Hollywood Uncensored

Hollywood Uncensored unearths everything we always wanted to see-but weren't allowed to. Co-hosts Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Peter Fonda take us on a provocative and fascinating voyage through the history of Hollywood censorship: from highly exploitive scenes of Shirley Temple playing a Mae West-like seductress to the steamy sexuality of Carroll Baker in "Baby Doll," from shocking scenes of an ape gone wild in "King Kong" to the powerful and disturbing violence of Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver."

The movie industry was still in its infancy when films began to be scrutinized by groups throughout the country. Some were declared obscene, some condemned as mortal sin and some even caused riots. By 1922, the situation had become so scandalous that the industry hired Will Hays, the ex-Postmaster General, to institute its first code of ethics. For better or for worse, censorship had arrived in Hollywood.

Carroll Baker, Jane Russell, Eli Wallach and Martin Scorsese are a few of the celebrities who recount the effect the Hays Office, the Ratings Board, and the Church had on their movies. In some cases, pictures widely regarded as classics today were banned from theatres entirely. HOLLYWOOD UNCENSORED features scenes once considered searing from "Baby Doll," "The Outlaw," "Promises, Promises," "Peeping Tom," "Woodstock," Carnal Knowledge," and "Silent Night, Deadly Night" along with rarely seen footage from "King Kong" and W.C. Fields' "The Dentist."