List of audiovisual entertainment affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks
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The September 11, 2001 attacks had an important impact on the audiovisual entertainment business, not just in terms of television coverage.
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[edit] Television coverage
Television coverage of the attacks was the longest uninterrupted news event in the history of U.S. television. The three major U.S. networks were on the air for days with uninterrupted coverage from the moment news first came that the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Millions of shocked television viewers watching live pictures of the World Trade Center saw the second plane hit and both buildings come down. In order to keep up with the constant flood of information, CNN, which was the first network to break the news of the attacks, began running continuous updates in the form of a news ticker that crawled along the bottom of the screen. This was so well received by viewers that it became a permanent feature on CNN and was adopted by most other news channels.
During 9/11 itself, and in the days following, news broadcasters scrambled to report accurate information. Occasionally erroneous information was broadcast. An examination of CNN's coverage of 9/11 (which was replayed online, virtually in its entirety, on the fifth anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2006) reveals that following the attack on the Pentagon, CNN also reported a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall and that a car bomb had exploded in front of one of the major government buildings in Washington. It also broadcast an interview with a witness to the Pentagon attack who said it was a helicopter that hit the building, not a plane.
For the first time since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the television networks announced that there would be no commercials or entertainment programs for an indefinite time several hours after the attacks, because of the feelings of a shocked nation. It was also felt that it was not a time for "fun and entertainment" when so much death and destruction was being seen live on television. Various cable networks that were co-owned by main networks or cable news channels would simulcast that particular news divisions coverage (for example, TBS Superstation simulcasted CNN, various networks owned by Viacom simulcasted coverage from CBS News), as was the case with ABC News airing on networks such as ESPN. The FOX Network had coverage provided by FOX News Channel.
The television coverage of the attacks had far traumatic effects on children. When asked for her thoughts on the attacks, First Lady Laura Bush responded with a very strong warning to parents: don't let your children see the pictures over and over, especially your young children, but even elementary school-aged children shouldn't be watching it all the time. She felt it was too frightening for them and warned that parents turn off the television so that children do not see the replays over and over again. [1] (RealVideo) She gave the very strong warning based on how children reacted to the bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995.
The transmitter facilities of WPIX as well as six other New York City television stations and several radio stations were destroyed as the WTC collapsed. WPIX's satellite feed froze on the last image received from the WTC mast; the image remained on the screen for much of the day, broadcasting continent-wide, until WPIX was able to set up alternate transmission facilities.
[edit] Movies
Numerous movies were cancelled that were in production, and many movies were edited. The most common way of editing was to delete or obscure shots of the World Trade Center. There were various reasons given for the alterations, including keeping material up-to-date, as a gesture of respect for those who died, and to avoid trauma for those emotionally affected by the attack. There are also many movies which notably did not edit their films.
In all, roughly 45 films were edited or postponed because of the 9/11 attacks. [2]
[edit] Edited/Delayed movies
- Trailers for the movie Spider-Man were edited so a scene (not in the movie) showing Spider Man capturing a helicopter between the towers was deleted. In the actual movie, a shot of the World Trade Center was deleted. The scene of Spider-Man hanging onto a flagpole with a large American Flag, seen in later trailers and at the end of the film, was added in response to the attacks.
- In the movie Zoolander, the WTC was digitally deleted.
- The release of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Collateral Damage was postponed for four months. The movie featured a terrorist bombing in front of an L.A. building.
- The film Big Trouble was postponed because it involved a nuclear bomb being smuggled on board an aircraft.
- A picture of the WTC on the poster for Sidewalks of New York was removed.
- Shots of the WTC in Serendipity were digitally removed.
- The 2002 film Men in Black II featured a climax that included the World Trade Center. The building was changed to the Statue of Liberty.
- The 2002 version of The Time Machine was held back because of a scene where a meteor shower destroys New York.
- Shots of the WTC in Kissing Jessica Stein were removed before its release.
- The ending to the 2002 animated movie Lilo and Stitch was edited from Stitch taking a 747 on a joyride and swerving around buildings, to Stitch taking a spaceship on a joyride and swerving around mountains. The original ending was included on the Masterpiece/Special edition DVD.
