British sitcom so offensive it was banned after one episode
A British sitcom was deemed so offensive, it was taken off air after just the first episode.
Heil Honey I'm Home was a 1999 comedy series about Adolf Hitler, played by Neil McCaul, and his wife Eva Braun, played by Denica Fairman.
The parody show was set in 1938 Berlin and all the characters had fake American accents in attempts to poke fun at 1950s US sitcoms.
In the series, Hitler happens to live next door to a Jewish couple, the Goldensteins, in which he has a lingering - and very uncomfortable - dislike towards as the episode goes on.
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The show has been branded as 'perhaps the world's most tasteless situation comedy', and despite having filmed and produced eight episodes, it was taken off the air after the first showing.
A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said of the series: "We are against any trivialisation of the Second World War, Hitler or the Holocaust and this certainly trivialises those things. It’s very distasteful."
British TV writer Geoff Atkinson has since claimed he didn't intend on offending viewers.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2017, he said: “One was to laugh at bullies. It seems like the right thing to do; as we speak, somebody’s probably writing a Trump sitcom.
"I would love to write a Trump sitcom. Another goal was looking at the sitcom genre. This show was staged like it was the 1950s.
"We had to ape the American sitcom brilliantly — be American and not be American.
“Everyone was aware of the sensitivities; the last thing we wanted was to offend. At the time, the channel wanted something fresh, and there was a sense of 'as long as it’s original and something you can defend it, you should say it.'
"I don’t think we entirely delivered. There’s an awful lot I’d do differently.”
Caroline Gruber, the actor who played Jewish character Rosa Goldenstein, also told BBC Culture that she thought the script was 'funny'.
She said: "Because of this experience, I was sensitive about doing anything that was offensive or upsetting.
"I didn’t think Heil Honey was either – I thought it was so funny. When I was reading through the scripts for the other episodes that Geoff had written.
"I couldn’t get through them, I had tears pouring down my cheeks. I was of the opinion – and still am now – that within reason, people should take risks. If it’s funny, if it works, it’s OK."
Topics: TV and Film, World War 2
Anish Vij