Movies - TV
The Cowboy Bebop Episode That Was Pulled From American TV After 9/11
By ANYA STANLEY
Hajime Yatate/Sunrise's animated "Cowboy Bebop" series' first episode aired in America on September 2, 2001, on Cartoon Network, where it introduced a new crop of western viewers to anime in the early aughts. It stands as one of the most influential animes of all time for its 26-episode run from 2000-2001.
Just nine days after the show aired in North America, a terrorist attack brought down the Twin Towers of New York City's World Trade Center. In the "Cowboy Funk" session of "Bebop," a sinister, bearded figure in a watchman's uniform leaves a teddy bear at an observation deck in a two-pronged tower, and in the wake of 9/11, the imagery was deemed too disturbing.
Cartoon Network pulled the episode for a while and then began airing again just a year later. However, the episode was reaired with a bit of new, slightly unrelated censorship: Jet's hippie costume, shown during a masquerade ball sequence, which originally had a 420-friendly leaf on it, was digitally changed into a peace sign.