How Does 9-11 Affected 9/11

As the viewers continue on with watching their favorite shows, did they asked themselves how our favorite shows reacted? Producers, directors, writers, actors/actresses, and all of Hollywood needed to go back and create and recreate television and for our nation. As television networks continue to broadcast, viewers noticed major changes on television episodes that aired before the attacks and deleted scenes that involves bombs, explosions, and the Twin Towers shown on television. There are a few of TV examples that affected 9/11. HBO series The Sopranos (2000-2007) opening credits (see Fig. 1) was seen with the World Trade Center shown on the car mirror and was removed by reediting the opening. An episode of Spongebob Squarepants (1999-) Just

One Bite, had one scene footage deleted where Squidward attempts to steal and taste a Krabby Patty from the Patty Vault, but it was secured with a cheap security system that involves a bucket of gas and a match eventually burns him and explodes the front of the fast-food outlet (see fig.2). The TV network never explained why the scene was deleted, kids from that generation wouldn't understand what was going in the world. The
Fig. 2: “Just One Bite” episode aired on October 5, 2001
Source: YouTube/Nickelodeon most respectful thing was that the writers and the animators had to delete to respect the victims of the terrorist attacks. Another example involves an opening theme (see Fig.3) to Season One’s Pokemon (1998-) where a giant Pokemon, Tentacruel, destroyed the skyscraper. The scene was part of the banned episode, however it did not remove it from the opening. Lastly, on Friends (1994-2004)
Fig. 3: Opening to Pokemon Season 1
Source: YouTube season 8 episode, “The One Where Rachel Tells…”, shows an episode where Chandler and Monica could not aboard on the plane because Chandler made a joke about a bombing in an airport. Eventually, the scene was deleted after the attacks and the writers had to rewrite the script and reshoot the scene. The next episode of Friends later showed a tribute to the 9/11 victims at the end of the episode, even though the series was set in New York. Censorship is very important to the entertainment industry, according to Spigel, “At the most basic level, for television executives who were nervous about offending audiences, history was a solution to a programming dilemma”(241). Especially, being extra careful of referring to the 9/11 attacks will put the producers at risk of controversy.
Not only television made changes, but the film industry did had to reevaluate the films before and after the attacks.

The film industry had to postpone and/or cancel the film shooting in New York and took the time to rewrite the script. If the producers and directors are planning the set the movie in New York City, they need to be aware that “while they are filming in New York in the wake of the devastation…went to great lengths to avoid any references to the tragedy”(Harrison-Kahan). A large number of films set in New York had the Twin Towers in the background shot and it needed to be either digitally removed, delete the scene altogether, or leave it as it is; except for films that are set on a time period before 9/11 by digitally adding the Twin Towers. It is indeed hard for Hollywood to rethink and follow the guidelines to censorship and avoid offending the audiences who experience trauma over 9/11. Author Lori Harrison-Kahan writes, “In the aftermath of 9/11, Hollywood feared that its standard fare of murder and mayhem might alienate American [audiance], from those who directly witnessed, experienced, and lost loved ones in the attacks to those compelled to watch the towers fall over and over…”(42). So, audiences will fear that, for example, action movies will contain explosions and collapsed buidings. It is best for people who experience lost and witnessing the attack to avoid certain genres that will cause them

trauma.