# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/81 "2014-10-29T02:56:25Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Which was misguided, because in the live-action series at least, Dennis was the complete opposite. He was a helpful, respectful young man who minded his elders, especially Mr. Wilson, whom he adored. Dennis could be mischievous, but he mostly got in trouble because of innocent childish misunderstandings. That is hilarious. I wouldn’t know because unlike other things I was forbidden to watch, I really didn’t give a shit about this show and never bothered. It would be somewhat amusing to point out how wrong she was about this, but it would be more trouble than it’s worth, plus I don’t care anymore. It pleases me to know this, though, so thanks for that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/82 "2014-10-29T03:31:10Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Gunsmoke. Too violent. My father wouldn’t let me watch Gsmoke for a slightly different reason. According to him he watched an episode where a good guy snuck up behind a bad guy and stabbed him in the back My father said good guys don’t stab people in the back. So no Gsmoke for me. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/83 "2014-10-29T04:54:15Z")
My parents never forbade me any TV show. I do remember the Catholic school nuns saying we (eighth graders) were forbidden from watching “The Untouchables”. They gave no reason, but presumably it was forbidden because of the violence. I watched it perhaps only once or twice because I just didn’t find it entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/84 "2014-10-29T04:58:27Z")
> [@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. You gave up on them too early; a six-year-old normally doesn’t appreciate the humor possibilities of camp. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/85 "2014-10-29T05:02:33Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > ST:TOS was one of the few shows my family watched together in the 1970s. Curiously, I remember one girl in my college dorm who said her parents hadn’t allowed her to watch ST:TOS; I never did find out the reasoning behind it. This would have been around 1976 or so. ---
**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 29, 2014, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/86 "2014-10-29T05:13:03Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > You gave up on them too early; a six-year-old normally doesn’t appreciate the humor possibilities of camp. Or maybe he started too late. I was a Stooges fan from the age of three. And I had my preferences. I liked Curly better than Shemp. I didn’t know they were brothers then. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/87 "2014-10-29T19:56:07Z")
For some reason my parents banned “Turkey Television” from Nickelodeon. I googled it just now to see what on earth it could have contained and it looked like absolutely nothing objectionable. I wonder why they banned it…hmmm. Has anyone seen it? Can anyone enlighten me? Not a parent banning, but my Kooky Aunt decided to berate my parents for letting me watch the “Where’s Waldo Show” because it was too violent. 😕 ---
**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 29, 2014, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/88 "2014-10-29T20:05:19Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > You gave up on them too early; a six-year-old normally doesn’t appreciate the humor possibilities of camp. “Camp” is probably the last word I would use to describe the Stooges. _ **Batman** _ was camp. The Stooges were just … moronic. But, like Beavis and Butt-Head, moronic in a _good_ way; I remember laughing my ass off at them when I was four years old (maybe even younger). I once tried explaining who the Stooges were and what their humor was like to my ex, who is Russian. Words failed me entirely! ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/89 "2014-10-29T20:07:50Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Curiously, I remember one girl in my college dorm who said her parents hadn’t allowed her to watch ST:TOS; I never did find out the reasoning behind it. > > This would have been around 1976 or so. I once met an ex-fundamentalist who’d never been allowed to watch \*\*\*Scooby Doo \*\*\*cartoons because his mother believed they promoted the occult. When I told him there were no real ghosts or monsters on the show, that the “monsters” always turned out to be human con artists in rubber costumes, he just shrugged and said, “Tell my Mom.” ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/90 "2014-10-29T20:21:38Z")
> [@Little\_Bird](#): > > For some reason my parents banned “Turkey Television” from Nickelodeon. I googled it just now to see what on earth it could have contained and it looked like absolutely nothing objectionable. I wonder why they banned it…hmmm. Has anyone seen it? Can anyone enlighten me? > > Not a parent banning, but my Kooky Aunt decided to berate my parents for letting me watch the “Where’s Waldo Show” because it was too violent. 😕 I loved Turkey TV! It was a Canadian comedy clip/sketch show out of the You Can Do That on Television lineage that also included outside content as well. My favorite recurring sketch they did was Soviet newscaster “Ivan Telalye”. I remember Dana Carvey stand-up bits showed up a lot ("Choppin’ Broccoli " in particular), the Fish Heads song, Weird Al videos, dialog-less European cartoons, the [Uncle Floyd Show](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Vivino), etc. Some of the Uncle Floyd sketches were on the gross out side, maybe your parents saw one of those and banned it… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/91 "2014-10-30T05:42:06Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Or maybe he started too late. I was a Stooges fan from the age of three. And I had my preferences. I liked Curly better than Shemp. I didn’t know they were brothers then. Well everyone liked Curley, though Shemp had his moments and was probably a better/more versatile all-round actor than Curley. The odd thing with me is that at least until age 10 I didn’t care a whit for funny cartoons or live-action shows. I like jokes as much as any other kid, but humor embodied in a story playing out on a black and white TV screen didn’t do anything for me. I’m not even sure I actually knew who the Stooges were at that point. When I got older I appreciated not only the camp factor I mentioned but just as much the entire bizarre and antique (to me) world in which their films were set. ---
