Top 10 Surprising TV Shows Banned in Other Countries

Malaysia wasn’t the only country to ban this show, but it sure has the most interesting reason. We could have picked New Zealand, where later iterations the show were filmed. The island nation temporarily banned Power Rangers when parents complained about the show’s level of violence. Instead, however, we opted for a ban with a less expected reason. Turns out the Government of Malaysia had a problem with the show’s title, or more specifically, the word Morphin. They felt it was too similar to the name of the drug morphine. In December 1995, the famously anti-drug nation banned the show until producers removed the offending word from its title, which they eventually did.

In the late 2010s, “Andi Mack” made Disney Channel history by having Cyrus Goodman, a central character, come out as gay. The big reveal occurred in the show’s second season, and the ratings went up pretty much across the board. The move also got the series praise from various groups such as GLAAD. The Government of Kenya, though, wasn’t singing Disney’s praises. Instead they banned the show from airing in the country, specifically because of the gay storyline. According to Kenya Film Classification Board’s chief executive Ezekial Mutua: “any attempt to introduce gay programming in Kenya will be met with the full force of the law.”

Now this one’s a bit different. Yes, this popular prime time soap opera and spin-off of “Dallas” was “banned” in South Africa. But it wasn’t due to government censorship. Instead, it was withdrawn in response to that government’s conduct. Confused? We’ll elaborate. Lorimar Television, which produced “Knots Landing” and distributed it worldwide, decided to join in the cultural boycott of Aparthied South Africa in the 1980s. This boycott saw international music acts refuse to play in the country and the Oscars not air there. Lorimar, for its part, refused to distribute “Knots Landing” and other popular shows like “Falcon Crest” to TV stations in South Africa until apartheid ended.

When a country bans a TV show, it’s usually the result of local values or politics. Every once in a while, though, there’s seemingly no reason whatsoever to justify the move - at least not one provided by the powers that be. In 2014, China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television decided to ban popular sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” (along with a few other American shows) from both television and streaming platforms in the country. They reversed the decision a year later, leading some to speculate that the move was simply to give Chinese-made content a financial leg up. To date, no official justification has been given beyond unspecified “policy reasons”.

In some countries, religious humor just doesn't fly — even when it's part of a flying circus. Censors in Malaysia banned the seminal BBC comedy show “Monty Python's Flying Circus” from the country's airwaves when it premiered in 1969. They objected to the show repeatedly poking fun at religion as well as its darker comedic elements. This ban extended to the troupe's films, including “Life of Brian”, which is full of religious comedy, and “The Holy Grail,”which (despite the name) actually doesn’t focus much on religion. In recent years, Malaysia has relaxed a bit; the Python films are no longer on the banned list and people in the country can order their series online.

It's not hard to guess which Sacha Baron Cohen character got “Da Ali G Show” banned in Kazakhstan. It's not the titular Ali G or Bruno, but rather Borat, Cohen's over-the-top, satirical Kazakhstani man. Some in the country (including certain members of the Kazakhstan media), got the humor and the fact that the United States was the real butt of the joke. Others, however, most definitely did not. The government even blocked Cohen's website after the character appeared. The ban was lifted by the time the Borat movie was released, but the debate surrounding the character persists.

“M*A*S*H” was a huge success around the world, but not in the country where it was set. In the decades following the end of the Korean War, the government of South Korea was very interested in rehabilitating the country’s image. A comedy show depicting the country as impoverished and its people as dependent on the American military was clearly not what the government had in mind. So they banned it! When the actual Mobile Army Surgical Hospital that the show was based on closed in 1997, cast members from the show were in attendance. Proving that the backlash went beyond the government, local reporters took the opportunity to ask the stars about the show’s negative portrayal of Koreans.

A show focused on the sex lives of single women living in New York was too steamy for censors in Singapore, at least originally. The government banned the show when it premiered in the late ‘90s on HBO in the United States and pretty much everywhere else in the world. Then, in 2004, they relented and changed the Subscription TV Program Code to allow the show to air in the country - with certain scenes removed, that is. In an appropriate and cheeky bit of advertising, HBO Asia plugged the delayed release with the tagline “Love is always worth the wait.”

We kind of take it for granted that the Simpsons family members aren’t supposed to be role models. But apparently, not everyone feels that way, at least according to Venezuela’s TV regulator. In 2008, Venezuela banned the long-running show for being “inappropriate” and disseminating “messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents”. It was replaced by the more-suitable for children … “Baywatch”? Venezuela isn’t actually the only country to take aim at the show. It was also banned from prime-time television in China to help Chinese animation studios, and almost fell to pressure from Pentecostal churches in Russia.

Iran didn’t just ban “Modern Family” from airing in the country, they developed their own version of it. “Half Sang” is an Iranian-produced unauthorized knockoff of the popular American sitcom that mirrors the original quite closely; at times, it even looks like a shot for shot remake. That is, of course, without the show’s gay couple Mitchell and Cam. Instead they created a straight couple. This is, of course, due to the Iranian Government’s harsh views on homosexuality. “Half Sang” also changed Hailey’s gender because Iranian TV doesn’t allow for the friendship between boys and girls. While “Modern Family” ran for eleven seasons outside of Iran, “Half Sang” only ran for one in 2014.