CBS AXES ALICE ANTICS!

News: What the Fear

CBS AXES ALICE ANTICS!

by Gregory S. Burkart, Wed., Oct. 1, 2008 11:55 AM PDT

Back in 1975, the prudish media often reacted in shock and dismay to Alice Cooper’s blood-drenched concert film Welcome to My Nightmare, and some TV stations banned or censored his appearances for his glamorized spectacle of over-the-top violence, despite most of the offending content being excised by ABC prior to its premiere. Guess the old folks just didn’t get it.

Thirty-three years later, the veteran horror-rocker pretty much is one of the “old folks,” but even so he has found himself victim once again to the censor’s ever-sharp axe, when he was forced to omit a staged portion of his live performance on last night’s Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

The rebuked content was apparently an attempt to recreate a scene from the video for the new single “Vengeance is Mine” – a song about a serial killer’s rampage – in which Alice would invite a female audience member to be the “victim” in a mock strangulation. The execs at CBS, however, balked at the idea, and the stunt was called off.

If you want to get an idea of what the “murder” might have looked like, check out the uncensored mayhem of “Along Came a Video” on Alice’s MySpace.

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