- The action/psychological thriller The Bourne Identity had to be greatly edited due to the involvement of terrorism in the storyline. On the special edition DVD are descriptions of how and why the movie was changed.
- The Sum of All Fears was delayed because, in the film, a nuclear bomb is detonated on US soil.
- In the movie Spy Game, the level of smoke shown following a bombing was reduced because of its similarity to the smoking WTC wreckage.
- Early versions of The Incredibles featured a scene where a frustrated Mr. Incredible vents his emotions on an abandoned building, but ends up accidentally damaging a neighboring building as well. This was considered too reminiscent of the World Trade Center collapse, and was replaced with a scene where Mr. Incredible and Frozone rescue trapped civilians from a burning building.
[edit] Non-altered movies
Some movies kept scenes of the World Trade Center in them.
- In Vanilla Sky, producers wanted director Cameron Crowe to remove shots of the WTC. He did not, and they remain in the movie.
- The movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, despite prominently featuring a badly damaged World Trade Center (albeit half submerged in water), was not edited in its video release.
- The ending of Gangs of New York, which shows the Twin Towers, was not removed.
[edit] Cancelled movies
- A Jackie Chan movie called Nosebleed, about a window washer on the WTC who foils a terrorist plot, was cancelled. [3]
- A television miniseries announced for the 2001-02 season that would have united the casts of Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and the new Law & Order: Criminal Intent in investigating a terrorist attack on New York City, was cancelled immediately after the attacks.
- A proprosed script for True Lies 2, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, was scrapped as it too closely resembled the WTC attacks. [4]
[edit] WTC added
Some filmmakers have added the World Trade Center to films based before the attacks.
- The 2004 film Miracle, set in 1980, has a digital World Trade Center on the New York skyline.
- The 2005 film Munich, set in 1973, features a computer-generated World Trade Center.
- World Trade Center (2006) takes place on the day of the attacks.
[edit] Television
The most immediate impact to television was the loss of David Angell, a co-creator and co-executive producer from the NBC show Frasier, who was among the passengers on American Airlines Flight 11. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who had booked a seat on that flight, arrived late and was not allowed to board.[5]
In the United States, the start of the 2001-2002 television season was put on hold due to the extensive news coverage, with mid-September premieres delayed until later in the month. Late night talk shows such as The Tonight Show and Late Show with David Letterman were also off the air. Even after regular programming resumed, several talk shows remained off the air for several more days as writers and hosts determined how best to approach the sensitive situation. David Letterman was quoted on CNN as questioning whether he would even continue hosting his show. Ultimately, Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and other talk show hosts based in New York and Los Angeles returned to the airwaves with emotional initial broadcasts, with Letterman breaking network language guidelines by asking his audience how the attacks "made any goddamn sense."
Several TV series, most notably The West Wing and Third Watch, produced special episodes addressing the attacks. Law & Order began its fall season premiere with a tribute to the victims. Shows such as JAG and New York-based Third Watch made major changes to their ongoing storylines in order to incorporate the event's aftermath.
Controversial comments regarding the attacks on Politically Incorrect were directly responsible for that show's cancellation in 2002.
At least two entertainment-related award shows were delayed:
- The 53rd Annual Prime Time Emmy Awards, scheduled for September 16, 2001, were delayed to October 7. However, the U.S. began to bomb Afghanistan on October 7, and the Emmies were again postponed. They finally aired on November 4.
- The 2nd annual Latin Grammy Awards, scheduled for September 11, never aired. The awards were presented in an October 30, 2001 press conference.
Other changes prompted by the events of 9/11 include:
- On The Agency, the pilot episode about terrorism was replaced with the fifth episode.
- The "Road to Rhode Island" episode of Family Guy originally featured a scene where Stewie Griffin does a song and dance in order to distract airport security from finding weapons in his bag. Osama bin Laden is seen doing the same thing. This scene was edited out of a 2002 FOX rerun, as well as the original Volume 1 DVD release, though it was included in a 2004 release.
