10 TV Shows Boycotted For Ridiculous Reasons
The Muppets are apparently perverts.
In this time of Facebook protests and angry hashtags, outrage can spread throughout the world like wildfire. Sometimes this is a good thing, like when justice needs to be served and the only way to get people to listen is to become a trending topic.
A lot of the time, however, fury spreads simply because small groups of dedicated people spend literally all of their time pushing their opinions on everyone else. And, as is often the case when people have too much time on their hands, a lot of the time these opinions are about television.
Ever since social media gave everyone a platform, television has been in the crosshairs of people looking for something to be upset about. Shows deemed offensive or perverse - often for ridiculous reasons - have been the subject of mass boycotts and campaigns to get the show removed from the airwaves.
Most of the time, thankfully, these campaigns fail, but in too many cases these small, vocal groups have managed to cancel or significantly impact TV shows whose only sin was providing entertainment.
10. Skins (US Version) Showed Teens As They Really Are
The original Skins, airing in the UK on Channel 4, was a landmark series that drew praise for its realistic portrayal of teenage life and real-world issues. Made with heart and integrity – not to mention a writer’s room that had some actual young people in it – the show was a universal success. So of course the US had to attempt a remake, and of course angry US prudes decried the show as blasphemous. What else is new?
Featuring teenagers that do teenage things like drink, do drugs, and have sex, the US version of Skins was actually more tame than the UK one. Of course, the US has way more conservative groups than the UK, so when they found out that – gasp – teenagers might learn that smoking exists from television, groups such as the Parents Television Council called for a boycott of the show in order to save the nation’s children.
To take matters further, they even filed a letter to the US Department of Justice, asking them to bring a child pornography charge against the series for depicting underage sex.
Pointing to swearing and even a bum shot or two as evidence that the series was an abomination, the boycotters organized a campaign to target advertisers of the show and convince parents that no teen should watch the series. Eventually the outrage resulted in 11 advertisers - including Subway, General Motors, Wrigley, and Taco Bell - to pull their ads, thus killing the show after only one season had aired.