There’s an episode of Bewitched that was actually based on a script sent to the writers by a school English class (can’t remember whether it was high school or intermediate school), but it’s a pro-civil rights ep where Tabitha has a Black friend, and they are pretending to be sisters. Someone (at a park, or something) tells them they can’t be sisters because they are different colors, so Tabitha creates black and white (or what Crayola of the time would have called “flesh” and “burnt umber”) spots all over them, so they are the same color. There is a brief interlude where the Black girl if turned all-white, and Tabitha is all-Black.
Hilarity ensues.
By the end, an advertising client of Darrin’s confronts the racism in his heart that he had buried very deeply, and was in denial about. It was actually pretty progressive not to make the racist an overt and mean guy. He’s avuncular and just slightly overweening in his attempts to show that he is cool when he misunderstands the situation (the Black friend answers the door before the spots, and the client thinks Darrin is married to a Black woman). But he’s racist nonetheless. SPOILER: He gets better by the end and thanks everyone, and Samantha manages to get the spots reversed, but not after lots of trying to hide them from the friend’s parents.
I think today this would be considered backward, and possibly the color-changing spells a little offensive, but it was very progressive for its time.
Mary Tyler Moore once did an episode, and I am going to spoil the punchline for the whole episode, so if you haven’t seen the one where Rhoda dates Phyllis’ brother, and don’t want it spoiled, DON’T READ FURTHER!
If you don’t know the show, Phyllis hate Rhoda. Phyllis’ brother Ben is coming into town, and despite Phyllis’ massive attempts to set him up with Mary, Ben ends up spending a lot of time with Rhoda. Phyllis is crushed.
At the end of the episode, Rhoda confides in Phyllis that she is not interested in Ben. Phyllis says “Why? He’s smart, he makes a lot of money, he’s handsome, he’s talented–”
Rhoda: “–He’s gay.” Audience roars with laughter. It seems to go on forever. It’s one of the biggest laughs a “reveal” line has ever gotten.
When the laughter starts to die (finally) Phyllis says “Oh thank gawd!” More laughter.
I don’t think this would provoke so much laughter now (gay; big deal), and possibly could backfire since many people are now very sensitive to the idea of outing other people to their families.
The line is the punchline to the whole episode, since it pretty much consists of Rhoda going places with Ben and talking about them, Phyllis trying to redirect Ben to Mary, and having angst attacks when her efforts fail.
It’s still funny in the context of The MTM Show, though because it’s an historical artifact.
I wonder how the episode where Maude gets an abortion would work? She was her own person, and did unpopular things, so she might still do it-- and if she got pregnant, it’s what she do, but maybe the episode just wouldn’t happen. My only hope is that they wouldn’t cop out and have her miscarry before she could actually go ahead with the abortion. Better not to even do the episode.
The episode of One Day at a Time where Ann leaves her boyfriend to chaperone a party for Barbara and Julie, and against Ann’s orders, they have beer at the party. The party gets shut down when the adults figure it out, but no one gets in any real trouble, and they show teens getting really drunk.
I’m not sure what the drinking age in California was in the mid-70s, where the show was written and filmed, and I realize that in much of the country it was 18, but in Indiana, where the show was set, it was 21. However, even in Indiana, underage drinking was kinda pooh-poohed. I was about five years younger than Barbara and Julie, and went to high school in Indiana, and underage drinking by 17- to 20-years-olds was not a big thing even in the early 80s.
Nowadays, on TV, it usually has to end with someone in the hospital for alcohol poisoning, or some other really dire consequence.