- On the TV series Friends, in episode 8x03 ("The One Where Rachel Tells..."), Chandler and Monica couldn't get on their flight for their honeymoon because Chandler joked about bombing in the airport. After the attacks, the story was rewritten and re-shot.
- In Japan, the premiere of the anime series Full Metal Panic! was delayed due to a terrorist plane hijacking being an integral part of the first major plot arc.
- The producers of the show Futurama changed the show's opening by leaving out the part in which the Planet Express rocket crashes into a giant TV screen. A few months later the scene was put back into the show's opening, except on the East Coast, where the edited opening sequence was kept until early April 2002.
- The cartoon Invader Zim had a scene of the destruction of New York City in the episode "Door to Door," which was replaced with an alternate scene depicting monsters rampaging around the series' normal suburban setting.
- An episode of the game show Jeopardy! which aired in November 2001 featured footage of The Pentagon; at the next regularly scheduled break, host Alex Trebek explained to viewers the episode had been filmed prior to September 11. Jeopardy! champion Kevin Laude's one win, slated to air September 11, never aired in its run, and only ran on GSN for the first time in June 2005.
- The opening credits of the new series Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which debuted on Sept. 30, were re-edited to remove an image of the World Trade Center.
- Before 9/11, the syndicated version of the Married... with Children episode "Get Outta Dodge" [6] featured a scene of two Arabs with a ticking bomb at the front door of Al Bundy's house offering to buy his Dodge for $40 and asking for directions to the Sears Tower. The scene was cut from the syndicated re-airings of the episode after 9/11.
- An episode of Neighbours due to be shown that week, was edited because it featured a scene of a carjacking.
- The opening credits of Sex and the City episodes that aired after 9/11 were modified. Two shots of the World Trade Center were replaced: the skyline shot behind the show's title was replaced with an image from a different perspective, and the shot behind Sarah Jessica Parker's name in the credits was replaced with one of the Empire State Building. According to DVD commentary by Michael Patrick King, the first episode using this edited credit sequence, "The Good Fight," also had a scene of the World Trade Center digitally removed before broadcast; the affected scene was of characters played by Kim Cattrall and James Remar dancing in their bathrobes besides an outdoor pool.
- An episode of The Simpsons entitled '"The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," which was partially set at the World Trade Center, was pulled from syndication by some carriers, though many are now showing it again.[7] Some individual carriers have removed World Trade Center scenes on their own, while the distributor of The Simpsons still releases the episode in full for syndication.
- In the title sequence of The Sopranos, an image of the World Trade Center towers could be seen in Tony Soprano's rear view mirror. Just prior to the start of the fourth season in September 2002, producer David Chase removed this cut altogether.
- SpongeBob SquarePants received higher ratings than usual after the attacks[citation needed]. Most of the people said that "The show was the only healing process for children and many adults"[citation needed] who were emotionally affected by the attacks. Also a scene from the episode called "Just One Bite" was edited, because it features a lit match and a bucket of gas being in contact, causing The Krusty Krab to explode and burn.
- Several episodes of Transformers: Robots in Disguise were edited or removed from the air. Three episodes were never aired in the United States, as they featured buildings being destroyed (indeed, the primary plot point of one episode was evacuating humans from a collapsing building). Others were edited to remove explosions in buildings or references to terrorism.
- The pilot for the first season of 24 was postponed from October to November. A scene of a plane blowing up was removed.
- An episode of WWF SmackDown! due to be taped on 9/11 in Houston, Texas was instead broadcast live on September 13. The show began with an introduction by Vince McMahon who dedicated the show to the memories of those who died and was followed by the full roster coming out for the national anthem. Throughout the show various wrestlers talked about the events two days before.
- In the week following the attacks, ESPN's SportsCenter did continue to air at its normal times (as it has every day since its inception in 1979), after ESPN finished showing ABC News coverage. However, as all major sports events that week were cancelled or postponed, the show was reformatted to focus on news regarding the attacks, their aftermath, and their effects on sports and athletes.
