Storylines That (Probably) Wouldn't Fly Today From HIMYM, The Office, Friends, General Hospital And More Shows

If there's one thing we would tell Hulu's recently announced How I Met Your Mother spinoff, it's that How I Met Your Father definitely does not need a Barney-type character. Because while the bro might have squeaked by on the charms of Neil Patrick Harris' performance back when HIMYM was on the air, his behavior would not pass muster in 2021.

In fact, television series of past are, unfortunately, full of storylines that would be deemed inappropriate or offensive if attempted on today's shows. From Sex and the City's oddly backwards stance on sexual fluidity to racially insensitive jokes on The Office to questionable casting choices on Ugly Betty and the original Kung Fu, TVLine has gathered many examples of stories that probably wouldn't make it to the screen in our current landscape — and for good reason!

We definitely don't expect that any TV characters would dare pull a Seinfeld on their girlfriend nowadays, or that another super couple would be born out of sexual assault. And for that, we are grateful, because while it means that some elements of our fave shows have not aged well, hopefully, it also signifies growth.

Review our list of Storylines That (Probably) Wouldn't Fly Today below, then hit the comments to share your own picks.

Sam and Diane's will they/won't they dynamic propelled the first few seasons of the NBC comedy, in which the pair vehemently resisted and eventually caved into their obvious feelings for each other. But looking back on their tumultuous beginnings in the Season 1 finale, in which Sam yells, "I'm gonna bounce you off every wall in this office!" and "I've always wanted to pop you one," he wasn't so much romantic as he was verbally abusive. His violent words — which were played for laughs — coupled with the terrifying image of him breaking down her door in the Season 2 premiere are huge red flags that probably wouldn't have aired today. Yikes!

Yes, more recent shows like FX's A Teacher, Freeform's Pretty Little Liars and The CW's Riverdale are still (sigh) pairing up students with their teachers. But while those aforementioned examples featured twentysomething teachers — not that it makes the situation OK! — Pacey was just 15 years old when he lost his virginity to Mrs. Jacobs, who was 35, making the illicit affair even more inappropriate and disturbing upon reflection. In fact, we can't believe the storyline made it to air back then!

As funny as this camaraderie comedy remains, some of the episodes have not aged well. This includes Rachel's racially insensitive comment upon meeting Julie, Ross' Asian girlfriend, and saying "Welcome to our country." But Julie was American. Yikes! Worse still is the way Friends used the gender transition of Chandler's dad as a running punchline. There are so many truly cringey transphobic jokes in old episodes that it is hard to keep count. The show also had actress Kathleen Turner guest-star as Chandler's dad instead of casting a transgender woman.

Arguably daytime TV's best-known couple, Luke and Laura's epic love story began in horrifically traumatic fashion: when Luke raped Laura at Campus Disco. Instead of becoming a villain who would have to be taken down, however, Luke wound up as one of the show's leading men and half of its most popular pairing — one that lasted decades. At least the ABC soap belatedly had the good sense to address the wrongness of L&L's origin story in the late 1990s, when Luke and Laura's son, Lucky, learned what his father had done.

The NBC sitcom's unfortunate track record on diversity only makes this 1987 episode more torturous to watch. In this early Season 3 installment, Dorothy, Rose and Blanche hire a Black housekeeper who they suspect is either an evil, curse-spewing witch or just terrible at her job or maybe both. Charmed, we're sure as hell not!

If we heard it once during the CBS sitcom's 39-episode run in the mid-1950s, we heard it 100 times: "One of these days," Ralph Kramden would bluster at his wife, "pow! Right in the kisser!" And though the hotheaded bus driver never went so far as to actually send Alice to the moon, it still makes our heads spin to think that once upon a time, the show — any show! — felt that it was perfectly OK to use spousal abuse not just as a punchline but a recurring one.

It's difficult to narrow down Barney's many offenses to just one storyline or episode, because over the course of the show's nine-season run, the womanizing bachelor exhibited a lot of sketchy behavior that could qualify him as a sexual predator. (Also, the way he manipulated Robin before proposing to her? Not romantic.) From his relentless lying to get women into his bed to his constant objectification of the opposite sex, Barney's kinda the worst kind of bro. And his friends? They mostly just sat by and let him get away with it!

It's hard to fathom that as recently as 50 years ago, Hollywood wouldn't cast a Chinese actor to play a Chinese character. Instead, an Irish-American actor, the late David Carradine, landed the lead role as Kwai Chang Caine. He was the hero of Kung Fu and the orphaned son of a Chinese woman and a white American in mid-19th-century China. The action/western drama aired on ABC for three seasons until 1975 and lived on for many years after in syndication. This is also why The CW's reboot of Kung Fu, starring Olivia Liang as the lead, means so much more.

Given Michael Scott's general Michael Scott-ness, there's a lot about The Office that likely wouldn't land in 2021, even though Michael's fellow Dunder Mifflin employees rarely endorsed his sexist, racist and lewd behavior. But the Season 3 episode "A Benihana Christmas" is in especially poor taste looking back: In the holiday outing, Michael and some of his coworkers go out to lunch at Benihana, then bring two waitresses back to the office's Christmas party, where Michael later realizes he can't tell the two Asian women apart. (He even marks one woman's arm with a Sharpie to distinguish them, which is mostly played for laughs when he reveals the faux pas to his colleagues.) In two January TikToks, actress Kat Ahn, who played one of the waitresses, detailed why the storyline was problematic, including its implication that Asian people are "one big walking stereotype without any personality or individuality."

In the episode, titled "Running Zack" (oof!), Mark-Paul Gosselaar's character learns that he has a Native American ancestor and then subsequently makes one racist comment after another and dresses in war paint and a headdress for his class presentation. It's all so stereotypical and ignorant that Gosselaar recently admitted that he "cringed" while rewatching the Season 2 installment. "This episode would never get made in current times, and rightly so," the actor added. (Equally offensive? Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's bizarre decision to have Jane Krakowski's character be a Native American woman who changed her name and looks to pass for white.)

In this creepy Season 9 installment, Jerry's girlfriend had a collection of vintage toys she wouldn't let him touch. So what did he do? He drugged her with sleep medication so he could play with her toys while she snoozed! Even worse, George and Elaine happily joined in and acted as Jerry's accomplices, drugging her several more times so they could play with the toys, too. Sure, this show was known to get dark, but this rises to the level of an actual crime. At least Kramer had the decency to be disgusted.

For a supposedly progressive show, HBO's sexy sitcom was embarrassingly (and insultingly) backward in a Season 3 episode when Carrie dated a bisexual young man played by Eddie Cahill. Carrie freaked out when he told her he once dated a man and later declared that bisexuality doesn't exist and is "just a layover on the way to Gay Town" before ditching him altogether. (She is a celebrated sex columnist, by the way!) When SATC returns for its revival, in an era when LGBTQ representation is vitally important, let's hope Carrie has evolved a bit.

As progressive as Ugly Betty was for the mid-2000s, one character simply doesn't hold up: Rebecca Romijn's Alexis (formerly Alex) Meade, a transgender character introduced as one of the show's key villains. Not only could we not imagine a present-day TV show casting a cisgender actress in a transgender role — "I think now she would actually be cast [with] an actual transgender [actress]," Romijn told TVLine in 2018 — but we'd also like to think that the writers would avoid repeating the harmful trope of making that character a villain. (OK, we can imagine it, since it happened on Pretty Little Liars with Charlotte/Charles in 2015, but even that was met with considerable fan backlash.)