# Not allowed to watch certain TV shows as a child **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2014, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619 "2014-10-27T00:45:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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, 2014, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/21 "2014-10-27T06:55:47Z")
As for PBS, I wasn’t even aware it existed until they started showing _ **Monty Python** _ in the mid-70s. I had heard of _ **Civilisation** _ and _ **Upstairs, Downstairs** _, but all I knew was that they were on the “educational” channel. The first series I remember watching on PBS (aside from _ **Python** _) were _ **The Ascent of Man** _ and _ **Leonardo da Vinci** _. ---
**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:** [October 27, 2014, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/22 "2014-10-27T07:07:09Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > The Three Stooges. > > I presume my mother didn’t want my brother and I poking each other in the eyes and dragging each other around the room by the nose. Waste of her time, though. I had seen enough to not be interested in the least and even her ban didn’t make Curly, Moe and Whathisname appealing to my 6 year old self. My mom also didn’t like me watching the Three Stooges. However, it wasn’t so much the comic violence (which was so ridiculously over-the-top that she knew I was smart enough not to copy it) but the general obnoxious and insulting attitude she thought was expressed in the shorts. I guess she was afraid they’d turn me into disrespectful smartass brat. As for other shows my parents wouldn’t let me watch, I don’t recall excessive sex and violence as being factors but rather excessive dumbness. I remember in particular that was the reason why they didn’t like me watching “Gilligan’s Island” reruns even though by the time they told me, I was pretty much burned out on the show. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/23 "2014-10-27T07:15:02Z")
The only one I recall was “Quatermass & The Pit” - in fact all the Quatermass series as it was too scary. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/24 "2014-10-27T07:25:05Z")
I wanted to add something that, if I could go back in time, I would slap my mother. Our TV broke while I was at school. So I came home from school, and asked my mother, “May I watch TV?” And Mother said, “Try it and see what happens!” The way she said it, I thought I was gonna get whupped if I turned on the TV. I finally worked up the courage to flip the switch, and nothing happened. The TV was broken. Yeah, I tried it, and nothing happened. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/25 "2014-10-27T08:02:33Z")
I couldn’t watch South Park when it premiered (I can now) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/26 "2014-10-27T08:16:49Z")
During the Vietnam war my parents would not let me watch the evening news. They thought a child as young as I was should not be seeing that level of violence, especially not violence done to real people. They were correct, I think. They let me watch almost anything else, although some shows were supervised. This was a problem for mom regarding _Star Trek_ because nearly everything about the show frightened or repelled her but her offspring really liked it. ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/27 "2014-10-27T08:57:38Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > The Three Stooges. > > I presume my mother didn’t want my brother and I poking each other in the eyes and dragging each other around the room by the nose. Waste of her time, though. I had seen enough to not be interested in the least and even her ban didn’t make Curly, Moe and Whathisname appealing to my 6 year old self. My mom banned The Three Stooges because my brothers actually did start poking at each other’s eyes. It didn’t stop them from finding other ways to attack each other. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/28 "2014-10-27T11:16:59Z")
When my sister and I were very young, Mom had a very simple way of controlling what we watched: We didn’t know of the existence of any channels other than PBS. We could watch all of the Sesame Street and Mister Rogers and Electric Company we liked, and when the programming shifted to adult stuff like Masterpiece Theater, we got bored on our own and wandered off (though I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have minded if we did watch it). Well, that’s not entirely true: The babysitter’s husband watched all of the Indians games, so we also knew of the existence of Channel 43, but thought that it showed nothing but baseball. When we got older, she put a blanket ban on the general category of “good guy beats up bad guys” shows, since she didn’t want us to think that violence was a way to solve problems. She eventually made an exception for _MacGyver_, once she learned how nonviolent he actually was, and how intellectual. But no _A Team_, _Miami Vice_, or _Magnum, PI_. There were a few other shows, like _Three’s Company_, that she discouraged on general grounds of being too adult, but I don’t think that was a hard ban, just a recognition that we probably wouldn’t appreciate them. And there were plenty of shows that I don’t think she would have disapproved of but which we never watched anyway, just because we didn’t get them, or they were on when we were at school. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/29 "2014-10-27T12:11:26Z")
A friend of mine grew up on a commune. His hippie parents wouldn’t let him watch Popeye, because the big message of every single show was that, try as you might to live in peace with your neighbors, the only solution that ever works (and it ALWAYS works) is to open up a can of whoopass and pound the snot out of anybody who disagrees with you. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/30 "2014-10-27T12:45:48Z")
