NBC has pulled next week's episode of the freshman drama Hannibal over concerns about a particularly violent storyline. The news comes on the heels of several other TV series, most notably ABC's Castle, choosing to push episodes in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing.
Hannibal's episode in question, the fourth in the series, includes such disturbing content as a character played Molly Shannon persuading children to kill other children. The decision to shelve the episode originally was suggested by series creator Bryan Fuller. And while the episode still will run overseas, there are no plans for a stateside bow. A network rep confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that Hannibal will now wrap its first season one week earlier -- on June 20 instead of June 27.
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Earlier in the week, ABC announced the decision push back the April 22 episode of Castle for similar reasons. The episode focuses on Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) triggering a pressure-sensitive bomb and spending the hour trying not to detonate it. The episode currently is planned for April 29, though it could be pushed back further.
Castle caused a stir elsewhere Thursday night, when TNT aired a syndicated episode of the series that featured another bomb storyline. The cable network has since apologized.
Repeats have caused problems elsewhere as well. A February episode of Family Guy featuring references to bombs and running over participants in the Boston Marathon has been pulled from the web. Fox also chose not to air a repeat of New Girl that had its characters suspecting one of Jess' (Zooey Deschanel) students of a murderous plot.
