There is a long, and some would say proud, tradition of popular shows that manage to offend viewers. In case of The Simpsons, for example, has managed to have episodes completely banned in multiple countries due to its supposedly insensitive treatment of certain cultures (although as creator Matt Groening once said in a BBC documentary, "It's just a TV show, it's a cute little cartoon"). Other times, pulling episodes off the air may be more justified. After the Columbine murders in 1999, for example, the WB made the controversial choice to on the shelf several Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes. which had a story about a school shooting (which turned out not really to be a school shooting story). While the choice to pull those episodes was heavily criticized at the time, you can at least understand the network's mentality.

More recently CBS Had To Pull 'Big Bang Theory' Scene In Syndication Because It's Aging Badly. Similarly, a certain scene from "The Office" was removed from future airings and releases of the episode due to what some saw as Michael Scott's highly inappropriate actions of Steve Carell.

"But Michael Scott is known for his inappropriateness," I hear you say. True, but NBC seems to have drawn the line at simulated suicide. That is, the network drew the line at one particular simulated suicide. In the third season, Michael already pretended to jump from the roof of his office to teach employees about safety. But in Season 6, he apparently took things too far by pulling a similar stunt in front of the kids.

The cold opens for "The Office" ranks among some of the funniest moments on the show, and have become almost as beloved as the series itself. From Michael, Dwight and Andy's foray into Parkour to the fire drill sequence opened one of the best and most chaotic episodes of The Office, pre-title sequences were responsible for some legendary moments in the show's nine seasons. A cold open that was sure to become just as legendary was never allowed to build such a legacy, having been pulled from the show after its first airing. Why? Because Michael pretended to take his own life in front of a group of kids.

The Season 6 episode, titled "Koi Pond", originally began with Dunder Mifflin staff organizing a haunted house event in their warehouse for local Scranton children. The sequence begins with Michael welcoming the children wearing a costume modeled after those worn by Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake in the classic Saturday Night Live digital short "D**k in a Box." You might think that wearing an outfit designed to entice an individual to open a gift box placed above their crotch in front of children would be enough to have some viewers up their sleeves, but Michael saved the real controversy for the final moments.

After promising to "scare these kids so bad," the Dunder Mifflin boss disappears as the kids are led around the warehouse by a disinterested Daryl (Craig Robinson). At the very end, as the children are promised candy, Michael reappears, this time hanging from the ridge of the warehouse with his neck in a noose. The image of a man curling up in a noose while carrying a gift box across his crotch while children scream at the sight, believe it or not, was just a little controversial. So controversial, in fact, that NBC basically scrubbed this entire chill from The Office history books.

After the haunted house cold open aired in 2009, it never saw an official release again — unless you count The Office's official YouTube channel briefly uploading and then removing the sequence after its initial airing. Not only has NBC pulled the plug on subsequent broadcasts and DVD releases, as early as 2021 Peacock began publishing "Superfan" episodes of "The Office". complete with missing and deleted scenes. But when the time came season 6 "Superfan" episodes of "The Office" to hit the streamer, the cold open haunted house was nowhere to be seen. It can still be found onlinehowever, it has appeared sporadically on various websites since it first aired.

So what was the problem? There never seems to have been an official explanation, but AV club claims to have spoken to a "former producer" who asked to remain anonymous. According to the mysterious producer, the decision to open the cold wasn't just a result of offending viewers. Apparently, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker's then-wife, Caryn Zucker, objected to the sequence because of her work in suicide prevention. The producer claims that Zucker pressured her husband to open the cold, causing the episode to be "cut and re-shipped, with the original HD-SR delivery masters collected back by NBC and thrown into deep storage."

Certain Office fans have since called for an official re-release of this lost scene. Redditors wondered why the cold was simmering in the vaults of NBC when the show featured "a lot of crazier stuff and a lot of crazier jokes." Others were grateful just to be reminded of the whole thing, with one user writing: "I knew I remembered this, but I thought I was just making it up in my head!" Elsewhere, multiple users claimed that, bizarrely, the scene lives on in the VUDU version of the episode, but no one will see that, so NBC can rest easy.