Why can't old podcasts in iTunes be removed?

Question

I just updated to iTunes 11.1.  Suddently all of the podcasts I am subscribing to are showing all of the old episodes with a little cloud icon next to them.  In the past the icon used to be a downward arrow.  This meant that the podcast was available to download but was not in my iTunes library yet.  Now I guess this icon means it's in iCloud, whatever that means.  I also cannot remove these episodes from showing.  So now there are dozens and dozens of old episodes of podcasts that I have already listened to showing up in my podcast list.  Right clicking does not show a remove option.  How can I get all of these items to be removed?

Answer 1

In my usage thus far the initial upgrade period seems to be the worst... deleting podcasts randomly, removing currently being listened to podcasts and generally being an overall pain since the podcast list has been corrupted from the way it used to be used.
While I've never been fond of the "my podcasts" view this seems to be the most effective view to now see all your podcasts, especially after all your devices have figured out they're finally in sync.
Apple perhaps should have focus grouped this particular layout and style a bit more but patience seems to be making it behave better and perhaps even behave as was intended.
To summarize, my main suggestion would be to make sure all your devices sync up, and if you haven't upgaded one device yet... don't until you've caught up to your podcasts that you don't want to miss. Otherwise, once you're fully in sync you should be able to re-download them from the cloud.
Off topic: I would also advise that when something doesn't work emotions run high, especially after change, if you don't have anything to add that will improve the experience of those following the thread, please remain lurking until you do.