How Morbius was used to mess with the censorship

How Morbius was used twice to say "Screw you" to Censors:

The 1990s Spider-man animated series was smothered by heavy censorship brought on by panicking executives after the introduction of the television rating system in the early 90s. The rating system, in it's infancy, was inconsistent at best. So though you could deal with death and blood on shows like Batman the animated series and Disney's Gargoyles on another Channel, Spider-man was unfortunately crippled.

The rules consisted of the following...

Not mentioning "Death", "Die", "Kill" or other words with a strong negative meaning. Death was to be avoided, leading Semper to skirt around the issue, killing characters off-panel or in unrealistic ways, and "destroy" and "destruction" were frequently employed as synonyms. For example:
Mary Jane and the Green Goblin fall through an interdimensional portal instead of falling to their deaths.
It is stated that the Punisher's family was "caught in a crossfire between rival gangs", and the same applied to the wife of the Destroyer and Peter Parker's Uncle Ben.
At one point, when the Goblin returns after seemingly perishing, Spider-Man says, "You?! But I thought you were--" and the Goblin cuts him off with, "I'm not... but you'll soon be!"
Instead of Carnage killing his victims he drained them of their life force.
When Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson confront Hydro-Man in Episode 2.03 for the last time, Hydro-Man vaporizes when he touches hot ground, and never returns.
Due to the unstable DNA structure of the clones of Mary Jane Watson and Hydro-Man, they vaporized and died.
An alternate-reality Spider-Carnage commits suicide by jumping into a dimensional portal.
Several other characters were implied to have died in explosions or off-screen.
Realistic guns were not allowed, and no firearms could shoot bullets, so instead they fired lasers complimented by 'futuristic' sound effects. This often led to preposterous scenes in which ordinary policemen wielded bizarre, futuristic pistols. However, in Episode 3.09, Robbie Robertson's son Randy has a real-looking gun in his desk, though it is never fired on screen.
Spider-Man was not allowed to hit anyone with his fist, with one exception in Episode 39 (The Spot) in which he used his spider-sense to guide a punch through a dimension portal and knock out the Spot.
No crashing glass. However, in Episode 43, when Spider-Man and Doc Ock were battling in Felicia and Anastasia Hardy's home, Ock accidentally smashed a glass window with one of his tentacles.
No children in peril.
No vampires were allowed on the show. This created complications with the use of the characters Morbius the living vampire and Blade the vampire hunter. Consequently, Morbius only drained victims through suckers on his hands, rather than by biting them in the traditional vampire style on the neck, and rather than blood, his sustenance was referred to only as "plasma."
On a lighter note, Semper claims they also included such specific personal notes from censors as "When Spider-Man lands on the rooftop, be sure that he doesn't harm any pigeons".

(The above list was copied from the Marvel Wiki and used to be on the Wikipedia page for the show).

When Morbius was introduced as a character it was a direct rebellion against the restrictions to the TV series.


Blood:

Even though Morbius was forced to refer to what he fed on as "Plasma" and even the sample he stole from Peter Parker's locker as "plasma" Peter Parker, himself, called the substance blood. It was also a distinct, dark, red, and not translucent and pale as plasma without red blood cells is.
Also Spider-man got away with such lines as "Where'd that flying blood bank go to?" and "Morbius, stop giving in to this blood lust or I can't help you!" At one point in the episode "The Immortal Vampire" Morbius gets away with referring that original sample (that he used to call Plasma) "neogenically treated blood".

Forbidden subject of Supernatural vampires:

Though vampires were not allowed in the 90s Spider-man cartoon Morbius became for the cartoon, what he had been for the comic books- the catalyst before "Real" (Supernaturally created) vampires were introduced.

In the cartoon Morbius bore all the traits of the supernatural vampires except that he cast a reflection, could not shapeshift, and was not warded off by religious symbols, nor did he need an invitation to enter a home. Though created by science he bore most of the supernatural vampire powers and weaknesses including flight, strength, enhanced senses, super human healing factor, immortality, and aversion to bright light, along with the craving for human blood or as the censors preferred "Plasma."

Because the similarities were already so great Morbius opened the flood gates. From Morbius came the storyline that introduced Blade The Vampire Hunter and the very first incarnation of Whistler who would appear in all the Blade movies. After that came Miriam, Blade's mother, a full supernatural vampire.

Ironically this was what happened with Morbius in the comic books. He was first introduced by Marvel comics in 1971 when the "comic code" still heavily censored comic books and prevented such topics as supernatural vampires. Morbius, at that time, opened that flood gate too by side stepping that rule by being scientifically created and therefor a "living" vampire (despite the fact that he would die and come back many, many, many times and even upwards of three times in one issue of his 2013 comic book.) And when the early 1970s restrictions were lifted supernatural vampires were immediately brought into play with Morbius leading the way as the first Marvel comics vampire.

