Homer Simpson’s larger-than-life presence has been substituted by bikini-clad people in Venezuelan television.

Following the officials’ reaction to the hit TV show, The Simpsons were considered to be a menace in the country’s Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, TV station Televen traded the daily broadcasts of the satirical cartoon with episodes of Baywatch Hawaii.

The dynamic series had been broadcasting at 11 a.m. on weekdays, a rated GP (general patronage) timeslot that risked the diffusion of “messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents.”

Not a soul pinned down what precisely about the melodrama involving the barely dressed bikini clad lifeguards was more satisfactory for the easily influenced kids than the iconic sitcom, but the National Telecommunications Commission claimed getting a lot of audience complaints.

“It had to be taken off,” Elba Guillen, Televen rep said, maintaining that it would be up to station administration to locate a new timeslot for The Simpsons. “They consider it to be a series that isn’t appropriate for that time because it isn’t appropriate for children.”

Perez Nahim, station general manager advised the Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias last Friday, when the switch take into effect, and that the network itself never received Simpsons-related complaints, so he hoped it would continue to have a strong following as soon as it’s moved.

“We are hoping it will continue to have a good rating, because The Simpsons worked very well—so much so that it had the highest levels of viewership for that morning timetable in the history of the channel,” Nahim said.

Baywatch Hawaii, actually, it is the nickname for seasons 10th and, aired from 1999 to 2001, still featuring David ‘the hoff’ Hasselhoff’s Mitch Buchannon sticking around for half of it.

Exciting! Except for the fact that The Simpsons is in all likelihood bearing into its 20th season on Fox this fall, and by the looks of it will match Gunsmoke’s record as the longest-running scripted show in prime-time.

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