# 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:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/61 "2005-08-21T11:43:08Z")
Just read this morning that the first time anyone said “masturbation” (not itself a rude word really) on British TV was 1957 - don’t know the context - by [Clement Freud](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Freud), a grandson of Sigmund and perhaps better know in the UK for his dog food commercials with a bloodhound. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/62 "2005-08-21T12:19:41Z")
In [Trials of Rosie O’Neill](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098932/) (1990) Sharon Gless’ character tells her psychiatrist she’s “thinking of getting [her] tits done.” Don’t know if this predates the _Designing Women_ usage. ---
**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:** [August 21, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/63 "2005-08-21T14:17:29Z")
> [@seosamh](#): > > It’s still quite rare to hear the word “cunt” on British TV (although many viewers tend to use it out loud whenever Gyles Brandreth appears on their screens …). The earliest scripted one that I can remember was in the 1989 mini-series “Mosley” but I am sure I’d heard one before that. Monty Python’s Flying Circus _almost_ used it in the early seventies, when Eric Idle, as a man with a speech impediment who pronounces the letter “C” as “B,” declared himself a “silly bunt.” ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/64 "2005-08-21T15:54:35Z")
_Designing Women_ was the first show where I remember someone using the word “bitch” to elicit laughter instead of to show anger. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/65 "2005-08-21T16:13:28Z")
Two rather surprising (I thought) uses of swear words in recent TV: 1. Dr. Green yelling “Shit!” upon finding an unpleasant situation on _ER_. 2. In the _pilot_ of _CSI_, a new CSI accidentally gets locked in a room with a bunch of dead bodies. Grissom gets her out, and seeing how freaked out she is, lightens the situation a little by yelling “Assholes!” at them. The camera is on the other side of the (closed) door, so the sound is slightly muffled, but it’s perfectly obvious what he’s saying. It’s interesting to see how swearing is becoming more common on basic cable. Comedy Central’s bleeping of Jon Stewart is pretty inconsistant. And when Jon replayed Robert Novak’s outburst on CNN over and over again, they didn’t bother to bleep it. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/66 "2005-08-21T17:40:20Z")
Don’t remember what time it was shown, but I remember seeing [Scared Straight](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078205/) on Australian telly in the early 80’s. Lots of effin’ and blindin’ in that. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/67 "2005-08-21T18:08:54Z")
During one of the year on MASH when BJ Hunnicut was on, a wounded soldier called him a “bastard” He thought BJ was letting his(the soldier’s) friend die without treatment so the surgeons could us a leg vein of his to patch up someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/68 "2005-08-21T18:12:11Z")
Almost forgot, Cpt. Picard used the word “merde” once, muttered softly to himself. Even if it was French it was still a dirty word! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/69 "2005-08-22T13:17:04Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > _Designing Women_ was the first show where I remember someone using the word “bitch” to elicit laughter instead of to show anger. You must have missed the Weekend Update appearances by the hard-of-hearing Miss Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) on _Saturday Night Live_ in the late '70s. She would editorialize in her little old lady way about subjects like too much violins on television, or presidential erections, until Jane Curtin would correct her. “Oh, that’s different,” Emily would say, and then smile at the camera and apologize, “Never mind!” Then she would turn to Curtin and snap, “Bitch.” ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2005, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/70 "2005-08-22T13:59:28Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > You must have missed the Weekend Update appearances by the hard-of-hearing Miss Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) on _Saturday Night Live_ in the late '70s. She would editorialize in her little old lady way about subjects like too much violins on television, or presidential erections, until Jane Curtin would correct her. “Oh, that’s different,” Emily would say, and then smile at the camera and apologize, “Never mind!” > > Then she would turn to Curtin and snap, “Bitch.” _Designing Women_ was prime time. _SNL_ was late night. ---
**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 22, 2005, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/71 "2005-08-22T17:53:01Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Well, if she did, it got edited out of the ABC Family re-broadcasts. After what they did to _Blazing Saddles_, it’s hard to tell what ABC Family **won’t** edit. ---
**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 22, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/72 "2005-08-22T18:57:18Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > A correction to what **kunilou** wrote: Prime Time runs from 8:00 (not 7:30) to 11:00 p.m. on the East Coast and West Coast; in the Central and Mountain time zones it runs from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Prime Time is network programming. Technically, that first half hour is considered “prime time access.” It formery was used for network programs until the FCC directed it be turned back to the local stations for their own use. And just to correct my own point, on Sundays, prime time starts one hour earlier. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654/73 "2005-08-22T21:39:14Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > On _I Love Lucy_, Lucy was pregnant, but they never used the word “pregnant.” She was having a baby, she was expecting, but she wasn’t pregnant. Also every script had to be vetted by a priest, minister, and rabbi. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-utterance-of-curse-words-on-prime-time/317654.md?page=3)