourse and the teenagers form of speak in circles round it. Nonetheless, it does present the significance of communication between younger {couples}, who incessantly aren’t on the identical web page in terms of the bodily facet of their relationships. There aren’t even intercourse scenes within the episodes, and it is irritating that even a light dialogue of intercourse was deemed worthy of censorship. Teenagers are going to have intercourse whether or not adults prefer it or not, and displaying them wholesome expectations and relationships is useful, not dangerous. Intercourse scenes and discussions of intercourse are essential and mandatory, even when they’re a bit of ham-fisted typically on household sitcoms of their makes an attempt at educating good classes. Censorship by no means actually helps anybody, and that is the case with these three “Boy Meets World” episodes.