- Officials at The Price Is Right added a series of prime-time episodes in 2002, the first of which aired before the 2002 Daytime Emmy Awards, commemorating a different branch of the Armed Forces, and concluding with a Police and Firefighters special, with the NYPD and FDNY represented among other public safety officers on the episode. These prime-time specials led to the 2003 Million Dollar Spectacular series.
Some television productions contained references that were noted retroactively:
- The pilot episode of the US series The Lone Gunmen depicted a plan by terrorists to fly a hijacked airplane into the World Trade Center. The episode aired in the United States on March 4, 2001 and it aired in Australia less than two weeks before the 9/11 attacks, on August 30.
- In Murder in Small Town X, Angel L. Juarbe, Jr., the overall winner of the game was awarded his prize a few weeks before 9/11; he was a New York City firefighter who perished on Sept. 11 while on duty.
[edit] Theme parks
- The Walt Disney World attraction The Timekeeper, a 360-degree film presentation that features a panoramic view of New York City, including the Twin Towers, closed on September 11, 2001 and updated the scene of New York City without the Twin Towers or the WTC site (a digitally-created fictitious large park is in its place). The film later closed.
[edit] Video games
- The video game Grand Theft Auto III, released on October 2001, was rumored to allow players to hijack commercial planes at the airport. However, since the game was set in a city loosely based on New York City, developers considered it inappropriate and removed this aspect from the final version. Additionally, the paint scheme of the city's police cars was also changed from a blue-and-white NYPD design [8] to a black-and-white LAPD design [9] during game development.
- The video game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was released as scheduled in November 2001 despite the plot centering around terrorists in New York City and a scene in which a giant battleship crashes into Federal Hall; however, a scene in which Arsenal Gear, a futuristic mobile fortress, destroys the Statue of Liberty and half of Manhattan was removed, as was live-action footage of the Twin Towers originally slated to be used in the ending.
- Microsoft removed the World Trade Center from Microsoft Flight Simulator beginning with the 2002 edition. Also, Microsoft removed Crash Damage from the games. That meant that when a plane crashed, it did not catch alight.
- The 2000 computer game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, depicting an alternate history where the Soviet Union launches an invasion of the United States, changed its box art after the attacks. The original art was a fold-out cover. The inside depicted the New York skyline on fire including a ruined Twin Towers with flames and smoke emitting out. The cover depicted a Soviet soldier who was wearing an eyepiece with crosshairs on the American flag. The altered cover merely depicted the Soviet soldier wearing the eyepiece with crosshairs on a nuclear bomb explosion. The release of its 2001 expansion pack, Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge, was postponed because of this. Controversial in-game levels, inluding ones where you had to destroy the Pentagon and attack the World Trade Center area, were not changed, however the landmarks and level names like "Operation: Big Apple" were no longer mentioned in walkthroughs on the game's website.
- The Sega Dreamcast game Propeller Arena was cancelled. It was an air combat game which featured modern-day dog fighting with planes in cities that had skyscraper buildings. A leaked and incomplete version has since made it to the Internet. [10]
- The PlayStation 2 game Shinobi originally had a scene in which the main character jumps out of a helicopter and sticks his sword into the side of a skyscraper to slow his fall. When this character hit the ground, the building was supposed to shatter. The scene was removed.
- The PlayStation game Syphon Filter 3 had its cover art changed before release. It originally had Gabe Logan, viewed from an angle, pointing a gun at the camera with a look of anger while Lian swung into frame guns ablazing. The American flag was prominently displayed as well. It was changed to a generic head-view of Gabe and Lian looking serious. Interestingly enough, a level in the game that takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan (albeit in the 1980s when it was under Soviet occupation) remained.
- The PlayStation game Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro had its final level changed. Originally it was a showdown between Spider-Man and Electro atop the World Trade Center. This was changed to the top of another generic skyscraper. The New York City skyline was also obscured by a storm so that the World Trade Center was not visible.
[edit] Recorded music
- Slayer's album God Hates Us All was incidentally released on September 11, 2001. In a foreboding fashion, it contained lyrics such as "terrorist, pacifist targeting the next mark." To market the album, faux concert tickets were distributed stating, "Slayer, God Hates Us All, September 11, 2001."