Forbidden subject of suicide:

Suicide was a big no-no on most Fox children's programming so this is a very sensitive topic.
The first hint of suicidal content comes up subtly in the Morbius storyline episode Blade: The Vampire Hunter. Morbius says "When I awoke this evening I felt different. I like this life now. I cannot be hurt, cannot be destroyed. I am immortal." Well, the first thought to come to mind is "How does he know this unless he tried to end it?"
The next hint of possible suicidal tendencies comes up in The Awakening when Morbius returns after two seasons in vampiric "hibernation." This time it was not just a hint of suicide but a rather blunt effort for assisted suicide.
Morbius begs Felicia to "help him find peace." She surprisingly nonchalantly agrees and tells him to meet him at the clock tower that has been rebuilt since the first Morbius storyline from season 2. Felicia gets a device from Whistler that resembles a light emitting pistol. That will "return him to the limbo of sleep forever." Eventually Felicia cannot bring herself to do it.

Morbius's feeding methods:

One restriction implemented to allow the character Morbius into the cartoon show was that he had to feed through suckers in his hands instead of savagely ripping out throats with his teeth as he had been in the comic books.
By the time the episode "The Vampire Queen" came about in season four it's indicated that Morbius is no longer feeding by this method. How so? Well, very simply he was being framed.
Miriam (a traditional supernatural vampire) was in town and feeding. It was indicated she was using fangs (and she wore gloves so she couldn't possibly have been using hand suckers) and yet somehow Morbius was being blamed for her feeding habits.

Morbius originally (in his first appearance as a vampire) could only feed through suckers in his hands, which would leave very different wounds from how Miriam fed. The only explanation is either the way he fed has changed OR there was a "quiet retcon" about his feeding habits. You may also notice you almost never see the old hand suckers anymore at this point. For most of the episode the palms of his hands look perfectly normal. Without telling the censors Morbius was now feeding like his original comic book incarnation.

Vampires in general were not allowed:

Vampires were not allowed on the cartoon so what did Marvel do? They gave Morbius the longest storyline of any recurring villain or guest-hero. He had eight episode appearances as a vampire as well as pre-vampire appearances as a human being. From season 2 onward he was a character featured in the show's opening credits. He was also "name dropped" in several episodes.

Alcoholism as a coping tool:

One episode that name dropped him was the return of Kraven The Hunter. In this episode the science major Deborah Whitman (who had a crush on Morbius) cannot cope with his most recent disappearance and her own inability to cure his vampirism. So she starts "partying too much" so much so that her Jock Boyfriend gets fed up with her behavior. The character behaves drunk, the only thing not out right done is being told that she is drunk. By the end of the episode Deborah is made to remember how much science can help people and is back to her old self again.

Hints of sexual content:

Morbius's storyline was also the first hint of sexual relations on the heavily censored cartoon. When Morbius and Felicia make out in the clock tower in season 2 the scene fades out.

Killing:

Though in Morbius's first cartoon appearances it implies that his victims survive later appearances do not bother to talk about victim survival as much. We're never even told if Miriam's victims live other than Herbert Landon (who Morbius fed on first).

Detective Terri Lee, who previously pleaded with Blade to spare Morbius during Morbius' first storyline wanted him "destroyed" by the time Morbius returned in season four.

One episode after Morbius was introduced and right in the midst of his first storyline came the first appearance of The Punisher. The show did not beat around the bush and announced that he was known for "using Lethal force" and that his family was "caught in the crossfire between rival gangs." which was as blunt as the show would ever get about people being killed.
Two of the gang members The Punisher was after during his introduction even appeared again in The Vampire Queen Storyline and were turned into vampires by Miriam.

One cannot help but imagine that the poor censors were biting down on leather straps at this point to keep from screaming at whoever was okaying these storylines.

Today it's not uncommon to mock the heavy censorship of the 1990s Spider-man cartoon. In the Ultimate Spider-man cartoon Deadpool claims he has a "tick" where he can't say the "K" word which was one of the old rules of the 90s Cartoon. He says 'destroy" instead much like the 90s cartoon. This was a dig at the old censorship. Even Super Hero Squad online has several character emotes where the characters either frighten or mess with the pigeons in some way as a subtle joke about the 90s Spider-man cartoon censorship. And it all started with the rebellion of using Morbius The Living vampire.

Not only was Morbius the most uncomfortable character for the censors but he was a grand "Screw you" to the censors.

When I watch these old cartoons I rewrite aspects of them to suit my own tastes. Morbius feeds properly as all vampires do through the whole series (in my mind), and all of his victims died except for Flash Thompson and Herbert Landon for obvious plot reasons.

So when you reminisce and laugh about Morbius in his cartoon incarnation being forced to say that he craved "plasma" try to think of it like this. In 1971 he was the first comic book vampire and he broke through that heavy censorship to be one of the most tragic yet predatory characters in Marvel history. In 1994 he beat through the cartoon censorship breaking nearly every rule Marvel was being forced to follow for Fox kids. Morbius, the vampire that feeds on censorship and survives...