The only restriction that I had was bedtime. It was frustrating because you would see commercials for the upcoming series that were on too late. I still remember the very first thing that I was allowed to stay up past 10:00 to watch: The miniseries Eleanor and Franklin. To this day, I still love Jane Alexander and Edward Herrmann. The first regularly scheduled T.V. series I was allowed to stay up and watch was Lucas Tanner, starring David Hartman.
We watched almost everything, including *All in the Family *and Soap, together as a family.
There were no restrictions until one Saturday night when whoever was doing the news on SNL reported that “scientists report that they have perfected the bionic penis. The only problem is that you have to come in for a 100 inch check up.” My dad hit the ROOF. That was it for SNL in our house. After I got into college, he apparently forgot the ban because I came home at Christmas and he and my brother were watching it together.
We didn’t really have lots of “banned shows” because my brother and I didn’t know much about shows that we couldn’t watch. “Fox trash” like Married With Children were banned, but we hardly cared. The Simpsons was allowed, though.
I do remember wanting to watch Nirvana’s Unplugged on MTV, but my Dad wouldn’t let me because Cobain killed himself. They would not let me have a Nirvana shirt, either.
As I recently mentioned, I was one of those kids who had his “Might and Magic” video game taken away due to the anti-D&D campaign that was popular in churches in the 80’s. They did buy me a replacement game, though.
I don’t think I was actually banned from watching any particular show but I remember being nagged to watch something other than Married… with Children, wrestling, and Beavis & Butthead.
Leonid Kinskey, who played the tailor Vladimir Minsk in the pilot, decided not to do the series because he found the concept “offensive.” In his words, “Nazis were seldom dumb and never funny.”
I had no restrictions other than bedtime which was 8:30, but I was allowed to negotiate it as I got older. When we only had one TV, I had to watch what my parents watched, but when we got a second TV, I was in my own. All we had were ABC, NBC, and CBS, though.
“Dukes of Hazzard”, first season only. The second season onward was more kid-friendly so they didn’t mind as much, plus the TV got relocated to the lower level after we moved.
I was 10 years old in 1971 when All in the Family started. It was on at 9:30 on Sunday nights. My dad thought it was very inappropriate for kids. I would argue with him every Sunday. I think at one point he suddenly proclaimed bedtime was 9:30 from then on. He must have eventually given in. My mom was not as strict as he was so he was all alone in the battle. I remember on the school bus one Monday morning all of us kids were talking about the All in the Family episode from the night before. We thought it was so funny that Archie said "crapola. Where did the innocence go?!
Nothing was forbidden, although of course, I had bedtimes up until high school. They ignored me reading in bed, but a tv wasn’t allowed.
My, how they HATED the pro wrestling that I loved. I think it was mainly because of the poor grammar many wrestlers used in their interviews. I was still allowed to watch, although I did notice most of my wrestling memorabilia was the first to get tossed as I went off to college.
The Dukes of Hazzard, which my parents thought taught a lack of respect toward police. (I was allowed to watch BJ and the Bear, which didn’t have much respect for the law either.) Laverne and Shirley was also out; my mother didn’t approve of the main characters.
I want to say Bevis and Butthead, but I was never interested in watching it, really. I think I tried once because it was forbidden, then realized the show sucked.
I remember watching Married With Children a lot, and they were never against the Simpsons, just not the biggest fans.
Fortunately for 7th grade me, they have no idea what South Park was at the time (probably still don’t)
I never even noticed. Went right over my head. Turns out I didn’t like the show anyway, but any “adult” innuendo was lost on me.
Same with Mary Tyler Moore. I thought the show was pretty tame, sex-wise (except for Sue Ann). When I rewatched the series a few years ago, I couldn’t believe how much innuendo was in there! It was like a totally different show. I’d missed it all.
Dad did the remote to the TV station for wrestling. My cousin Cathy got some hair pins from Gorgeous George. GG and his opponent tried to kill each other in Little Rock, then packed their stuff into the same suitcase to take a bus to Memphis.
I don’t recall that there was any show I wasn’t allowed to watch; however, I was not allowed to watch TV on school nights (I could watch Sunday as homework was long done by then). There was nothing too bad on TV when I wa a kid watching.
Nothing was forbidden in the sense that “you are not allowed to watch that”. Lots of things were effectively forbidden by the edict “Turn that stuff OFF! I am not going to listen to that annoying drivel in my house!! How can you watch that?!? You’re going to rot your brain!”
