The guys go to Vegas and hire Howard a hooker to cheer him up. Was this kind of a bar raising moment for prime time casual sex? Seems like just a few years ago such a plot development would have been really squawked about.
Two and a Half men did it a decade ago (i.e., have a main character get casual sex from a prostitute on a prime time sitcom)
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I expect that particular incident to be one of the reasons Bernadette freaks out about Howard’s sexual past.
I never watched Two and a Half men. Was there any “outrage”? Or was it just dismissed as being a Sheen documentary of sorts?
I was thinking of *2 1/2 Men *also, though I don’t watch it that often. Didn’t Charlie have an entire book of call girls, with price ranges and personal ratings? That sort of trumps a one-time Vegas hookup.
I’m trying to remember that BBT episode. I do recall being surprised that they had Howard actually go through with it. The other guys knew she was a hooker; did Howard ever find out, or did he just think she picked him up?
On Friends, Monica accidentally hired a hooker instead of a stripper for Chandler’s bachelor party, though nobody had sex with her. But a couple years earlier, Joey slept with the stripper after Ross’s bachelor party. That’s close.
I’m pretty sure House has been using prostitutes for a good while.
In the midst of her coming on to him in the bar, Howard excuses himself and confronts Leonard and Raj. He asks them (seemingly angry) if they hired her for him. When they admitted that they had already paid her, Howard thanks them.
Howard figures it out and confirms it with Leonard before he goes off with her. The joke is that we think he’s going to be mad about them paying a hooker to pretend to be genuinely interested in him but then he thanks them profusely.
IIRC she was pretty hot, in an “only on television” way.
Jodi Lyn O’Keefe is hot in every way.
Charlie and Allan both used hookers on 2 1/2 Men. Not only does Charlie use them, he hires them for technically difficult maneuvers such as foursomes. Remember the parade of hookers at the police station when Teddy died? “Hi Charlie.” “Hi Charlie.” “Hi Charlie.” “Hi Allan.”
Also in 2 1/2 Men, there were several times someone would mention getting a hooker or ‘one of his bimbos’ and Charlie would say: ‘I’m on it.’ and get out his book.
Barney Stinson probably deserves mention.
Didn’t the DA on Night Court hire the women he was prosecuting? I think also Wojo had a relationship with a hooker on Barney Miller. There were also hookers as characters on a couple of shows. I don’t recall hiring a prostitute being blatantly done without moral repercussions until 2 1/2 Men though.
For that matter, the first time we ever see Howard, he’s in the company of a paid escort. Though the deal there apparently included “no touching”, so she wasn’t actually a prostitute.
Wait, what about Themla Lou on Andy Griffith? Oh, come on, you don’t really think she *liked *Barney do you?!?
(d&r)
The oldest ‘hounddog’ I can remember on TV would be Night Court’s John Larrouquet’s Dan Fielding. According to Wikipedia:
My personal remembrance was that it was pretty overt, but I can’t bring up any specifics.
So to answer your question, I don’t think referencing the oldest profession was any kind of ‘bar raising moment’.
Here’s the only quote I could find:
Heck, there was a 1973 episode of *All in the Family *where a friend of Archie is dating a hot young woman. It’s played for laughs until she reveals herself as a prostitute to Archie, and offers to “rent” herself to him. Not the same, but there was no moral outrage about the fact that she was a hooker.
I think the point was that only on television are hookers that hot.
Even in Hollywood, I think, the hookers are the girls who didn’t get parts in sitcoms.
Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke anyone?
Hookers are that hot in real life. But only the really expensive ones.
I remember an episode of WKRP where Les (the nerdy newsman) ends up with an “escort”, who turns out to be a prostitute. Les, of course, has no clue. And the kicker is that because he treats her so repectfully, she actually likes him (and agrees to see him again…no charge).