TV Shows That Seriously Crossed The Line

These days it seems that every show on television is engaged in an arms race to see which can pull off the most shocking moments. Oh, your main character beat a stroke victim to death with an aluminum chair? No problem, we'll just have one of our characters feed a baby to feral dogs! Sometimes, though, shows can go a little too far. And not just in terms of specific moments; often it's the entire premise of a show that makes you wonder just what exactly we're all doing here. Sure, pushing boundaries is nice, but occasionally there are reasons those boundaries exist in the first place. Here's a look at some times when TV shows crossed more than one line at a time...

Many TV critics point to The Sopranos as the show that ushered in the new era of shock television. Fair enough. But Tony Soprano's got nothing on George R.R. Martin. What The Sopranos started, Game of Thrones brought to its logical conclusion with its infamous Red Wedding sequence at the end of season three in 2013. In case you've somehow forgotten, that bit began with a pregnant woman being stabbed repeatedly in the abdomen, and ended with half of the cast hacked to bloody ribbons in graphic detail. Perhaps the most shocking thing? The wave of bloodshed merely spurred the show to new heights of popularity and spawned a wave of shock-schlock imitators across television. Thanks, HBO!

If you've never heard of this incredibly ill-advised 1990 sitcom from the BBC, well, your mind is about to be blown. In an attempt to parody the too-perfect lives routinely portrayed by American sitcoms, Heil Honey, I'm Home! cast an unusual couple in the lead roles: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. The even wackier twist? Their annoying neighbors are Jewish! Maybe the craziest thing about Heil Honey, I'm Home! Is that someone actually thought it was a good idea. Audiences disagreed, and after one episode, the series was immediately cancelled.

Bill Maher has made a career out of eruditely speaking exactly what is on his mind regardless of whether it runs counter to popular sentiment. In fact, that's exactly when he seems to enjoy himself the most. But even for a show called Politically Incorrect, Maher went too far in September of 2001, when he refuted a claim that the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center were cowards. " We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly," Maher said. "Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, [it's] not cowardly." Sponsors and viewers left the show in droves. ABC finally cancelled it a few short months later.

South Park has a long and glorious history of infuriating all the right people. But sometimes even Matt Stone and Trey Parker go a little too far. For example, the infamous 2005 episode "Bloody Mary," which involves Randy believing his alcoholism can only be cured by a statue of the Virgin Mary that is bleeding from its backside. It's really not all that hard to see why some people were a little bit offended. And by some people, we mean almost everyone. And by a little bit offended, we mean really, really angry. Luckily, Stone and Parker didn't learn their lesson. Otherwise we would never have gotten The Book of Mormon.

HLN host Nancy Grace has made an entire career out of presuming guilt, instigating witch hunts, and inciting mob behavior. So it was no surprise when in 2006, she browbeat a guest to death. Interviewing Melinda Duckett, whose two-year-old son was missing, Grace ripped Duckett a new one, essentially accusing her of killing her own son. The next day, Duckett shot herself to death. Naturally, Grace claimed that this proved Duckett's guilt. Whether or not Duckett was guilty, one thing is sure: Grace herself is guilty of being a miserable excuse for a human being. Oh, and by the way, it wasn't the last time Grace drove someone to suicide. In 2011, Toni Medrano set herself on fire after Grace publicly blamed Medrano for the accidental death of Medrano's son.

Fox seem really fond of mocking their own reality show contestants for being stupid enough to agree to appear on these programs. For example, there was Joe Millionaire, where a bunch of single women were tricked into thinking their eligible bachelor was rich, rather than a construction worker. Okay, fine. But they took things too far with 2004's The Littlest Groom, which was a dating competition where a little person had to choose from a batch of female love interests comprised of both little women and women of average height. Which would he pick when it came down to it? The fact that Fox thought this was an appropriate question to ask says it all. The public was not amused, and only two episodes were produced.

Bet you weren't expecting Tiny Toons to make the list. But then again, viewers of the hit cartoon series weren't expecting what they got in 1991 either when the segment "One Beer" aired. That's because "One Beer" featured three of the show's adorable Looney Tunes tykes finding a beer, getting hammered, and driving a car off a cliff to their deaths. It was probably meant to be a parody of the then-recent hit film Thelma & Louise, but having a bunch of kiddie cartoon characters get drunk and commit suicide is pretty much the definition of going too far. The episode was pulled from repeats after viewers flooded Warner Bros. with complaints. No kidding.