Most surprising / "edgy" thing you've ever seen on TV

Even eight years or so after it first aired, the X Files episode "Home" is probably the strangest thing I have seen on network television. I believe It aired only once until it finally appeared in syndication on FX. Does anyone else remember this episode? ...A sheriff named "Taylor", a deputy named "Fife", mom living under a bed on a gurney...something buried in the front yard during a rainstorm. I watched it with my then-girlfriend and neither of us could really believe what we were seeing.

 

1)Watching the second plane slam into the World Trade Tower on 9/11. One of the most shocking things I ever saw.

2)Watching cast member Charles Rocket say the word "F**k" on SNL in 1981.

Evan

 

I'll defer to your memory of it being on 5, since we probably watched the same D.C. broadcast. I'm pretty sure the language was left in; I seem to remember the station using bumpers warning about language and violence when returning from commercials. It was broadcast over two evenings, correct?

It was also the first real adult movie I watched. I remember being perplexed by the lengthy Greek Orthodox wedding and deer hunt, which established the character's identities and community, taking up most of the first evening's broadcast. Of course, this was the genius of the film, but at the time I was confused by the lack of narrative movement.

 

I thought those were out of the question .

 

Yup! I won't say I'm 100% sure it was ch.5, as it might have been 20, but I know it was syndicated, and I remain 99% positive it was 5. I'm also 99% sure nothing was changed - I think they'd alter full-frontal male nudity before they'd change the language. That was why it was syndicated - no network would touch it without cuts...

 

Not counting news or other similar shows, my nod would have to go to the NAMBLA episode of South Park. I was surprised that Comedy Central allowed Matt & Trey to get away with as much as they did. South Park is definitely over the edge of decency regularly, but this episode is so far beyond their normal rude schtick that I still find it difficult to believe that the episode has aired repeatedly.

 

And years later, watching Norm MacDonald accidentally say the same word during "Weekend Update".

The next week, when he stumbled over a couple of words, he paused, then exclaimed, "Oh, Drat!"

 

An acquaintence of mine on another forum says that thanks to that episode, his wife can no longer hear Johnny Mathis's "Wonderful! Wonderful!" without freaking out.

 

I remember one time, back in the early 80's, on the tv show That's Incredible, during the sign off at the end, Fran Tarkenton said something to John Davidson like "That's as incredible as a black kid in Atlanta knowing who his daddy is!"
As I recall, there was no outrage over the comment, but I know he said something like that because at Sunday dinner at my Grandma's house my uncle asked if anybody did anybody else hear what Fran said and he couldn't believe ABC put it on the air.

Also, remember "Battle of the Network Stars". Man, anytime they had a swimming contest or a dunking booth, that was as close as the networks came to nudity at that time. I still remember Daisy Duke and Wonder Woman wet from the dunking booth. YEAH BABY!

 

Yeah I saw it, right when I entered high school in '89 on the local ABC station here. It was run uncut. It was an eye-opener, and I wasn't even a trouble maker!

They ran an update a few years later which had a follow up on most of the people involved in the original series.

One of the independent stations here when they first came on in the early 80s used to run a week of John Belushi movies uncut and with limited commercial interuptions. I think I still have the Blues Brothers and Animal House on tape from that time.

 

Yep, that and "Scared Straight."

 

What season was that show in? Maybe I'll buy the box set that one is in (if some big money comes in).

 

I was living in Pennsylvania when that happened. It happened just before the noon hour, and Channel 6 Action News from Philadelphia had received the footage from their camera person on the scene. Dwyer, Pennsylvania's state treasurer, gave a rambling press conference after he'd just been convicted of bribery and several other offenses, and was facing a possible long jail term and definite removal from office. Well, the guy pulled a .357 Magnum out of an envelope, put it in his mouth and blew his brains out. Channel 6 ran it basically unexpurgated up until just before he pulled the trigger -- exactly once. I happened to be home watching at the time, with no awareness of what was about to happen.

