Shocking moments in sitcom history

Cafe Society
61

[QUOTE=What Exit?]

<snip>
Archie and Meat Head got trapped in the basement of the Bar and they proceeded to get drunk and while wrapped for warmth in a bird dropping covered awning, Archie reveals what a shitty relationship he actually had with his Dad, accept Archie does not seem to realize it was shitty, but we see Mike having an epiphany about why Archie is Archie. Not quite shocking, but a stunning episode.

Jim
[/QUOTE]

I’ve been watching some “Leave It To Beaver” reruns, and have heard Ward occasionally comment on how his father was quick with the strap when Ward was younger and did something wrong. Not that Ward’s father was abusive, it was just how many parents disciplined their kids in that era. It occurred to me that Ward Cleaver and Archie Bunker could be two sides of the same coin. Ward had a good education and was a tolerant and wise parent to Wally and the Beaver, while Archie was intolerant and often ignorant, and most times only grudgingly came around to accept that another person’s beliefs could be valid. It’s very fortunate that Edith seemed to have a larger influence over Gloria’s character than Archie did.

  • I know the two series were 20 years apart, but Archie and Ward both seem to be from the same generation, born in the 1920’s, and coming of age in the 30’s and 40’s.
62

I’ve been watching old episodes of Taxi, and there’s an episode when Elaine starts dating a guy she was really interested in, but he seems kind of distant. It turns out that the guy had been trying to pick up on Tony, and he calmly explains that he’s a bisexual. Elaine and Tony are both surprised, but not really shocked or put out. It’s definitely played for laughs but not like I would expect such a story line to go. It made me wonder if this is at all shocking? Or were television viewers in 1980 pretty okay with a guy implying he wants a 3some?

63

The episode of WKRP called “In Concert” about The Who concert where eleven people were crushed to death while trying to get in for the festival seating. The look of shock on Mr. Carlson’s face when he realizes that some innocent people had died while he was enjoying a concert that he helped promote was unforgettable.

64

[QUOTE=cochrane]
I’ve been watching some “Leave It To Beaver” reruns, and have heard Ward occasionally comment on how his father was quick with the strap when Ward was younger and did something wrong. Not that Ward’s father was abusive, it was just how many parents disciplined their kids in that era. It occurred to me that Ward Cleaver and Archie Bunker could be two sides of the same coin. Ward had a good education and was a tolerant and wise parent to Wally and the Beaver, while Archie was intolerant and often ignorant, and most times only grudgingly came around to accept that another person’s beliefs could be valid. It’s very fortunate that Edith seemed to have a larger influence over Gloria’s character than Archie did.
[/QUOTE]

I’d dispute the differences, or at least note that we’re looking at them from two different worlds. The world of Leave It To Beaver was absolutely unchanging, midwestern, Republican and lily-white. Everyone we saw was Christian or “respectable” Jewish. It was an idealist’s view of the 1950s.

Archie, on the other hand, was coming out of the tumultous sixties into the radical seventies in New York City. His was a world that changed by the hour and he was smack-dab in the middle of a percolating soup cauldron of different colors, cultures, languages, religions and political beliefs.

I’m fairly certain, given the almost universal attitude in the 50s, that if a black family had tried to move into a house down the block from the Cleavers, and if LITB dealt in realistic situations, Ward would be on the committee that was trying to keep them out. He’d probably be quite polite and diplomatic about it, but he would probably be on the side of “not in my neighborhood”. He also would not be dispensing wise advice about tolerance to his children if, say, Wally had fallen for an African-American girl, if the high school there were even integrated at that point.

It’s not as simple as taking them as they’re presented to us. They’re presented to us in two entirely different genres of television.

65

The only Arrested line that really shocked me was the one about Lucille’s “musty old claptrap.”
Only after a big pause does Michael realize she’s talking about the family’s cabin in the woods.

66

[QUOTE=cochrane]
Nah, that’s OK. I like to pick nits, too.

It was a cake. Edith was baking it for her 50th birthday and was going to take it next door where Archie, Mike, and Gloria were waiting to throw her a party.

TV Land aired the episode about two or three weeks ago.
[/QUOTE]

I find it shocking she’d have to bake her own birthday cake.

67

I think Facts of Life did an episode where Tootie was almost taken in by a pimp and a hooker…?

Aso when Jo was attacked while out on a date with a rich, snotty friend of Blair’s.