- Nickelback also released an album, their breakthrough album Silver Side Up, on September 11. They were in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, near the United Flight 93 crash site, that day for a concert with 3 Doors Down. They went ahead with the concert that night.
- The album Party Music by political hip-hop group The Coup was released later than originally intended and with different cover art. The original cover art, designed in June 2001, featured the twin towers exploding and on fire in a very realistic way much like the September 11 attacks (very strangely, the cover art depicted the explosion of the North Tower near the top and slightly higher than the South Tower, which later was exactly what happened). The cover art was changed to a hand holding a martini glass with flames coming out of the top of the glass, and the release date was delayed until November.
- Dave Matthews Band's third single from their hit Everyday album was intended to be When the World Ends in the fall 2001. Due to the lyrics and subject matter of the song, they instead chose the upbeat Everyday as the post-9/11 single.
- Live Scenes From New York , a 3 CD live album by progressive metal band Dream Theater was originally released on September 11, 2001, but when it was noticed that the cover artwork depicted the twin towers in flames, it was recalled and re-released a short time later. Some copies with the original artwork still exist, and are now a rare collectors item.
- Bush changed their single's title from Speed Kills to The People That We Love, while the cover to their new album - 'Golden State' - was changed from a photograph depicting the shadow of an aeroplane on the ground to a plain gold cover.
- The Jimmy Eat World album Bleed American was renamed to Jimmy Eat World out of respect for the victims.
- The Strokes' debut album Is This It originally contained a track entitled New York City Cops, with a chorus of "New York City cops/They ain't too smart." With the album's release only two weeks after the attacks, the track was replaced by When It Started on American pressings. The version of the album released internationally went unaltered.
- System of a Down's second album, Toxicity, was released on September 4, 2001, one week before the attacks. The first single from the album, Chop Suey!, featured the lyrics, "Trust in my self rightous suicide." This earned them a fair amount of controversy, which wasn't aided by the fact that all four members are of Armenian heritage. The lead member, Serj Tankian, also wrote a poem two days after the attacks, which was misinterpreted as justification for the attacks. The album went to Number 1 on September 11.
- The ska-punk band Leftöver Crack released their album Mediocre Generica on September 11, 2001. The original title of the album, changed shortly before its release, was Fuck World Trade. An album by that name was later released by the band in 2004.
- The Eagles were supposed to record on September 11, 2001, but decided against it out of respect for those who suffered. Instead they wrote the song Hole In The World. Ironically they had already written New York Minute years before which unknowingly described some of September 11, 2001 (with lyrics such as 'one day they're here, next day they're gone'.
- British electro-rock group Primal Scream had a track called Bomb The Pentagon which they started playing live in September 2001. When the track was subsequently released on the album Evil Heat in 2002, the title of the song was changed to Rise and minor alterations were made to the lyrics.
- The lyric "Time to get paid/blow up like the World Trade", from the Notorious B.I.G. song "Juicy" was edited to remove the words "World Trade" from any future radio plays, music video airings, professional samples, or rereleases. This would include the voice sample used by Jay-Z in his song A Dream from The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse.
- In honor of the attacks, Billy Joel kept the original lyrics of the song Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway) while performing it during the post-9/11 The Concert for New York City. Some eerily accurate lyrics from the 1976 song include: "I saw the Empire State laid low," "I saw the ruins at my feet", "I watched the mighty skyline fall," and "Sank Manhattan out at sea."
- A band named I Am the World Trade Center released their debut album "Out of the loop" two months before 9/11. The eleventh track on the album was named "September." I Am the World Trade Center faced some media attention by critics who assumed that the band was capitalizing on the attacks. They toured briefly under the shortened name "I Am the World...", but soon resumed playing under their original name.
- The Enya song "Only Time", first released in 2000, gained renewed popularity in the wake of the attacks when numerous television broadcasters played it over retrospective footage of the attacks and the aftermath. This led to many unauthorized remixes of the song (using sound and speech from news coverage of the attacks) being made available over the Internet and played on radio stations. Enya eventually subsequently released a new remix of "Only Time" (sans sound effects) as a fund-raiser for the families of 9/11 victims.
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