After that one time, they showed an edited version of the footage, always stopping it as he was moving the gun toward his mouth.

Evidently, one TV station in Pittsburgh aired his press conference live.

The incident was the inspiration for Filter's hit song "Hey Man Nice Shot."

 

For prime time network television, I don't think anything has yet to top the first season of Twin Peaks . Some scenes from that show still shock and disturb me, like Laura Palmer's dad dancing and crying, the discovery of the second body in the train car, and just about all of the scenes with Bob. I can't believe ABC let David Lynch have such artistic freedom. It's still my favorite work he's ever done. I wish they'd developed Mulholland Drive into another series. As for the second season...

 

Hmm....the super bowl halftime show?

 

Even though I already said that the Oswald assassination and the second plane hitting the tower on 9/11 were the most shocking, I have to add that because those were live and real I wouldn't really call them 'edgy'.
I agree that the first season of Twin Peaks was strange and edgy, maybe the oddest TV debut since the first season of Mary Hartman Mary Hartman. And how about The Beatles on Ed Sullivan? Maybe not as surprising and edgy, but definitely a landmark broadcast. I didn't see it myself, but I hear Courtney outdid Janet on Letterman last week. Too bad I don't stay up late anymore.

 

Drew Barrymore jumped up on Letterman's desk, turned her back to the camera, and showed her stuff about five or six years ago (it was his birthday). Courtney gets and F for originality. Didn't National Geographic show bare breasted women? What's so shocking about Janet Jackson act?

 

The first opening episode to "THE SHIELD" FX's new show that just started it's 3rd season. Unreal what they don't do or say or show during each episode!

 

AHHH! But what about the "Tolerence" episode,with Mr.Hand,his "Love-Slave" and the hamster ,in an attempt to get fired for being gay & then be able to sue the school for discrimination....?
I couldn't believe they'd actually let that go.
Or the one where Mr.Garrison wanted his father to molest him to prove he loved him....

 

When channel 5 was WNEW, I remember they were showing "Friday The 13th" uncut. That was surprising, but very cool! I think "The Deer Hunter" was shown uncut on Channel 9 when it was just WWOR in Secaucus. The local networks always stepped in the danger zone back then.

Howard Stern's channel 9 show should definitely be on this list (not the lame CBS show). Stern is constantly bragging about how much he changed the face of radio, but I don't see it: it still is and always will be a wasteland. But his channel 9 show is still some of the most daring television I've ever seen--sophomoric, asinine, and stupid maybe, but very ballsy.

I still remember a sketch where Howard did a parody of the Johnny Carson show, with Al Rosenberg as Ed McMahon and Howard done up horribly as Johnny. They had the real-life Zsa Zsa Gabor as a guest on the couch, who probably had no idea what was coming. During the sketch, "Ed" was chuckling non-stop much like the real Ed (Heyooo), and "Johnny" kept saying things like, "Shut the f**k up, you f***ing fat piece of s**t!" The sparse bleeping made it all the more funny. Howard eventually got up, pulled down his pants and said, "Come here and kiss my @ss Ed!" Al Rosenberg said, "Yes, O Great One", and proceeded to stuff his nose in Howard's crack! When he pulled away, it looked like he had just stuffed his nose in a chocolate-layer cake!

Zsa Zsa's expression of genuine horror was priceless....

 

They did the same thing on channel 38 in Boston. Every commercial break, they ran the disclaimer about it being uncut and unedited and parental discretion was advised. It's funny by today's standards, but it was very bold back in the early Reagan '80s.

 

I tell you, there's some crazy stuff running on The Chappelle show on Comedy Central.

Just the other day, they were doing a Sesame St.-style skit with 7 year old kids talking about VD and the like. One of the kids asks a "muppet" character about something VD-related, and the puppet pulls down his pants to reveal some, um, "puppet-genitalia" complete with hair! Fairly edgy considering kids were there.