# Cussing on Early Network Television **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 18, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638 "2005-11-18T14:40:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/21 "2005-11-19T03:31:46Z")
Originally Posted by Evil Captor > [@](#): > > Note that, according to the site: > > 1981 Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” anchor Charles Rocket lets a profanity slip and is fired > > It really must be noted that the profanity in question was ‘Fuck’. > > The line was: > Quote: > Oh, man! It’s the first time in my life I’ve been shot. I’d like to know who the fuck did it. It must also be noted that the phrase “lets a profanity slip” is pretty subjective. A couple of seasons earlier on SNL, Paul Shaffer in the midst of “floggin’” this and that during a skit, let a “fuckin’” get through. That was acknowledged by all concerned as a “slip.” What Rocket said was delivered clearly and appeared to be completely deliberate. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/22 "2005-11-19T03:42:49Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > 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? The was in the 50s. I Love Lucy had to have each script where Lucy was “expecting” approved by a priest, minister, and rabbi. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/23 "2005-11-19T04:33:53Z")
So a priest, a minister and a rabbi walk into a script meeting… Yonks ago I read one of those backstage at SNL books and it talked a bit about the Rocket incident. It was widely thought, per the authors, that Rocket didn’t really do it on purpose, but it was a “cry for help” from the stress of the show’s being in freefall. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/24 "2005-11-19T14:52:38Z")
I remember a shocker on M_A_S\*H that blew me away. In season one, Hot Lips is massaging Frank’s neck with a vibrating massage thing. Hawkeye walks in and says, “Just like I always said. Behind every successful man is a woman with a good vibrator.” That’s almost an Arrested Development line. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/25 "2005-11-19T14:59:32Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > 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? It helped that both were hard boiled cops, and in this era the cops always are portrayed as “the good guys”. ---
**Author:** ![rfgdxm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c0e974/32.png) [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/26 "2005-11-19T15:11:36Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I remember a shocker on M_A_S\*H that blew me away. > > In season one, Hot Lips is massaging Frank’s neck with a vibrating massage thing. Hawkeye walks in and says, “Just like I always said. Behind every successful man is a woman with a good vibrator.” > > That’s almost an Arrested Development line. There is a more notorious example. Kirk is in a female Romulan’s quarters, and when the camera cuts away she seems sexually receptive. On the cut back, Kirk is > [@](#): > > putting on his boots! Obviously sexual. Then again, given Kirk’s rank and never being married, that he would be sexually active would be presumed. If it the reverse were implied it could be taken as he might be gay, and that would be more controversial. (The same implication with Hawkeye when he went on leave off base. Given his drunken, lascivious conduct on base, his remaining chase off base would be strange presumption. The again, Burns is consistently portrayed as being adulterous.) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/27 "2005-11-19T15:22:52Z")
There was an ep of MASH where Hawkeye said “Don’t let the bastard win.” while trying to save a patient. He was referring to Death as the bastard. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/28 "2005-11-19T15:28:14Z")
!960, NBC cut Jack Parr’s W.C. joke from the show. He walked out while on the air. “I kid you not” ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/29 "2005-11-19T15:29:40Z")
Sorry, I meant to include this: [http://www.tvacres.com/censorship\_jack.htm](http://www.tvacres.com/censorship_jack.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/30 "2005-11-19T15:38:45Z")
> [@](#): > > 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 “Son of a bitch” had been used on network tv years earlier, around 1975, on another CBS show. It was a spinoff, and the line was spoken by a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/31 "2005-11-19T16:30:07Z")
A floor director backing into a bank of 500W spotlights in 1947 was reportedly the cause of history’s first televised (audio-only) broadcast of the word “FUCK!!” Cite: anecdote, paraphrased. What more could you expect, really. Michael Ritchie, _Please Stand By: The Prehistory of Television_, 1994. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/32 "2005-11-19T16:35:43Z")
PS: It counts as network because it happened on NBC. Only 3 stations then, but hey. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/33 "2005-11-19T18:06:59Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > The was in the 50s. I Love Lucy had to have each script where Lucy was “expecting” approved by a priest, minister, and rabbi. Man, that sounds like the opening for a great joke. “A priest, a minister and a rabbi are reviewing a Lucy script.” Now I just need to think of a punch line… ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/34 "2005-11-19T20:32:57Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > “Son of a bitch” had been used on network tv years earlier, around 1975, on another CBS show. It was a spinoff, and the line was spoken by a woman. Was the woman in question uncompromisin’, enterprisin’, and anything but tranquilizin’? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/35 "2005-11-19T21:39:17Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Man, that sounds like the opening for a great joke. > “A priest, a minister and a rabbi are reviewing a Lucy script.” > Now I just need to think of a punch line… How about something like “and the rabbi said, ‘Oy, we coulc’ve avoided this whole thing if we’d just read [the next post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6813017&postcount=23)!’” ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638/36 "2005-11-20T16:12:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Was the woman in question uncompromisin’, enterprisin’, and anything but tranquilizin’? Right on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cussing-on-early-network-television/331638.md?page=1)