HBO, Nickelodeon, FOX, Getty ImagesQuick, change the channel!
Growing up, there were always those movies and TV shows your parents refused to let you watch, the ones that would have you scrambling for the remote if you heard mom and dad coming your way. And even now, as an adult, you still feel a little thrill each time you happen across one of them on TV.
In honor of Guilty TV Pleasures Week, E! News staffers are revealing the shows they were banned from watching as kids, from Sex and the City to The Simpsons...
Alessandra Mortellaro: Sex and the City!I wasn't allowed to watch that show till I was like a senior in high school, maybe even college! I pretended with my parents that I didn't even like it so they wouldn't think to check. I watched it anyway but I'd change the channel super quick if my mom came walking in.
Anonymous: I wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons because my mom watched an episode where Bart failed a test, so he studied really, really hard for the next one and still got a D (or so she says, I don't remember the actual plot of said episode). She thought it sent a bad message to kids and it was banned ever since.
Tierney Bricker: I was literally allowed to watch anything (and grew up in front of a TV)...except for MTV's dating show Singled Out?! Who knows why. Not even my mom. I texted her to ask, and she said, "Never even heard of it. Was it on MTV?" Then, when I explained, she said, "It was probably very much about sex? So that would have been y. N I am not a fan of Jenny McCarthy." So there you go.
Jean Bentley: My mom pretty much allowed me to watch whatever I wanted (she hates graphic violence, but I do too!). There were only two exceptions: She thought Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life were gross, so they were both banned in our house.
Seija Rankin: My parents are divorced, and my mom banned Roseanne, of all shows – apparently the sass of DJ, Becky and Darlene was just too inappropriate in her child psychologist mind. But little did she know that any time I was at my dad's house I was getting my Conner family fun time on as much as possible.
Dominique Haikel: My mom was aggressively Catholic and I think she thought Clarissa Explains it All was satanic. She wouldn't let us watch it and I was devastated. Little does she know I got the DVD set in college and have been living in sin with them ever since.
Zach Johnson: I wasn't allowed to watch MTV—Singled Out specifically. My dad thought it was "inappropriate" for a 10-year-old to watch half-naked adults answer questions about sex on national TV, which it was. But I loved Baywatch, and Carmen Electra was a co-host on Singled Out. IN WHAT WORLD WAS I GOING TO CHANGE THE CHANNEL?
Raleigh Seldon: Banning TV shows from my brother and I was definitely a team effort between my mom and dad. The Simpsons and South Park (not that I wanted to watch either anyway) were the unmentionables—it was the violence + cursing + pretty much everything about them they didn't want us witnessing. One loophole my mom allowed for me though was Sex & the City. We'd watch it when the boys were out of town…I understood nothing then, and it was still such a treat.
Mike Vulpo: If The Sopranos or Six Feet Under was on TV in the family room, us kids were told to stay upstairs. My parents also tried to shield me from Flavor of Love, but I was determined to see who got their clock week after week.
Nicole Pirshafiey: The holy trinity of forbidden 90s animation: Rocko's Modern Life, Beavis & Butthead, Ren & Stimpy. I was always SO excited when my mom would let my teenage aunt babysit, those were the only times I got to watch. Also, my mom outlawed anything remotely scary. I had to sneak episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark and Goosebumps at friends' houses, and to this day I've still never seen an episode of The X-Files…
What TV shows were you not allowed to watch growing up? Let us know in the comments...