Fox Censors Took Issue With ‘The Simpsons’ Brutally Killing Off a Fox Censor for Halloween
Despite Marge’s ominous warning, The Simpsons’ first “Treehouse of Horror” episode wasn’t really all that scary or graphic. But it did trick a lot of kids into enjoying the work of literary master Edgar Allan Poe.
As the years progressed, the annual Halloween episodes did become more violent. Just a few years later, “Treehouse of Horror V” found Groundskeeper Willie taking an axe to the spine not once, not twice, but thrice.
In 1997, the eighth “Treehouse of Horror” episode became the first to be broadcast in the age of the TV ratings system, which was introduced in January of that year. So The Simpsons opted to parody this development by beginning the show with a visit from the good old “Fox Censor,” whose job is to protect us “from reality.” But after cutting the episode’s crack-pipe references, and informing audiences of the new parental guidance policy, the censor was swiftly murdered by a sword-wielding “TV-G” rating box, which climbed its way up to “TV-666” with each successive stab.
Even while dying, the censor refused to say anything more profane than “Jiminy Christmas.” His blood then dripped down the front of his desk, forming the words of the episode’s title.
It’s a pretty grisly scene for The Simpsons, or any show, to be honest. Perhaps not surprisingly, the real life Fox censors had some notes.
During the episode’s DVD commentary, Simpsons creator Matt Groening admitted that the segment “actually frightened me.” Then showrunner Mike Scully noted that there was a bit of a “struggle” to get the censors to approve the scene — not because a censor was being killed, but due to the manner in which they were killed. The censors “thought it was a little bloody, or violent,” Scully recalled. “There was a lot of talk about the size of the sword. I think there (were) a lot of arguments about if it was a small knife. What’s funnier (versus) what’s more horrifying. And (also) about the sounds and the amount of blood.”
Director Mark Kirkland explained that the writers’ first choice of weapon was much smaller. “I remember, initially, it was a dagger. But the censors did protest that it was too gruesome.” So he was instructed to “make it a sword instead of a dagger. They said a ‘broadsword’ will be acceptable.”
Yeah, apparently brutal murders are fine for primetime television as long as the weapon is much larger than a knife. As for the bloody images and the unnerving sound effects, it sure seems like the Simpsons creatives won that fight, because the scene is unquestionably brutal.
It just might be the most disturbing scene in the show’s history, not including the time Elon Musk came to town.
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