Batman: TAS, is this what really happened?

I read somewhere that in one episode, a main character dies, Timm/Dini were in trouble with the censors for making it too violent/scary for children's TV, and were given instructions for how to make the scene more appropriate. Apparently, however, Timm/Dini were notorious for exploiting exact wordage, so the specific details they were told for making it less scary (don't show the body hit the car, have the POV be in the car and only hear the sound) were used to make the scene even scarier, but the censors had to let it go because it was done exactly the way they said it should be.

Did that really happen? I can't find where I read it, so I can't really verify it. Does anybody here know?

I've heard this as well; the episode was "Over the Edge" and the character in question was Batgirl, who didn't actually die but had just taken a massive dose of Scarecrow's fear toxin, causing her to hallucinate her own death followed by Batman and her father, Comissioner Gordon, going at each other's throats over it, until both were seemingly killed by Bane. I don't know of any specific source, but I've certainly seen it stated all over the place that Timm/Dini liked to play with the censors by using their Exact Words to produce something even creepier than originally intended, with this episode being the prime example.

They did stuff like this a lot. In "Robin's Reckoning" they originally intended to show Dick Grayson's parents hitting the sawdust during his origin story, but were instructed to dial it back. The result is artfully done, and they came away saying they liked that better than what they originally had planned anyhow.

I remember they apparently had a list of stuff they weren't allowed to show; no one could get punched in the face, children couldn't be put in dangerous situations, no one could be shot, no one could crash through a plate glass window, and they couldn't show nudity. Bruce Timm, as a joke, did an illustration that hung up in the Batman TAS offices that showed all of these things at once.

They always found ways around those, since they were smarter than the censors. For instance, they gave Scarface the most graphic 'death' scenes, and technically, IIRC, Catwoman was naked when she was made into a catgirl in Tyger Tyger (much like Cheetah later in JL).

The censorship relaxed with the move to WB for TNBA. They could show people being punched in the face now (like that hilarious backhand punch in Double Talk), children could be endangered (so Tim Drake could be used instead of Dick Grayson) and Firefly, a formerly vetoed character due to use of fire as a weapon, was in. I think that's also why they could use Etrigan, a demon from hell, as an ally.

Wasn't the flashback in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker like that, too? The censors wanted something less violent for the Joker's death, so they came up with something less violent but more horrible?

If nothing else, I prefer TAS for the art style higher realism, but I think it was TNBA that had Harley Quinn popping out of a giant cream pie, probably naked (it's unclear because she's completely covered in cream).

Nah, the censored version, while not without some horrible suggested imagery, isn't as disturbing as the uncensored version. If anything, I found the edited version to be kinda Narmy.

Might be a YMMV. I think I recall hearing somebody say that the green not-blood was pretty scary.

The edited Joker's death ran on a related principle to Nothing Is Scarier, all we hear is his anguished scream from the outside and Batgirl rushing in and gasping in shock. I'm sure seeing the Joker's fried corpse would have been worse than the BANG flag into the chest, but there is actually some debate on which death was more poignant to the story. Some say the BANG flag was lost in all of the other violence (including Bonk being shot with a BANG flag, Tim being graphically tortured and Bruce being stabbed in the leg) while the electrified death left things unfinished and was clearly the most disturbing thing of the edited version.

Tim made up in Joker-drag with that frozen grin and uncontrollable giggle was pretty damned creepy and disturbing, for my money. The Joker, it goes without saying, is one sick twist.

I think the rest of the violence was left mostly alone but that scene was altered because the Joker's original death was done by a child. The other major violent acts were pulled off by older people, but it seems censors are especially wary when the perpetrator is someone in the age rank of the minors they aim to protect.