Fans fume as Netlix deletes controversial Mad Men episode

There’s been an uproar online following Netflix’s surprising decision to delete an episode of a hugely popular TV show.

Mad Men fans have been left raging after the show arrived on Netflix but with one controversial episode removed.

The beloved series followed charming creative director Don Draper (Jon Hamm) at an ad agency that mixed cutthroat business with social ambition.

The AMC show ran for seven seasons between 2007 and 2015, with John Slattery, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Kiernan Shipka and Robert Morse rounding out the cast.

Mad Men arrived on Netflix at the start of August. Picture: AMC

It arrived on Netflix at the start of August around the world, including here in Australia. However, it came with one big caveat. The streaming giant made clear that one episode had been removed from the show entirely, telling viewers that “one episode is not available”.

The third episode of season three, titled My Old Kentucky Home, first aired in 2009 and showed Roger Sterling (John) throwing a party at a country club where he donned blackface and sang an anti-slavery song.

The episode appears on other streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime, with a warning message before playing.

However, Netflix has decided not to allow the episode on its streaming platform entirely.

The controversial episode has been banned from Netflix. Picture: AMC

“Sure, just remove a whole entire episode, a pivotal one at that. Racism existed, pretending it never did is not only dumb but it’s insensitive and dangerous. Goddamn do I hate Netflix,” ranted one angry viewer on Reddit.

“It’s ridiculous because Roger was shown to be pretty much an idiot by doing that,” complained another. “But hey, can’t trust audiences to think for themselves.”

A third ranted: “Insane. We are not supposed to watch this scene and think ‘wow that’s rad’. The writers were trying to convey just how racist and out of touch these people were.”

“It’s not as though the show is portraying it positively,” noted a fourth fan. “This is the most idiotic type of censorship.”

“Extremely poor decision from Netflix,” moaned another. “It is not racist to showcase that racism did in fact exist. I assume 12 Years a Slave will be censored also! Don’s disapproval to the incident in contrast to the rest of the cast is a significant moment in the show.”

Originally published as Fans fume as Netlix deletes controversial Mad Men episode