# First Utterance of "Curse Words" on Prime-Time **URL:** \ **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:** 2
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/21 "2005-08-18T22:27:50Z")
The Parents’ Television Council, an organization which polices television for anything indecent (and is a very silly group, in my opinion), has a timeline on their [website](http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/facts/tvtimeline.asp) of television history which includes bad and good things regarding content on television, which includes various swears (those are the bad things, of course) and when they first aired on network television. According to them: In 1981, Charles Rocket was fired from _Saturday Night Live_ after accidentially saying “fuck” on-air. Norm McDonald also said “fuck” in 1997, but was not fired. In 1986, _Cagney and Lacey_ was the first TV show to use the word “condom.” The PTC claims the first use of “asshole” they were aware of on broadcast television was 1993 (the show was not specified). Their first record of “screw” (in a sexual manner) and “piss” was 1994 (again, show not specified), and “dick” (in a sexual manner) in 1995 (show not specified). “Tits” and “bullshit” are 1997, and just plain “shit” on _Chicago Hope_ in 1999. In 2003, the FCC rejected a complaint regarding Bono’s use of “fucking” during a live Golden Globes broadcast, as the word was used as an adjective. (Don’t ask me, that’s a weird decision in my opinion. A fucking weird decision.) ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/22 "2005-08-18T22:36:08Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > 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. Ok, that’s obviously the scene I was thinking of. It sounded really stark to my (probably) eighth or ninth grade ears… ---
**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:** [August 18, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/23 "2005-08-18T22:41:06Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > 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. In the episode “The Draft Dodger”, Archie finds out that Mike & Gloria’s friend is a draft dodger who has risked arrest by coming home for Christmas and having dinner with the Bunkers. Also in attendance is a war buddy of Archie’s. The buddy lost his son in Vietnam. When the draft dodger’s cover is blown, Archie goes off on an emotional tear. He mouths the words “that goddamn war”, but “goddamn” is silenced. CBS got cold feet at the last minute. Archie thinks his buddy is gonna rip the guy a new one, but he shocks everyone by insisting the man stay becuase his own son could not be there. He says his son didn’t want to go to war, but did it as his civic duty and he held no grudge against the dodger. Archie is so upset by this that he has to leave the table. One of the best shows they ever did. Try to catch it on TVLand if you can. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/24 "2005-08-18T22:50:25Z")
> [@mobo85](#): > > The PTC claims the first use of “asshole” they were aware of on broadcast television was 1993 (the show was not specified). Well, then – they’re wrong. The first use on network broadcast TV was on ABC’s first broadcast of **Annie Hall** in 1978 or 79. Woody Allen insisted it be shown uncut, and there is the scene where Joey Nichols tells a young Alvy Singer how to remember his name (“It’s Joey five cents”). Alvy walks away, saying “What an asshole.” Legend has it that ABC had extra operators on duty that night, expecting to get complaints. There were complaints – primarly that the movie was being shown out of order. The viewers didn’t get the fact that the filmn was shown in flashbacks and were thrown by seeing it jumping around in time. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/25 "2005-08-18T23:02:43Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Well, then – they’re wrong. The first use on network broadcast TV was on ABC’s first broadcast of **Annie Hall** in 1978 or 79. The PTC was founded in 1995, so I’m guessing their archives don’t go back that far. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/26 "2005-08-18T23:29:29Z")
I don’t think Charles Rocket said “fuck” accidentally on SNL. That was obviously deliberate and was the one of the reasons why he got canned (along with the fact that the show sucked and was nose-diving in the ratings). However, over a year earlier, Paul Shaffer, while playing a member of a group of squabbling medieval musicians, did slip and utter a “fuckin’” among his dozens of exclamations of “floggin’” in the sketch. Odd thing is, there wasn’t even a ripple of uproar about it. > [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > ^^^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 Way, way, _way_ off-topic, but have you ever seen [Radio Days](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093818/)? In it, Wallace Shawn plays an actor who voices a superhero called the “Masked Avenger” for a radio show. When I saw the movie, I wondered if the idea for that joke was based on the career of Olan (“Superman”) Soule. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/27 "2005-08-18T23:36:43Z")
> [@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker](#): > > “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. I loved that one! Dazed Hippie Friend of Benjie (Blue Boy): _He said he just wanted to get further out…further out…_ Friday, in his wonderful deadpan: _Well, he made it, he’s dead._ Duh-Duh-Da, Duh-Duh-Da-Da-Da Exit the show with that dude chiseling in the roman numerals. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/28 "2005-08-19T00:15:03Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I don’t think Charles Rocket said “fuck” accidentally on SNL. That was obviously deliberate and was the one of the reasons why he got canned (along with the fact that the show sucked and was nose-diving in the ratings). However, over a year earlier, Paul Shaffer, while playing a member of a group of squabbling medieval musicians, did slip and utter a “fuckin’” among his dozens of exclamations of “floggin’” in the sketch. Odd thing is, there wasn’t even a ripple of uproar about it. Rocket has said that he didn’t plan to say it. I read one of those backstage SNL books that talked extensively about the incident and the concensus seems to be that it was something of a Freudian cry for help. The Shaffer incident was one of the ones I mentioned in my post. The other was from a musical act (I can’t remember which) but it was so indistinct that it went by unscathed. The host the night of the Rocket incident was Charlene Tilton. The situation was a parody of the “Who shot JR?” storyline, with Rocket in the JR role. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/29 "2005-08-19T16:35:58Z")