**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 30, 2014, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/92 "2014-10-30T08:59:46Z")
When I was a kid, the Stooges were more immediate to me. I first saw them on Paul Shannon’s “Adventure Time” on WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh. He often had Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe as guests on his show and they made appearances in the area. They weren’t some long-dead comedians. Even Shemp and Curly Howard had only been dead for ten years or less. I thought of them almost as local celebrities because of their appearances on TV and around the area. And they were still making movies. Their last one, “The Outlaws Is Coming,” featuring Adam West, later of “Batman” fame, came out in 1965 and was heavily promoted on Shannon’s show. There was also a series of animated Three Stooges Shorts that had live-action wraparounds surrounding the cartoons and also starred the voices of Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe. Pardon the long-winded hijack. I was never forbidden to watch the Stooges. They kept me out of trouble while Mom was making dinner. This actually would have fit better in the old school TV thread. ---
**Author:** ![Cees-R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@Cees-R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cees-R)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/93 "2014-10-30T11:15:07Z")
I can’t remember the TV shows that I wasn’t allowed to watch. But honestly, I still watch children’s TV shows, I prefer watching SpongeBob and Disney Channel sitcoms over the boring Reality\Drama shows that are always on TV here. I do watch sitcoms for grown up people though. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/94 "2014-10-30T15:34:51Z")
I wasn’t allowed to watch The Jack Benny Show. It was on past my bedtime. Never saw Jack Paar either for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/95 "2014-11-01T17:10:33Z")
Not allowed to watch the Brady Bunch–I guess my mother thought seeing a “perfect” family might warp our minds. Couldn’t watch soap operas, probably because my mother thought they were stupid. Beverly Hillbillies was out, I think because my mother thought it made fun of Kentuckians and therefore would upset us. M_A_S_H_ was “not for kids.” We were allowed to watch the Vietnam and Mid-Eastern wars. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/96 "2014-11-01T17:26:09Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > My mother was convinced that Benny Hill was a dirty old man (and that’s a point I have to concede) and shouldn’t have ever been shown as early as it was on our local PBS station (usually 7PM). We had to sneak-watch. Heh, some of my earliest memories are watching Benny Hill and Three’s Company with my dad almost every day. I don’t recall being forbidden from watching any TV show, but I wasn’t allowed to watch R movies at all during my grade school years. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/97 "2014-11-01T17:30:16Z")
We weren’t allowed to watch M_A_S\*H because my dad didn’t want us to think there is anything funny or entertaining about war. Honestly, I’ve never seen an episode. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/98 "2014-11-01T17:42:38Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > Couldn’t watch soap operas, probably because my mother thought they were stupid. Beverly Hillbillies was out, I think because my mother thought it made fun of Kentuckians and therefore would upset us. Odd, since the Clampetts were from Tennessee. :dubious: Back in '75, I had a girlfriend in Madison, WI, whose mother was a staunch Midwestern–Methodist–card-carrying Republican. Game shows were strictly OUT, as were Sonny and Cher. What Maxine’s attitude toward soap operas was, I was not around her long enough to find out. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/99 "2014-11-01T19:19:54Z")
The series never specified where the Clampetts came from. > [@](#): > > The creators of the series seemed to place the Beverly Hillbillies as having previously lived somewhere in a mountainous area of the Southern US, yet beyond this, consistent information about specifically which part of the South they were from is not available. While Granny frequently mentioned that she was born and raised around Limestone, Tennessee, near Greensville (sic), (actually Greeneville), the series never specified the state from which the Clampetts moved to California. > **[The Beverly Hillbillies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies#Overview)** > > The Beverly Hillbillies is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor backwoods family from the Ozark Mountains of Missouri who move to posh Beverly Hills, California after striking oil on their land. The show was produced by Filmways and was created by Paul Henning. It was followed by two other Henning-inspired "country cousin" series on CBS: Pett ---
**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:** [November 1, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619/100 "2014-11-01T19:40:30Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > The series never specified where the Clampetts came from. > > [The Beverly Hillbillies - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies#Overview) I don’t have time to read the entire article right now, but I do remember that when they turned out in Confederate uniform at one point, it was that of the Tennessee Volunteers. It may not have been specifically stated that they were from Tennessee, but it was heavily implied. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-allowed-to-watch-certain-tv-shows-as-a-child/702619.md?page=6)