Twenty years after the premiere of Sex and the City, the show is still as iconic and loved as ever. In honor of the 20th anniversary, the writers of the show sat down with Vanity Fair to talk about some of their favorites scenes—and some of the most bizarre. Writing about sex, relationships, and of course, Carrie’s infamous shoes, the writer’s room seemed like a blast. They were responsible for creating the most well-loved (and hated) characters, and some of the best scenes on television. But not everything made the cut.
While the show was allowed to do a lot in terms of what the characters were allowed to talk about and what they were allowed to do, creator Darren Star says there was one scene in particular that was censored by HBO for being too obscene.
In season one episode, “The Monogamists,” Charlotte is dating Michael, a man who demands oral sex, physically pushes her head down for blow jobs, and has a golden retriever who is somehow always around. In the final scene, Charlotte storms out, offended by Michael’s insistence on blow jobs, and accuses him of only loving her because of them.
But in the original ending (the one cut by HBO), Charlotte storms back in and finds Michael’s golden retriever going down on him instead. “It’s sort of horrifying that we shot that,” SATC producer and writer, Amy B. Harris, said of the scene. “We shot him putting peanut butter on his penis, and Charlotte walks back in like, ‘Oh, I’m being unreasonable,’ and then she sees that… I can’t believe we even thought about doing it.”
Even with what is allowed to be shown on HBO, we’re seriously not surprised this scene was cut—and thank goodness it was.