68

There was an episode of ALF where the daughter and her boyfriend (I believe) drive off to Vegas to elope. ALF is with for whatever reason and, at one point, during a “special moment talk” between the daughter and ALF, the boyfriend excuses himself by saying “I’m going to go to the bathroom and throw myself a bachelor party.”

Later, the boyfriend returns and ALF asks how the party went.
“Not very good. No one came.”

Perhaps it doesn’t reach the same pantheon as Edith getting attacked but I sure made me do a double-take.

69

[QUOTE=Poysyn]
I think Facts of Life did an episode where Tootie was almost taken in by a pimp and a hooker…?

Aso when Jo was attacked while out on a date with a rich, snotty friend of Blair’s.
[/QUOTE]

Then there was the one where Natalie was the first of the four girls to lose her virginity… at, like, 20. :eek: !

Of course, the writers decided to have Jo act like the prude. :rolleyes:

70

[QUOTE=jayjay]
I’d dispute the differences, or at least note that we’re looking at them from two different worlds. The world of Leave It To Beaver was absolutely unchanging, midwestern, Republican and lily-white. Everyone we saw was Christian or “respectable” Jewish. It was an idealist’s view of the 1950s.

Archie, on the other hand, was coming out of the tumultous sixties into the radical seventies in New York City. His was a world that changed by the hour and he was smack-dab in the middle of a percolating soup cauldron of different colors, cultures, languages, religions and political beliefs.

I’m fairly certain, given the almost universal attitude in the 50s, that if a black family had tried to move into a house down the block from the Cleavers, and if LITB dealt in realistic situations, Ward would be on the committee that was trying to keep them out. He’d probably be quite polite and diplomatic about it, but he would probably be on the side of “not in my neighborhood”. He also would not be dispensing wise advice about tolerance to his children if, say, Wally had fallen for an African-American girl, if the high school there were even integrated at that point.

It’s not as simple as taking them as they’re presented to us. They’re presented to us in two entirely different genres of television.
[/QUOTE]

You do have a valid point. The two shows were definitely distinct products of their times. Leave It To Beaver took place before the Civil Rights Act, before integration, and before Vietnam became the conflict it did in later years. And it was certainly the idealized version of the American dream, with a house in the 'burbs, dad belonging to the country club, and encouraging his sons to join his frat. And All In the Family took place in more conflicted times, in a world of race riots, young men drafted to fight in an unpopular war, and during Watergate. I hadn’t thought it through that far, and you’re right, it is too simplistic to take the two shows and the characters at face value. The two decades gulf between the two shows is definitely a deciding factor.

Going back to All In the Family, TV Land presented another non-traditional sitcom episode today. “Edith’s Final Respects” in which Edith goes to the funeral home for the wake for her Aunt Rose. Her aunt was so unpopular with the family that Edith was the only mourner. The funeral director kept coming in to take chairs out of the room for another family visitation, and a mourner of the other deceased person came into the room with Edith by mistake. At the end, an emotional Edith made Archie promise that there would be many people to see her off when her time came.

71

[QUOTE=JohnT]
Then there was the one where Natalie was the first of the four girls to lose her virginity… at, like, 20. :eek: !

Of course, the writers decided to have Jo act like the prude. :rolleyes:
[/QUOTE]

IIRC, Lisa Whelchel (Blair) refused to be in the episode because of the portrayal of pre-marital sex.

72

[QUOTE=cochrane]
I’ve been watching some “Leave It To Beaver” reruns, and have heard Ward occasionally comment on how his father was quick with the strap when Ward was younger and did something wrong. Not that Ward’s father was abusive, it was just how many parents disciplined their kids in that era. It occurred to me that Ward Cleaver and Archie Bunker could be two sides of the same coin. Ward had a good education and was a tolerant and wise parent to Wally and the Beaver, while Archie was intolerant and often ignorant, and most times only grudgingly came around to accept that another person’s beliefs could be valid. It’s very fortunate that Edith seemed to have a larger influence over Gloria’s character than Archie did.

  • I know the two series were 20 years apart, but Archie and Ward both seem to be from the same generation, born in the 1920’s, and coming of age in the 30’s and 40’s.
    [/QUOTE]
    Speaking of “Leave it to Beaver”, it’s amazing to me what the writers got past the censors (and most of the country) on that show.

“Beaver Cleaver”

“Ward, don’t you think you were awfully hard on the beaver last night”?

It seems unlikely to me that this was by accident. Why did they have his mother always refer to him as “the beaver” rather than just “Beaver”? Probably so she could utter lines about Ward’s treatment of “the beaver”.

