10/23/92 - The Final Appeal: From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries episode of Thomas Drake was scheduled for this date, but it might have never aired. It was preempted on the East Coast by a Ross Perot infomercial. Unless it aired locally in some areas, the first time it was shown was as part of the Dennis Farina version.

04/27/94 - This episode was joined in progress about 30 minutes in after NBC's coverage of Richard Nixon's funeral ended. The Roxanne Jeeves segment was left out of the East Coast version. It aired in its entirety West Coast.

09/24/94 - The Season 7 premiere was joined in progress after NBC's coverage of the NFL ended. It aired as scheduled on the West Coast.

There were a few local preemptions.

According to a post (http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showpost.php?p=4458638&postcount=18) by Rohrey Wychgel, his episode (10/27/93) was preempted locally due to the Laguna Beach Firestorm news coverage. It re-aired on 12/29/93.

According to a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKVvio6IFt4&t=493s) on Stuart Heaton's YouTube channel, his episode (12/16/94) was preempted in the Vandalia/Ramsey, IL area and replaced with a local cooking show.

Does anybody have any other examples? I'm sure there were some broadcasts which were preempted or joined in progress due to local weather coverage or other events (such as live sports), but I wonder if any happened because of controversial reasons.

10/23/92 - The Final Appeal: From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries episode of Thomas Drake was scheduled for this date, but it might have never aired. It was preempted on the East Coast by a Ross Perot infomercial. Unless it aired locally in some areas, the first time it was shown was as part of the Dennis Farina version.

"Who is Ross Perot?" -- Everyone under 30 :lol:

"Who is Ross Perot?" -- Everyone under 30 :lol:

Great SNL during those days. Dana Carvey as Perot, and Phil Hartman as Stockdale ("GRIDLOCK!!")

"Can ahh finish, can ahh finish, CAAAN AHHH FINISH?" :-)

10/23/92 - The Final Appeal: From the Files of Unsolved Mysteries episode of Thomas Drake was scheduled for this date, but it might have never aired. It was preempted on the East Coast by a Ross Perot infomercial. Unless it aired locally in some areas, the first time it was shown was as part of the Dennis Farina version.

Here is some more detail about this one.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19921106&id=Ua9NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T_wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5188,4168294&hl=en

I actually looked in our local (Palm Beach County, Florida) TV Guide in the archives at newspapers.com for that week. Surprisingly, Final Appeal was scheduled to air that night according to our TV Guide and the description reflected the details of the Drake case. I would be very curious to know what other parts of the country got that night. Although the article above almost has a certain finality about it that makes it seem like the story didn't air anywhere.

The article also implies that other cases slated for Final Appeal (the series) would be transplanted in to UM episodes. I strongly believe that is why season 5 has an abundance of Final Appeal segments compared to other seasons. They were likely held over from FA the series.

As a sidenote, I remember being in elementary school during this election. Perot's slogan was "Ross for Boss." At the time, they were trying to teach us about voting and so our school had its own vote in which the entire student body participated. Ross Perot won by a landslide. Not sure what that says. But yeah...

It's too bad they didn't air this episode even though the appellate history, which details the case much more in depth than the whitewashed UM segment, leaves almost no doubt that Drake was guilty of trying to murder his wife.

I guess they decided the American public needed to hear more reasons that we should have "Ross for Boss" instead of Drake's tired insistence that it was not he who beat his wife nearly to death with a claw hammer.