Controversy is like a badge of honor for a horror show (even a kiddie one), but it helps if people can actually see the episodes that cause the stir. This brings us to one installment of the acclaimed ’90s series “Eerie, Indiana” that spooked NBC to the point of refusing to air the episode.
Speaking to Psychotronic Cinema, Joe Dante, a director and creative consultant on the series, revealed that NBC banned the show’s “The Broken Record” episode to avoid causing upset at the time. “It has backward masking in it, and that was considered too controversial to the religious groups,” Dante said.
Dante is referring to backmasking, a process where sounds are recorded backward and can be heard only if the audio is played in reverse. The technique is associated with rock bands adding sneaky Satanic subliminal messages to their records, so it’s understandable why NBC was wary of potentially upsetting religious groups. Still, “The Broken Record” uses backmasking to get a different type of point across.
The Broken Record puts a unique spin on backmasking
“The Broken Record” tells the story of a kid who turns rebellious after listening to a rock record that plays in reverse. The idea of backmasking causing corruption is an obvious nod to the Satanic Panic epidemic of the ’80s, which saw everything from music to “Dungeons and Dragons” come under fire for allegedly trying to turn the youth into devil-worshippers.
The concept is fitting for a beloved horror series like “Eerie, Indiana,” but the aforementioned record doesn’t promote Satanism. The backmasking ultimately reveals clips of the kid’s father verbally abusing him, and this can be interpreted as the real cause of his poor behavior.
Nowadays, “The Broken Record” is pretty easy to find, and the ’90s sci-fi series doesn’t appear to have upset any religious groups in a significant way. The episode is included in the show’s DVD release, and it can also be found on streaming services like Amazon Prime Video.