# If TV censorship had been less restrictive back in the day... **URL:** \ **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:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/61 "2015-10-25T18:51:25Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Gomer would have had something other than a “father” fixation on Sgt Carter. Don’t ask, don’t tell. 🙂 ---
**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:** [October 25, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/62 "2015-10-25T21:29:06Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > …Were divorced people ever even mentioned in those days? Or children born out of wedlock? Apart from the soaps, I mean… Vivian Vance’s character on **The Lucy Show** was a divorcee, but that was seldom mentioned aside from the odd alimony joke. Her ex never showed up onscreen. > [@Flyer](#): > > I’m sure a whole bunch of people would have loved to see Laura Petrie naked… IIRC there was an episode where a nude painting of her surfaced (she didn’t actually pose nude; the artist used his imagination). Naturally the painting itself was never shown. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/63 "2015-10-25T22:06:14Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > It would have been much plainer that Gunsmoke’s Miss Kitty was running a brothel. [Hank Hill is very disappointed in you.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd9F05wqu7w) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/64 "2015-10-25T22:13:32Z")
When Paladin had a woman in his room, he’d get interrupted after the fun, not before. Though I must admit in the very first show he is introduced as he goes down the stairs to the lobby along with a woman who has a quite satisfied smile. And the would be able to mention gas in the TV version of “Judgement at Nuremberg.” ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/65 "2015-10-25T22:23:00Z")
Jack would be allowed to living an apartment with two girls regardless of his sexual preference. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/66 "2015-10-26T00:14:33Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Jack would be allowed to living an apartment with two girls regardless of his sexual preference. Even if the building owner was some tight-assed fundy? ---
**Author:** ![jsquire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@jsquire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsquire)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/67 "2015-10-26T00:35:16Z")
Match Game wouldn’t have been as fun if there were no rules to bend. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/68 "2015-10-26T05:44:16Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Jeannie would have probably not have called Tony “Master” and not lived in a bottle. Oh, she’d have called Tony “Master.” 😉 But she would not have lived in a bottle … she would have had a nice, roomy cage. > [@](#): > > But she could have shown her belly-button. Among other things … ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/69 "2015-10-26T07:01:58Z")
_The A-Team_ would be a bloodbath. And _Petticoat Junction_ would’ve been my favourite show. ---
**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:** [October 26, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/70 "2015-10-26T17:11:39Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > In the early days of TV, I’m not sure if the separate beds for parents was required due to legal censorship or chosen to avoid public censure. [Mary Kay and Johnny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_and_Johnny), considered to be the first-ever sitcom, showed a married couple sharing a bed way back in 1947. There was no regulation against it, not even a Hays Office type production code. Sponsors owned the programs back then, and sponsors wanted to avoid anything that even smelled like controversy. The show that actually broke the twin bed barrier was, believe it or not, _Ozzie and Harriet._ The home the show was set in was pretty much an exact duplicate of their real-life house, and they insisted that since they were sleeping in one bed IRL, there was no reason not to on TV. They won the argument because they owned the show. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/71 "2015-10-26T17:48:26Z")
TV censorship was FANTASTICALLY restrictive back in the 50s and 60s – it was basically all children’s programming. Newton Minnow’s “vast wasteland” indeed. Entertaining without offending generally tends to produce boring entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/72 "2015-10-26T18:23:47Z")
Imagine what kind of hijinks The Partridge Family would have gotten up to after their concerts without censorship. No, wait, don’t do that. I don’t want to be responsible for any horribleness you can’t unimagine. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/73 "2015-10-26T19:11:57Z")
There’d have been more scope for innuendo jokes based on kids innocently misinterpreting things: “Daddy, what’s bondage?” \ (poker face) “How do you mean?” “It says in the Bible ‘I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’” “It’s another word for slavery”. “Oh; ok!” (dad facepalms with relief) OR “Mom says she likes Howard’s Johnson” “That’s _Howard Johnson’s_”! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/74 "2015-10-27T12:23:15Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > Imagine what kind of hijinks The Partridge Family would have gotten up to after their concerts without censorship. Keith would never have said “Of course I like girls, but only one at a time!” Come to think of it, neither would I. :o ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/75 "2015-10-27T13:40:39Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > TV censorship was FANTASTICALLY restrictive back in the 50s and 60s – it was basically all children’s programming. Newton Minnow’s “vast wasteland” indeed. Entertaining without offending generally tends to produce boring entertainment. I disagree if you are referring to anything more than sitcoms. Until _All in the Family_ hit the airwaves, sitcoms were pretty bland. Shows like _Peyton Place_ could get pretty seamy, though, and the drama anthology shows aired some pretty hard hitting stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613/76 "2015-10-27T22:52:46Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > On _Happy Days_, the Fonz would be boosting cars and selling them for parts. There would be nonstop sex sounds coming from Fonzie’s room above the garage. I recall an episode of “Happy Days” in which Richie asked Fonzie what he does with the girls in his room. Whatever explanations he gave made me wonder why Richie was so interested. For a guy with girls constantly hanging all over him, Fonzie was strangely non-sexual. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-tv-censorship-had-been-less-restrictive-back-in-the-day/735613.md?page=3)