The Simpsons in the UK

Which, funnily enough, wasn't the first time Sky had done that - they did one in around August/September 2000 for a weekend of programmes celebrating the 10th anniversary of the show starting in the UK, and then remade it in that version a few years later which is what made it into one of the real episodes. I have the 2000 weekend on VHS somewhere and my recording of the first intro became an early popular clip on Youtube in its opening months - tens of thousands of views, which was good for 2006! Sadly my account went a year later, but if it's possible to reupload the old file (currently in an old hard drive on the other side of London) I'll restore it sometime.



Yep, it was me who added the premiere date of that to IMDb and Wikipedia about fifteen years ago! It was meant to premiere on Sky back in 1997, but concerns over the subject matter of Homer buying a gun (this wasn't too far after the Dunblane tragedy and the restrictions on gun laws that followed) stopped it being aired for years, and indeed it got its premiere here on the Too Hot for TV video. As BBC2 aired it in 2001, it holds the record for the longest time between US and UK TV premiere of a Simpsons episode, and from memory there was no hype at all for this milestone as they just included it as normal with their first showing of Season 9. Sky One finally first showed it in 2005, but all Channel 4 airings I've seen have a rather fascinating edit - in the original episode, Marge is about to throw the gun away but decides to keep it, walking off confidently to dramatic music. Channel 4 cleverly edit by cutting a shot early so it appears Marge actually does throw the gun away, giving her confident walk/dramatic music a completely different meaning!

There's the episode featuring the World Trade Center too, which after 9/11 had no airings on any UK channel until about 2005 and aired after with some significant cuts. Also there's one where Homer gets addicted to marijuana which from memory first aired very late at night, and I don't think has ever been shown on any channel pre-watershed. Indeed speaking of 9/11, one of my earliest posts on this forum noted the schedule change of an episode meant to be shown on BBC2 that week - instead of 'Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming' (which features Sideshow Bob stealing a plane and crashing it into a building) a different episode was shown instead, the one with Marge at a country club from memory.

For the record, the episode with the shortest gap between US/UK airings is minus five days (yes, minus) - in 2009 an episode set in Ireland got its UK premiere on Sky before the US, which did decently enough in ratings but not on the scale of the Gervais episode a few years earlier.

I remember that on YouTube. I also remember The Saturday Show on BBC Two recreating the show's intro on one of their shows.

Family Guy also has something similar - Partial Terms of Endearment from Season 8 was first shown on BBC Three, due to the subject matter of abortion.

I might be misremembering, but I vaguely recall when C4 started showing Simpsons, the 9pm Friday slot was for new to terrestrial TV, while 6 was the endless loop of early repeats? I could be wrong but would make sense. Remember when the 9pms became less common it was more as a filler inbetween series of stuff such as Big Brother, MPD and such and such.




Remember with Partial Terms, there wasn't much of a big deal made about it, it was just thrust into the middle of the series, similar to how Something, Something, Something Dark Side was premiered on BBC Three in the same series, although I remember that one receiving special promos (as I think It's A Trap did a few years later).

I don't think the 9pm showings last much more than a series - it simply rated better at 6pm.

I remember when I tuned in during the Summer of 2018, one of the episodes aired was S7's The Day the Violence Died, (in its original NTSC pitch!) I immediately noticed when Chester Lampwick shows Bart and Milhouse the very first Itchy cartoon, "Manhattan Madness", all the bits with blood and gore were completely cut out, leading to a very abrupt cut to Bart and Milhouse cheering as the credits roll!


The scene in question:

The cuts have become ridiculous, particuarly on E4. They cut out any little mention of sex, violence, very minor swear words etc, so episodes often jump and suddenly make no sense

Yes, James, I agree.

I recently watched 'The Homer They Fall'. In the story, Homer is beaten up by three much stronger men in Moe's bar and through withstanding the attack with ease and coming away unscathed, Moe decides Homer should go into boxing using a 'just let them hit you until they get tired and then push them down' approach.

Alas, in the cut they aired, there was one hit by one man (which you didn't even see directly) and then - CUT - the three men abruptly left, leaving Moe to tell Homer he can't believe he'd just taken such a ferocious prolonged beating without falling down and that he simply must get into boxing...

A first time viewer to the episode must have been a bit confused to say the least.

I didn't think The Simpsons aired on E4.


C4 are airing an episode of Treehouse of Horror around 2am one night later in the week so guessing that's been deemed not suitable for 6pm.

Meant E4 in general, not The Simpsons. Think the movie might have aired once or twice on it but nothing else

When it comes to watching The Simpsons on TV, we have two choices- watch Sky One where it's more or less uncut, but cropped to 16:9, or on Channel 4 where it's in 4:3, but cut to ribbons.

I was watching The Regina Monologues recently and the scene when the family are in court and Marge's line "He hit the frigging Queen!" is shortened to "He hit the Queen!" but it's badly edited so it sounds like she said "He f'ing Queen!"