73

[QUOTE=ivylass]
I find it shocking she’d have to bake her own birthday cake.
[/QUOTE]

Who else would bake it? You ever want to see some ungrateful damned kids, tune into All in the Family. The older I get the more I see Archie’s point of view - not the bigoted part, but the part where Mike is a real asshole. He lives rent free, gets fed and waited on, and in return he’s a rude bastard to Archie, with whom he may not disagree but in whose home he is a guest. When he got that inheritance money he gave it to the final hours of the losing McGovern campaign to make a point instead of, you know, paying some RENT. Not to mention how much of a hypocrite the little shit can be. At least Archie is honest in his bigotry, and he might come up with deceptive money-making schemes but he doesn’t spend his life freeloading.

74

What about Gloria? Couldn’t she bake her mother’s cake?

75

[QUOTE=davidm]
“Ward, don’t you think you were awfully hard on the beaver last night”?

It seems unlikely to me that this was by accident. Why did they have his mother always refer to him as “the beaver” rather than just “Beaver”? Probably so she could utter lines about Ward’s treatment of “the beaver”.
[/QUOTE]

Did she ever utter those lines or is this another one of those “Play it again, Sam” moments? I’ve seen old eps of “Beaver” but don’t remember if she said that or not.

76

[QUOTE=pepperlandgirl]
I’ve been watching old episodes of Taxi, and there’s an episode when Elaine starts dating a guy she was really interested in, but he seems kind of distant. It turns out that the guy had been trying to pick up on Tony, and he calmly explains that he’s a bisexual. Elaine and Tony are both surprised, but not really shocked or put out. It’s definitely played for laughs but not like I would expect such a story line to go. It made me wonder if this is at all shocking? Or were television viewers in 1980 pretty okay with a guy implying he wants a 3some?
[/QUOTE]
If someone says that they’re bisexual, that doesn’t mean to me that they want a threesome, it just means they can swing either way, not necessarily at the same time. I don’t think that particular episode was all that daring in 1980. It was only talk. No blatantly homosexual action was shown except for the chaste, fast dancing in the gay bar at the end.

What does annoy me is the way they cut off the last part of Tony’s revelation sequence when Kirk Bradshaw (the bi-guy) revealed that his interest was not in Elaine, but Tony. In the original, Tony caught on verrrry gradually and as he caught on more, his reaction was repeated and became stronger each time. The progression was interesting to watch, in an acting sort of way. In the reruns and in the DVD, the last part of the sequence was cut off, spoiling much of it. Damn, I hate editors.

77

[QUOTE=Zoggie]
Did she ever utter those lines or is this another one of those “Play it again, Sam” moments? I’ve seen old eps of “Beaver” but don’t remember if she said that or not.
[/QUOTE]
Yes. TV Land plays old episodes regularly and she definitely said things like that. Even if she didn’t, “Beaver Cleaver” seems like an obvious double entendre.

I tried to find a video online without success. There’s lots of “Leave it to Beaver” clips on Youtube but I’m not going to sit through all of them to try to find it.

78

[QUOTE=ivylass]
What about Gloria? Couldn’t she bake her mother’s cake?
[/QUOTE]

Gloria’s slightly more useful than Meathead, but is that really saying very much? Gloria could bake a cake, but it’s not like it always occurs to her to do so.

ETA - anyway, Mike ought to be baking the damned cakes. After all the sticking up for him Edith does!

79

Here’s one that wasn’t shocking at the time, but has become so as the years pass:

Every episode of Sports Night began with a big exterior shot of the World Trade Center, from which the (fictional) show was supposedly broadcast. There was even an episode in which someone called a bomb threat into the studio, leading to now-disquieting scenes of people standing around, ostensibly in the Towers, talking about whether terrorists were trying to kill them.

80

[QUOTE=Happy Lendervedder]
So I’m sitting here tonight, with TVLand playing in the background while I’m doing some work. I’m half-listening to “The Jeffersons,” and George is giving Lionel something (a watch, maybe). Well I tuned out briefly, only to be brought back in by Weezy exclaiming “N!gger, please!”

Wow! Wasn’t expecting that! Especially from Louise. Shocking moment #1.
[/QUOTE]
Wow, I saw that episode a few weeks ago and thought about starting a thread about it; I didn’t know what the topic would be though.

More shocking than hearing “nigger” spoken on TV, to me, was the fact that Weezie said it.