My parents (well, my mother) had vague opposition to some of the shows on Nickelodeon (\*You Can’t Do that on Television \*springs to mind) and also to _The Simpsons_ when it first came out, but they never had much follow-through about it. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/31 "2014-10-27T12:57:46Z")
I had older siblings so most of what was forbidden was due to the two younger kids still being too young for things, I especially remember wanting to watch The Twilight Zone. My sister eventually let me watch it with her, unknown to parents. But they were right, I WAS too young and it freaked me out! The only other time I remember such issues was the night The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan, my Dad’s boss and family were over for dinner and his kids were forbidden from watching and removed from the room. We, however were given the green light. I remember watching it the whole time and wondering what everybody was so bent about. I clearly remember telling those kids after, it was no big deal, just a band singing a song! ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/32 "2014-10-27T13:04:31Z")
Couldn’t watch _The Three Stooges_ or _Laurel and Hardy_ because of the slapstick. _Star Trek TOS_ and\* Johnny Quest\* because of the violence. _The Munsters_ and \*The Addams Family \*because they were deemed too scary. Not that my mother’s bans made a bit of difference to my sister and me. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/33 "2014-10-27T13:08:06Z")
My grandparents wouldn’t let us watch the Munsters because it portrayed vampires as harmless eccentrics. They considered vampires dangerous supernatural entities. They would also turn the television off when the Count was on Sesames Street though they thought the portrayal of the Count’s number obsession was very accurate. I have current relatives that think Twilight is evil and not because of the relationship messages it offers. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/34 "2014-10-27T13:35:21Z")
I’m another kid who was allowed free-range watching. The only time I can remember my parents even complaining about what we were watching was when my mother woke up at 4am to find my 6 y.o. brother watching a documentary on exotic dancers: Mom: Surely, there is something else on. Brother (transfixed on the T.V.): Nope, there’s nothing else on. I’m not even sure if she made him change the channel at that point. Other than that, it was only complaints about the volume we watched it at. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/35 "2014-10-27T13:41:01Z")
I remember getting griped at for watching Beavis and Butthead in the living room, but they didn’t care what I watched in my room. I remember watching things like RoboCop, Terminator, and Aliens all before I was 10. ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/36 "2014-10-27T13:43:13Z")
I remember not being allowed to watch “Soap” because it was too controversial. I also recall warnings about the show being broadcast on TV before each show aired. I was always ticked off at my parents because I had several friends who were allowed to watch it, which left me in the dark when it came to discussing last night’s episode. I was 9 or 10 at the time so I guess they were right. I couldn’t imagine being a parent of a 9 or 10 year old now and monitoring what they watch. With all the streaming services and such, it must be incredibly difficult. ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/37 "2014-10-27T13:43:19Z")
My parents were also evangelicals as I was growing up so we were not allowed to watch Bewitched because it “glorified witchcraft”. They were very uneven about this kind of thing because I was allowed to watch In Search Of, even the Amityville Horror one. I think it got a pass because my dad was a Star Trek fan and anything Leonard Nimoy did was ok. We also had to sneak Facts of Life episodes- my parents thought the girls were too smart alecky and that would rub off on us. We just watched it at our babysitters house instead. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/38 "2014-10-27T13:51:35Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > I was 9 or 10 at the time so I guess they were right. I couldn’t imagine being a parent of a 9 or 10 year old now and monitoring what they watch. With all the streaming services and such, it must be incredibly difficult. I think it’s actually easier today, because there’s always “something else” on. I don’t monitor the streaming services, I monitor my kid. I must have the world’s youngest Mary Tyler Moore fan living in my house. MeTV, DVRs and On Demand absolutely rock. ---
**Author:** ![JuliaSqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/39 "2014-10-27T14:02:15Z")
In the fifties, I wasn’t allowed to stay up and watch _Gunsmoke_ because of Miss Kitty. She ran the saloon and was of loose moral character, according to my mother. Suitable only for late night broadcast, after the kiddies were supposed to be in bed. At least the ones being raised correctly, also according to my mother. Meanwhile, some kids on the playground were imitating Chester and all I could do was laugh like I understood what was so funny. What passed for scandalous behavior then is pretty funny when you compare it to today, where the _daytime_ soaps have characters simulating sex! ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/40 "2014-10-27T14:18:55Z")
The only one I can remember was The Smothers Brothers, because they were pinkos. Not that we were trying to watch it. We were younger than its target audience and didn’t know when it would be on. But the ban was announced. I think it had been playing when we visited relatives and the announcement was made in the car on the way home. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619.md?page=3)