9 ‘The Simpsons’ Episodes Dropped From Broadcast

Dan Clarendon March 29, 2025, 1:00 pm

Fans of The Simpsons have a new way to enjoy Fox’s hit animated series: Disney+ recently added a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week livestream of Simpsons episodes to its offerings.

In an announcement about the livestream, Disney says it’ll stream 767 episodes from Season 1 to Season 35 in chronological order at launch, totaling nearly 300 continuous hours of TV.

The Simpsons had aired 768 episodes by the end of Season 35, however, meaning one episode isn’t included in the livestream, and we have a hunch it’s Season 3’s “Stark Raving Dad.” Read on to read more about that installment and others dropped from broadcast, either in the United States or other countries.

“Stark Raving Dad”

The Simpsons’ executive producers removed Season 3’s “Stark Raving Dad” from circulation in 2019 due to the involvement of Michael Jackson, who voiced a character who believed himself to be Michael Jackson in the episode.

James L. Brooks told The Wall Street Journal he and Matt Groening and Al Jean came to the conclusion after watching the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland. “It feels clearly the only choice to make,” Brooks said. “The guys I work with — where we spend our lives arguing over jokes — were of one mind on this.”

“Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo”

Season 10’s “Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo” never made it to air in Japan and is not available on the country’s Disney+ platform, according to SlashFilm. The issue, according to the DVD commentary, is a scene in which Homer (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) roughs up Akihito, who was emperor of Japan at the time.

“One Angry Lisa”

Disney+ subscribers in Hong Kong can’t watch the Season 34 episode “One Angry Lisa,” an episode critical of the mainland Chinese government, according to Variety.

During a virtual tour of China in the episode, an exercise bike instructor extolls the “wonders of China” and lists them as “bitcoin mines [and] forced labor camps where children make smartphones.”

“Goo Goo Gai Pan”

Another episode not available on Hong Kong’s Disney+ service is Season 16’s “Goo Goo Gai Pan,” according to CBR.

In that episode, an adoption agent in China confronts Marge’s sister Selma (Julie Kavner) in a tank, and Selma stands her ground, recreating the famous “Tank Man” photo from the student-led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The episode also features a plaque reading, “Tien An Men Square: On this site, in 1989, nothing happened.” Discussions of the Tiananmen demonstrations and the ensuing government crackdown remain censored in China, according to Amnesty International.

“The Cartridge Family”

Initially, U.K. audiences didn’t see Season 9’s “The Cartridge Family,” an episode in which Homer buys a gun amid riots in Springfield, and Marge (Kavner) throws it out before thinking twice. British TV network Sky1 pulled the episode from broadcast, and it and other controversial episodes were relegated to a home video release titled The Simpsons: Too Hot for TV, according to CBR.

The episode later aired on British TV, albeit with an altered ending that doesn’t show Marge plucking the firearm from the trash, CBR adds.

“E Pluribus Wiggum”

Fox decided not to air the Season 19 episode “E Pluribus Wiggum” in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America due to criticism of former Argentina president Juan Perón.

In that episode, Homer’s colleague Carl (Hank Azaria) calls Perón a dictator and says, “When he disappeared you, you stayed disappeared.”

“Given the possibility that the episode could contribute to reopening very painful wounds for Argentina, Fox has made the decision not to air it,” Fox told the media in 2008, per an English-language translation of a report from the Brazilian newspaper Estadão.

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“The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson”

In Season 9’s “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson,” the Simpson family travels to New York City to rescue their car, which Homer’s friend Barney (Castellaneta) had abandoned outside the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Following the destruction of the towers in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many Fox affiliates removed the episode from syndication or reduced the airplay, according to Vulture. When the episode was rerun, one line of dialogue had been edited out: a line in which a World Trade Center worker from Tower 2 says, “They stick all the jerks in Tower 1.”

“Marge Gets a Job” and “On a Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister”

In 2011, the Austrian network ORF dropped Season 4’s “Marge Gets a Job” and Season 16’s “On a Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister” — which included jokes about radiation poisoning and nuclear meltdowns, respectively — amid Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident.

“We have 480 episodes, and if there are a few that they don’t want to air for a while in light of the terrible thing going on, I completely understand that,” Jean said at the time, bringing up the aforementioned World Trade Center scenes in Season 9, per Entertainment Weekly. “We would never make light of what’s happening in Japan.”