10 Banned Episodes Of Beloved TV Sitcoms

10. The Puerto Rican Day - Seinfeld

Often described as one of the best sitcoms ever, Seinfield was a sarcastic, sardonic, and oftentimes nihilistic show about nothing in particular. All that being said, it dared to poke fun and be outrageous in the way that real people were, in opposition to picturesque sitcom families.

The show has a handful of episodes that wouldn’t go over well today, but The Puerto Rican Day caused enough of a stink to be taken off TV for four years.

This 1998 story sees the cast of the show caught in city gridlock due to parades celebrating Puerto Rican Day. Near the episode’s close, Kramer accidentally sets fire to a Puerto Rican flag with a sparkler, and, in an attempt to stop the fire, throws it to the ground and stomps on it. This induces the ire of the people around him, and they chase him off the street.

The episode itself induced the ire of real Puerto Ricans, and complaints about the episode filtered in - including from Fernando Ferrer, the Puerto Rican borough president of the Bronx at the time. There were letters and even protests outside NBC’s Rockefeller home, and the station acquiesced to their demands by removing it from syndication.

The cast and crew took umbrage with this, but the episode stayed off air until 2002.