[ACTV]

I think it's fair to say there's NO way they could have put South Park on pre-watershed, any editing would just make it incomprehensible! About probably about 30 seconds long. At least Futurama and King Of The Hill can go out in daytime with comparatively minimal editing, both (like The Simpsons) are only PG and 12 rated on DVD. 15 and 18 rated South Park, no way!

Though admittedly I'm suprised Family Guy was ever seen as suitable for daytime screenings either, even if it's not anywhere near as crude as South Park.

Oh yes of course, South Park would be totally unsuitable for a daytime audience and if Channel 4 even tried they'd have probably ended up with a mouthful off the ITC or Ofcom unless it was slaughtered to pieces. It just seemed as if it was the only adult animation (pre-Simpsons) that Channel 4 seemed to genuinely value, as Futurama, King of The Hill and Family Guy never found any permanent or successful slot on C4 whilst South Park was very much a staple of the Friday night lineup.

[JasonB]

Talking about adult themes, when Channel 4 and E4 had the rights to Friends, the episode titled ‘The One With The Free Porn’ was only ever shown a handful of times and after the watershed. It was always omitted from the repeat runs. Luckily its plot wasn’t crucial to the arc of that season. I’m guessing it turns up on Comedy Central and Channel 5 fine?

In the Barbados episode where Joey and Rachel are laughing at Ross's speech. Joey laughs at the word erectus and Rachel laughs at the word homo. In a daytime viewing i saw once, Joey laughing first is cut and it cuts straight to Rachel laughing with Joey asking "erectus?" Rachel's reply is "homo!"

Also in a season 10 episode where Ross and Rachel come home with the wrong birthday cake, the word penis is badly covered up with laughter in both lines.

[Hybrid]

Though admittedly I'm suprised Family Guy was ever seen as suitable for daytime screenings either, even if it's not anywhere near as crude as South Park.

To be fair, the first 3 seasons were much more tame and wholesome than the post-revival episodes.

[ACTV]

There was a video detailing Channel 4 cuts to Family Guy, and oddly they chose to cut a joke out because it was about Tim Allen. Presumably this was due to Channel 4 at that point being the UK rightsholders for Home Improvement, but even in that context it is unusual. More so now with both shows being Disney properties.

[James2001]

Oh yes of course, South Park would be totally unsuitable for a daytime audience and if Channel 4 even tried they'd have probably ended up with a mouthful off the ITC or Ofcom unless it was slaughtered to pieces.

The really strange thing though is when I've been in the US and seen South Park shown in the daytime over there- and on broadcast TV, not just cable (presumably edited, but still... stuff left in you'd never see pre-watershed in the UK). Considering the amount of stuff you can't do on American broadcast TV, even late at night, that barely anyone would blink an eye at over here post-watershed, the fact they can show some things during daytime that we'd never get away with seems bizarre.

[Johnr]

I don't know if they still do (or even air it full stop now) but in recent years More4 randomly decided to bleep out 'Feck' on Father Ted!

[rick]

They showed some episodes at 8pm I think, which is why they beeped them, as it would get complaints from people thinking they said the stronger F word (which only ever happened in one Series 3 episode in reality). I imagine those pre-watershed edits may have been played post-watershed in error.

[VMPhil]

Talking about adult themes, when Channel 4 and E4 had the rights to Friends, the episode titled ‘The One With The Free Porn’ was only ever shown a handful of times and after the watershed. It was always omitted from the repeat runs. Luckily its plot wasn’t crucial to the arc of that season. I’m guessing it turns up on Comedy Central and Channel 5 fine?

I remember watching T4 shortly before C4 lost the rights to Friends. They used to trail the next programme before the break using a short clip taken from it. The next episode was "The One with the Cake", and the clip they used included Rachel saying the word "penis". But funnily enough, the actual programme had that bit crudely cut out!


youtu.be 

[James2001]

I remember watching T4 shortly before C4 lost the rights to Friends. They used to trail the next programme before the break using a short clip taken from it. The next episode was "The One with the Cake", and the clip they used included Rachel saying the word "penis". But funnily enough, the actual programme had that bit crudely cut out!

As I said, the same thing happened with the Trash or the Titans episode of The Simpsons.

Clearly T4 themselves were using uncut copies of the episodes to make those trailers rather than the edited broadcast copies.

[RyoG]

Regarding South Park, I do recall Sky editing Satan's song in the Mr Hankey Special so that the verse aboutand scenes showing Diana were gone, making the whole thing seem a bit disjointed as a result I believe a later episode also had a whole scene cut where she appeared as a background character. Sky also skipped a few episodes which Channel 4 had no problem showing uncut.

Archived site here detailing Sky's Family Guy cuts: web.archive.org 

[Xbollox 2003] Crikey.
14 captures 11 Feb 2003 - 18 Dec 2005 Feb JUL Oct 13 2002 2003 2004 success fail…
  Source: web.archive.org