10 Moments Edited Out Of Your Favourite TV Shows

It's not at all uncommon for movies and TV shows to realise that a scene doesn't quite work during the editing process, and so promptly remove it before it ever reaches audiences.

Sometimes, of course, these deleted scenes are nevertheless made available to curious fans either online or as part of a home video release.

But in certain extreme circumstances, TV networks and production companies will actually re-edit a TV episode after it's already been broadcast to the masses, more often than not altering a controversial scene which caused a major public outcry.

These 10 TV series all took the scissors to moments which caused them a major PR headache at one moment or another, gags and scenes that mostly didn't affect the episode's narrative, yet still left many decrying the slippery slope of self-censorship.

Though re-edited episodes aren't always a result of the network feeling pressure to remove an objectionable moment - as a single one of our examples proves - it is the most common motivator to crowbar open an episode that's already been delivered to the general public...

SpongeBob SquarePants' season two episode "Procrastination" features a scene where SpongeBob fantasies about getting his driver's licence, at which point the scene abruptly cuts to a live-action clip of a drag car veering wildly off the track and crashing, before cutting back to SpongeBob as he continues to fantasise.

Following its initial 2001 broadcast, Nickelodeon received complaints from parents concerned about the unexpected flash of real world violence in a show made for children, prompting the network to edit out the short sequence for future broadcasts.

Thankfully though, the gag was retained in some DVD releases, and was more recently reinstated for both streaming and traditional TV airings.