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Good Fight producers threatened to quit over censorship

An animated short in The Good Fight upset CBS, with Robert and Michelle King threatening to quit.

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Those animated song sequences that appear from nowhere in The Good Fight are one of its unique contributions to current drama.

But creators Robert and Michelle King threatened to quit the show when one got caught up in a censorship row.

CBS All Access baulked at airing an animated segment in Season 3’s eighth episode that took aim at, coincidentally, US companies that censor its content to appease the lucrative Chinese market.

A “CBS HAS CENSORED THIS CONTENT” image was shown for nearly 10 seconds in place of the animation, with CBS saying it was “the creative solution that we agreed upon.”

“[I was] very surprised and upset,” Michelle King  tells The New Yorker.

Robert King added, “Can I say parenthetically here, we’re not the bad kids at the table — we love all the people at the table, at CBS. This is an unusual circumstance.”

Seems the Kings were particularly perturbed that CBS raised its objection after the sequence had already been “fully written and animated, then vetted by legal and run through all the regular corporate oversight.”

“I mean, on the face, it’s so absurd: they censored a song about censorship,” the episode’s writer, Laura Marks, told the mag. “I know it should be funny, but it’s not.”

The Good Fight screens in Australia on SBS.

Source: TV Line

6 Responses

  1. I loved the Good wife and was excited for the Good fight. And although I feel it not quite as good, it was still hitting the mark.This current season is annoying me with both the cartoon segments…. which as Pertinax alludes to – come from another of their political satires – “Braindead”. However I feel this should be the smart scripted – modicum of humor – powerhouse I know it could be. Rather then the very one sided political vehicle it has become pushing the creators own political views. I’m sure their largest target audience would feel the same.
    Best lift their game before we all leave.

  2. The carton bits come from Braindead, which was a political satire/B grade SF show. The farce undermines The Good Fight as a serious legal and political drama though. I prefered the first 2 seasons.

    1. I’m rather surprised that anyone considers The Good Fight to be “a serious legal and political drama”. The program does to self-styled “progressives” in the US what Utopia does to the public service in Australia – excellent and biting satire.

  3. I loved the first 2 seasons of this show but now they have turned it into some post Ally McBeal disaster I find it unwatchable. The cartoons, the over the top performances, the whole show is a mess.

  4. I actually thought this was part of the script, making a point about censorship. The Good Fight is my favourite show at the moment. Absolutely scathing and very funny.

  5. I suppose this cartoon segment will remain censored outside the USA as well, where is President Trump on this matter he has much to say about China being a threat to the U.S. economy after all. I guess the need to keep CBS’s primary advertisers happy must have played a role here.

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