Cussing on Early Network Television

Cafe Society
1

I know I’ve thought about this before. And I recall the big flap over Hawkeye Pierce calling someone a ‘Son of a Bitch’ on MASH in the 1980s sometime.

But I’m watching Disk One of ‘Dragnet 1967’ (I love Jack Webb’s Los Angeles in all its forms) and I notice that the cops are cursing. Woot! This would have aired in, unsurprisingly, 1967! I thought that was well before anyone could get away with such.

The two examples I have are:

In the ‘Blue Boy’ episode the word ‘Damn’ is used to indicate that they’d better get on something ‘damn fast’.

In a later episode Harry Morgan says ‘Hell, Joe, blah blah blah’ is conversation.

So what’s up with that? Could 1967 television get away with mild profanity like that? Was it censored from the broadcast versions? Was Webb just trying to be as ‘gritty’ and ‘realistic’ as the times allowed?

2

I don’t think people were as hung up on it when it came to mild swearing like “hell” and “damn”. I recall some examples from the original Star Trek series, too.

3

I dunno. IIRC, this would be in the same time frame when you couldn’t use the word “pregnant” to describe a woman who was going to have a baby. If “pregnant” was beyond the pale, how did hell and damn slip in there?

4

“Damn it Jim! I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer.”

“Damn your green-blooded Vulcan logic.”

5

By 1967? “Pregnant” wouldn’t have been a problem. CBS gave Desi Arnez problems about using the word pregnant in 1952, but that was 15 years before, and attitudes had changed since then.

6

I googled around and found several sites mentioning the “pregnant” censorship on the Lucy show, but couldn’t find any reference to when they STOPPED censoring the word “pregnant.” I did find a good time line with info on censorship here..

Note that, according to the site:

.

7

Above, I attempted to quoted two lines from Star Trek, the Original Series. I made a common mistake. Dr. McKoy does not say “damn” in the first instance, and never actually says the second line. Mea culpa. I can’t find any instances of cussing in Star Trek, which I had thought was full of it.

8

I clearly remember being stunned by the MASH quote. I watched it when it was aired. That’s why I’m stunned that you would call MASH “early network television”. I’m only 38 :frowning:

9

Although it’s not early television I was kind of stunned recently when I saw a Seinfeld repeat in which George called Jerry a “Jerkoff”.

10

There was a [url="http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=330838"long thread on this just a couple of months ago.

11

Whenever I don’t preview. :smack:

There was a long thread on this just a couple of months ago.

12

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
–Kirk, final line of City on the Edge of Forever

13

Oh, no. Please don’t tell anyone I missed that. My geek liscence is already on probabtion…

14

The “how the hell did that get past the network censors” example I recall best didn’t involve any actual swear words:

Marlena: I’ve been a captain’s woman and I like it. I’ll be one again, if I have to go through every officer in the fleet!
Kirk: You could.

15

Nope. Dunno if they were first, but Hot L Baltimore featured a gay couple (George and Gordon) as regulars in 1975.

16

Were they ‘openly gay’ or just ‘funny’?

17

IIRC, they were openly gay.

I loved that show!

18

I never saw the show so I don’t know how they interacted on-screen.

19

But apparently, they were openly gay. (curse you LiveOnAPlane!)

20

It really must be noted that the profanity in question was ‘Fuck’.

The line was: