# If TV censorship had been less restrictive back in the day...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 24, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613 "2015-10-24T13:33:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/1 "2015-10-24T13:33:00Z")
… how might your favorite shows been different?
Surely Rob and Laura Petrie would have slept in the same bed. But would the Ricardos and the Mertzes have swapped partners?? :eek: What would the Ponderosa have been like? How might your favorite show have changed if today’s rules applied way back then?
At a minimum, I see hijinks as the male castaways make their way to the girls’ hut…
Whaddaya think?
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### Author:  [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/2 "2015-10-24T17:29:24Z")
Hmmm… perhaps, if they could have gotten laid now and again, the Cartwright boys wouldn’t have become notorious serial killers?
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/3 "2015-10-24T17:36:49Z")
McGarrett would have called a traitor working for the Red Chinese something stronger than a “dirty, double-dealing fink.”
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/4 "2015-10-24T17:40:08Z")
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a fuck.”
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### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/5 "2015-10-24T17:41:10Z")
We might have gotten to see Sally Struthers naked when that would still have been a desirable event.
Saturday Night Live would have been overtly filthier, I think.
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### Author:  [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/6 "2015-10-24T17:44:39Z")
Gilligan’s Island would have been a lot more interesting.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/7 "2015-10-24T17:45:02Z")
The costumes on _ **Star Trek: TOS** _ would have been far more revealing than they already were.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/8 "2015-10-24T17:45:21Z")
It would have been much plainer that Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty was running a brothel.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/9 "2015-10-24T17:51:43Z")
There would have been a lot more gore on shows like _ **The Untouchables** _ and _ **Combat!** _
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/10 "2015-10-24T17:53:58Z")
All I know is that the guy in Small Wonder who went to all that trouble to make a completely life-like robot in the shape of a little girl would probably be locked up for life.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/11 "2015-10-24T18:36:10Z")
Uncle Arthur might have become TV’s first openly gay character. Or are there gay warlocks?
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### Author:  [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/12 "2015-10-24T18:44:40Z")
Jeannie would have probably not have called Tony “Master” and not lived in a bottle.
But she could have shown her belly-button.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/13 "2015-10-24T19:10:10Z")
The Nazis on _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _ would have been a lot less funny. ☹
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/14 "2015-10-24T19:12:52Z")
Tonto would have been beaten up a lot worse every time he went into town to buy supplies.
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/15 "2015-10-24T19:15:08Z")
Any blacks who tried to settle in a small community like Walnut Grove would have been run out of town (or worse).
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/16 "2015-10-24T19:32:08Z")
Major West and Judy would have been coming out from behind the styrofoam boulders all flushed and sticky a lot.
Flo’s line would have been “Kiss mah ASS!”
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/17 "2015-10-24T19:32:38Z")
_“Ward, you were awfully hard on The Beaver last night.”_
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/18 "2015-10-24T19:34:40Z")
Beaver would have used the gun Ward kept in his den to kill Eddie Haskell.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/19 "2015-10-24T20:07:25Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#):
>
> Jeannie would have probably not have called Tony “Master” and not lived in a bottle.
Sure she would. It just would have been a _lot_ kinkier.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/20 "2015-10-24T21:07:16Z")
My first two thoughts were _Gilligan’s Island_ and Jeannie’s belly button, too.
We are in such a rut.
Let’s see, _Betwitched_ … threesome with Serena?
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