# First Utterance of "Curse Words" on Prime-Time
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 18, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654 "2005-08-18T20:52:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/1 "2005-08-18T20:52:39Z")
Wife and I were watching **Gunsmoke: Return To Dodge** (1987) on DVD the other day, and stolid Newly called Steve Forrest a **bastard**!!!
This got us to contemplating when certain words were first used on a prime-time series, special, movie of the week, or network broadcast of a feature film.
The first character I heard use the word “ass,” other than for an animal or making one of oneself was Tyne Daly on an episode of **Cagney and Lacey** , probably from the late-80s/early-90s.
PBS and cable doesn’t count.
Anybody know of firsts for such words as: hell, damn, ass, bastard, son-of-a-bitch, piss, balls, etc.?
I assume the F-Bomb and the S-Bomb have not yet been uttered on the non-cable networks.
Sir Rhosis
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/2 "2005-08-18T20:54:29Z")
I think “asshole” made its debut on NYPD Blue.
I heard “son of a bitch” on Maude way back in the 70s.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/3 "2005-08-18T21:10:36Z")
Didn’t Bono o U2 drop the F-bomb on an awards show on network TV? I recall the FCC intially sayint it wasn’t a violation because it was used as an adjective but later reversed it.
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### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/4 "2005-08-18T21:11:10Z")
I remember being shocked at hearing Hawkeye say “ass” on an episode of M_A_S\*H late in its run, probably in '82 or thereabouts.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/5 "2005-08-18T21:12:55Z")
Now that you mention it I recall the Bono incident. How about first “intentional” or scripted use of expletives.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/6 "2005-08-18T21:13:48Z")
> [@Padeye](#):
>
> Didn’t Bono o U2 drop the F-bomb on an awards show on network TV? I recall the FCC intially sayint it wasn’t a violation because it was used as an adjective but later reversed it.
Definitely not the first instance. Charles Rocket said “fuck” on _Saturday Night Live_ in 1980 (and there were at least two suspected incidents also from SNL that happened earlier but the tapes are unclear).
I have always heard that Kirk saying “let’s get the hell out of here” in “City on the Edge of Forever” was the first use of the word “hell” in that context.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/7 "2005-08-18T21:14:53Z")
May Hawkeye have said it on the final 2 1/2 hour episode?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/8 "2005-08-18T21:16:55Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#):
>
> Wife and I were watching **Gunsmoke: Return To Dodge** (1987) on DVD the other day, and stolid Newly called Steve Forrest a **bastard**!!!
Hawkeye said “Don’t let the bastard win” in an episode of M_A_S\*H back in the mid-70’s.
Capt. Kirk said “Let’s get the hell out of here” in the episode “City of the Edge of Forever” of Star Trek in 1967.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/9 "2005-08-18T21:17:11Z")
“Damn” was used in the Jack Webb frequent flyer Olan Soule in the infamous “Blue Boy” ep of the 1960s “Dragnet,” airing in January 1967.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/10 "2005-08-18T21:21:33Z")
^^^Way way off-topic, but it’s my thread. Soule was a great character actor, but I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that this diminutive fella was the voice of Superman on, iirc, “Superfriends.”!
Sir Rhosis
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### Author:  [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/11 "2005-08-18T21:28:38Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#):
>
> May Hawkeye have said it on the final 2 1/2 hour episode?
He might have, but that’s not where I saw it; even though I adored the show, I have somehow never seen the final episode.
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### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/12 "2005-08-18T21:30:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I assume the F-Bomb and the S-Bomb have not yet been uttered on the non-cable networks.
The remade-for TV version of _On Golden Pond_ had a teenaged character saying, “Aw Grandpa, she’s just shittin’ you” and David Letterman gleefully played the clip over and over while his own use of the s-bomb got bleeped.
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### Author:  [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/13 "2005-08-18T21:31:21Z")
> [@jackelope](#):
>
> He might have, but that’s not where I saw it; even though I adored the show, I have somehow never seen the final episode.
I can’t remember if it was the final episode or not but he definitely said it. The scene had to do with Korean military officers leading away someone the MASH unit was trying to hide. Hawkeye stepped up and cursed the soldiers. It sounds tame now but I remember it being really shocking at the time.
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### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/14 "2005-08-18T21:35:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Definitely not the first instance. Charles Rocket said “fuck” on Saturday Night Live in 1980 (and there were at least two suspected incidents also from SNL that happened earlier but the tapes are unclear).
That reminds me of an earlier SNL skip where John Belushi, playing a Latino street punk complaining about school, said “All they teach you is chit…and chat…”.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/15 "2005-08-18T21:35:40Z")
I’m misremembering. In the finale, Hawkeye called Sidney a “son-of-a-bitch” for making the memory of the smothered baby resurface.
Sir Rhosis
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### Author:  [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/16 "2005-08-18T21:39:57Z")
“Tit” was used in an episode of Designing Women where Mary Jo was contemplating breast enhancement. She wore special bra-stuffers for a while to get used to the idea and her personality underwent drastic change. One of the other women (Charlene?) called her the “tit-monster.” (I guffawed.)
–Cliffy
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### Author:  [@Sauron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sauron)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/17 "2005-08-18T21:58:05Z")
To follow up on the M_A_S_H_ conversation …
Hawkeye said “Don’t let the bastard win” during an operating-room scene; he was talking to the patient on the table. I think this was the episode in which a correspondent came to do a story on the unit. The correspondent (or somebody else … whoever was the guest star in that episode) asked BJ who Hawkeye was referring to. BJ said “Death.”
Hawkeye said “son of a bitch” at least twice in the series … once, as noted above, in the finale, and once when a South Korean officer and his two guards brought in a wounded woman for treatment. They explained that she was a North Korean spy, and after she was patched up they were taking her to be tortured and questioned. Hawkeye and BJ tried to smuggle her out of the camp once she’d been operated on, but the officer anticipated them and caught them. Hawkeye called him a son of a bitch during that confrontation.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/18 "2005-08-18T22:18:31Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> I have always heard that Kirk saying “let’s get the hell out of here” in “City on the Edge of Forever” was the first use of the word “hell” in that context.
I’ve heard that, too. Certainly it was the first time I’d ever heard it used on TV.
I have a vague, unverifiable memory that Archie Bunker used the phrase “Goddamn” on _All in the Family_ . Furthermore, when Edith expressed shock, he explained it by saying that they were two perfectly good words, used in the Bible many times.
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### Author:  [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/19 "2005-08-18T22:22:54Z")
From 1978, we have [The Bastard](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077212/), a mini series starring Andrew Stevens, Lorne Greene, Cameron Mitchell, and a young woman named Kim Cattrall. I wonder whatever became of her.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/20 "2005-08-18T22:25:54Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#):
>
> Anybody know of firsts for such words as: hell, damn, ass, bastard, son-of-a-bitch, piss, balls, etc.?
The first time I remember a reference to testicles was Jill Eikenberry on _L.A. Law_ saying one of her clients didn’t have the “stones” to do something. I remember being surprised by it.
> [@Sir Rhosis](#):
>
> I assume the F-Bomb and the S-Bomb have not yet been uttered on the non-cable networks.
_NYPD Blue_ routinely had characters saying “bullshit” in later seasons. One of my favorite lines from the show, speaking of profanity, was from the pilot. Sylvia says “res ipsa loquitor” to Sipowicz, who responds (while grabbing his crotch) “Ipsa dis, ya pissy little bitch!”
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