The exclamations “hell” and “damn” go farther back on American network television than most people would think. Two examples: - In 1956, NBC’s [_Ford Star Jubilee_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0047731/) presented a production of Noel Coward’s comedy _Blithe Spirit_ with the hells and damns intact. - In the 1960 NBC specal [_Destiny, West!_](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0319279/), about explorer John Charles Fremont, Fremont’s traveling companion Kit Carson looks down from a mountain pass and shouts, “Damn!” and “Damn!” again. Here’s _All in the Family_ in 1974: > [@](#): > > **Mike Stivic:** Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. > **Archie Bunker:** Cut that out, goddammit! > **Edith Bunker:** You shouldn’t swear like that. Ever since this Watergate thing it’s been GD this and GD that. > **Archie Bunker:** I didn’t swear. GD. The first word is God. How can that be a swear word? It’s the most popular word in the Bible. The second word, damn, that’s a perfectly good word, you hear it all the time, like they dam the river to keep it from flooding it. And you read in the Bible that some guy was damned for cheating or stealing or having sex in the family. And who damned him? Who else? God. God damned him. Edith, beautiful words right out of the Bible. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/30 "2005-08-19T16:49:32Z")
> [@sqweels](#): > > 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. The word was “Bullshit”, which was not bleeped. I was in middle school at the time, so it must have been 1983-84. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/31 "2005-08-19T16:50:17Z")
> [@Sauron](#): > > 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.” That’s the episode in which some general is shopping for a personal physician and sent his aide to check out the 4077[sup]th[/sup]. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/32 "2005-08-19T16:51:09Z")
> [@Julius Henry](#): > > 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. Star Trek VI and Sex and the City. There was an episode of MASH where a corespondant got drunk and stole BJ’s motorcycle. Hawkeye’s suggested headline for the story is “War correspondant gets drunk, steals motorcycle, and falls on ass.” Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/33 "2005-08-19T16:51:29Z")
Oh, and it was Potter that the aide was talking to. ---
**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:** [August 19, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/34 "2005-08-19T17:29:06Z")
Thank you, **Walloon** that’s about the way I remember it. And while it wasn’t about swearing, who remembers the “nice penis” sketch from SNL? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/35 "2005-08-19T17:34:19Z")
> [@Maus Magill](#): > > The word was “Bullshit”, which was not bleeped. I was in middle school at the time, so it must have been 1983-84. The made for TV version of \*[On Golden Pond](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0282040/) \* was in 2001. Perhaps you are confusing the 1981 movie with the TV version. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/36 "2005-08-19T17:36:09Z")
I remember Bill Murray saying “fuck” on SNL in the early 80s. I also have this vague (and probably faulty) memory of the Jackson 5 cartoon from the early 70s. They were posing as lumberjacks, and while eating breakfast, would say “Pass the damn syrup.” ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/37 "2005-08-19T17:42:48Z")
I kind of doubt it was truly the first time ‘ass’ was used on TV, but I remember early-on during the run-up to the 1980 election, someone asked President Carter what he thought would happen if Ronald Reagan ran against him. Carter’s reply was, “I’ll kick his ass.” I don’t know if that exchange was on television. However, Johnny Carson quoted Carter at least 15 times on his show that night. It really tickled him that he was allowed to say that word because the president said it first. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/38 "2005-08-19T17:52:29Z")
Sometime in (I think) the late 1980s, _60 Minutes_ interviewed Richard Nixon, who recounted events from the 1952 presidential campaign. (Quick summary: Eisenhower considered dropping Nixon from the ticket for some alleged campaign finance improprieties, but Nixon came through with the famous ‘Checkers’ speech and ultimately remained on the ticket). On _60 Minutes_, Nixon recalled his exhortation (pre-‘Checkers’ speech) for Eisenhower to make up his mind about keeping or dropping Nixon, “General, the time comes when one has to shit or get off the pot”. Mike Wallace had announced at the beginning of the show that there would be expletives, and that they had decided not to edit them out. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/39 "2005-08-19T17:56:14Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > The made for TV version of \*[On Golden Pond](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0282040/) \* was in 2001. Perhaps you are confusing the 1981 movie with the TV version. I didn’t realize there was a made for TV version. The boy (Dabney Coleman’s son) using the word bullshit was a major plot point, and I assume ABC left the word intact for that reason. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/40 "2005-08-19T17:56:47Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Well, then – they’re wrong. The first use on network broadcast TV was on ABC’s first broadcast of **Annie Hall** in 1978 or 79. Woody Allen insisted it be shown uncut, and there is the scene where Joey Nichols tells a young Alvy Singer how to remember his name (“It’s Joey five cents”). Alvy walks away, saying “What an asshole.” I suspect what they meant was the first use of the word in first-run programming, not just rebroadcast of a theaterical film. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654.md?page=3)