7/14/24 Why Did MeTV Skip Season 2 Episode 8

[CosmicCharlie]

Call Agonized Labor ?

S2 S8
A Howell Industries stock collapse leaves the Howells broke. The fellow castaways try to cheer them up and try to teach them how to live like the working class.

[cloggedmind]

Things are all automated but master control operator has to manually program the content delivery system, usually 2 weeks ahead of time (we did at the station I was at. Had to ingest syndicated content in real time via satellite half the time and cut color bars/slates, use a standardized file naming system, calculate all runtimes and being a single barter station, make sure the traffic was in order).

Back in the 90's and 00's, stations like TVLand and such would skip episodes and swap program times on the fly so bootleggers would have a hard time getting a complete series to sell.

[Duster76]

Originally Posted by CosmicCharlie

Call Agonized Labor ?

S2 S8
A Howell Industries stock collapse leaves the Howells broke. The fellow castaways try to cheer them up and try to teach them how to live like the working class.

The reason the episode was skipped may relate to the episode content, here is the description from Wikipedia:

"Late at night Gilligan and Skipper hear on the radio that Howell Industries has collapsed and the Howell's are broke. The next morning, Skipper and Gilligan have a hard time giving the Howell's the news. The Howell's are finally told they're poor. Lovey finds a suicide note and that Thurston is gone. Everyone begins to search for him. Howell is wandering around the island trying to find a painless way to end it all. Gilligan sees him by a cliff. While trying to stop Howell from jumping, Gilligan falls off the edge and grabs a plant limb. Skipper and Gilligan eventually bring Howell back. Professor suggests they try to train the Howell's for other lines of work for after they are rescued. No matter what they try, things do not go well. Mary Ann finds a note that says the Howell's plan to jump off a cliff. In the end, they hear on the radio that it was Powell Industries that collapsed, and the Howell's wealth is still intact".

The suicide storyline may now be considered inappropriate for a comedy series. The network may have let the episode air if the series was programmed after 9pm (who knows). The other night I was watching an episode of Green Acres and something Lisa said was censored.

[icecream]

All MeTV needed to do if that was the case is put a viewer discretion label at the start saying this episode depicted suicidal thoughts and won't be for everyone.

[opus]

In all the years ME has run Gilligan they've never shown this one, or just somehow skipped it yesterday but usually run it?

[CosmicCharlie]

I Have it on my Comcast DVR - Agonized Labor S2 S8

from Sundance HD this year