Originally Posted by Evil Captor
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.
The was in the 50s. I Love Lucy had to have each script where Lucy was “expecting” approved by a priest, minister, and rabbi.
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.
I remember a shocker on MAS*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.
It helped that both were hard boiled cops, and in this era the cops always are portrayed as “the good guys”.
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
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.)
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.
!960, NBC cut Jack Parr’s W.C. joke from the show. He walked out while on the air. “I kid you not”
Sorry, I meant to include this: http://www.tvacres.com/censorship_jack.htm
“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.
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.
PS: It counts as network because it happened on NBC. Only 3 stations then, but hey.
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…
Was the woman in question uncompromisin’, enterprisin’, and anything but tranquilizin’?
How about something like “and the rabbi said, ‘Oy, we coulc’ve avoided this whole thing if we’d just read the next post!’”
Right on.