# Television episodes that wouldn’t fly today **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2017, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312 "2017-02-20T12:21:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/121 "2019-01-13T01:44:24Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I read an article recently that _Friends_ hasn’t held up all that well. There’s a scene where it becomes apparent that Joey was molested by his tailor, but it’s played for laughs. And Monica only gets happy when she loses her teenage weight. There’s a scene where Ross, who has no massage skills, pretends to be a masseur so he can grope this sexy woman and have her pay him for it. In any current sitcom such a scene would only be for loathsome creeps, but the episode clearly thinks it’s cute . ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/122 "2019-01-13T02:45:28Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I thought about Marty when I was reading this thread. But I still love Barney Miller, one of my favorite TV shows ever. > > Some of the writing was so clever. There was an episode in which a local bakery had complaints against it, for making “obscene” pastries. They were never described or shown. But the box they were in was opened by various folks, and it was their reaction and comments that were hysterical. > > “I never would have thought of putting poppyseeds _there_!” The same box from the “obscene” bakery was used when the detectives were trying to overcome the language barrier with a Russian who married an American girl for convenience. Asking if he had consummated his marriage was unrewarding until they showed him something in the box. And as far as Marty & Daryll, while obvious, I never thought them PC offensive, although Wojo was quite disturbed. I thought it clever of the writers to dream up reasonable excuses for them to be in the squad room but avoiding making them hardened criminals. “Go on, be gracious!” ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/123 "2019-01-13T03:06:54Z")
> [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > There’s a scene where Ross, who has no massage skills, pretends to be a masseur so he can grope this sexy woman and have her pay him for it. In any current sitcom such a scene would only be for loathsome creeps, but the episode clearly thinks it’s cute . Actually, Ross did a LOT of creepy things. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/124 "2019-01-13T03:27:34Z")
I’m still surprised that [the juice box scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQzhFz_hXlE) made it past the censors at the time. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/125 "2019-01-15T01:14:41Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I agree with **Don Draper** : The early TNG episode which would be guaranteed to not work today would be “Code of Honor”, where Yar is kidnapped by a planet of African Stereotypes straight out of a 1930s serial and the whole thing fairly snaps, crackles, and pops with racist stereotyping and Picard Pretension from there. About the only thing they _didn’t_ do was blackface, which meant they got actual Black people to dress up in leopard skins and act like spoiled children. There’s an episode in season 1 of **Stargate SG1** that has almost the exact same plot (only with asian rather than black people): “Emancipation”. Sam Carter gets the Tasha Yar role, obviously, and the moment when she has to show up wearing a dress, and gets mocked by her team-mates for it, is particularly cringeworthy. Best of all, the SG1 episode is written by the _same woman_ who wrote “Code of Honor”. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2019, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/126 "2019-01-15T04:32:36Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I’m still surprised that [the juice box scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQzhFz_hXlE) made it past the censors at the time. Could I bother you for a brief summary or description of what that links leads to! ---
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/127 "2019-01-15T05:05:07Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Could I bother you for a brief summary or description of what that links leads to! From memory: Ross takes Rachel to the planetarium for a date with a “picnic” as a kind-of prop complete with juice boxes. They start making out. Rachel: “Oh, Ross. Already?” Ross: “Uh, Oh, No. We rolled over juice box.” ---
**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:** [January 15, 2019, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/128 "2019-01-15T05:14:32Z")
Ah yes. I recall that now. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/129 "2019-01-15T05:16:41Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Could I bother you for a brief summary or description of what that links leads to! A video clip from [this](https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/The_One_Where_Ross_And_Rachel..._You_Know) episode of _Friends_. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2019, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/130 "2019-01-15T05:29:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > A video clip from [this](https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/The_One_Where_Ross_And_Rachel..._You_Know) episode of _Friends_. Uh okayyyyyy … please allow me to suggest that you might benefit from learning from Tinker Grey’s example. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/131 "2019-01-15T06:06:06Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Uh okayyyyyy … please allow me to suggest that you might benefit from learning from Tinker Grey’s example. If you are too damn lazy to click on a damn link and read a description, why the hell should I jump through hoops to spoon feed you? Please imagine I have made a suggestion that can be used only in The Pit. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/132 "2019-01-15T06:12:50Z")
Jumping in late… ST:TNG was pretty shit until Roddenberry died. Sad but true. I suppose he meant well, but… The one episode of all the ST series that really horrified me was “Tuvix,” from _Voyager_. Tuvok and Neelix get combined into one being as a result of some kind of handwavey transporter thing, and the resulting “Tuvix” throws the crew into disarray. It turns out he’s great–all the best qualities of both with none of the bad! In the end Janeway personally extinguishes the existing being–who pleads for life–because she’d rather have the two guys she used to know instead of this new being. This might be a bad example because as I remember the episode makes some effort to “teach the controversy”–but the episode really soured me on Janeway (and Kes!). It’s ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/133 "2019-01-15T07:56:50Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > If you are too damn lazy to click on a damn link and read a description, why the hell should I jump through hoops to spoon feed you? Please imagine I have made a suggestion that can be used only in The Pit. Some of us might be at work. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2019, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/134 "2019-01-15T08:02:18Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > If you are too damn lazy to click on a damn link and read a description, why the hell should I jump through hoops to spoon feed you? Please imagine I have made a suggestion that can be used only in The Pit. No, if you are too damn lazy to offer an adequate description, then I’m not going to waste my time opening a mystery box. It’s rude to post blind links on a message board. Have the courtesy to let me decide in advance before I want to spend my time watching something I don’t need to see or don’t want to see. It might be something I find distasteful or disturbing or inapproproate for the place I’m reading the message board. It takes you less time to offer an adequate description to something when you already know what it is than to force me to spend unknown time just to find out what you’re talking about. Especially since I asked you too and you bothered to reply. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/135 "2019-01-15T14:52:48Z")
I can see how in the first post you might not have realised that I was continuing the discussion of Ross from _Friends_ from the posts immediately above mine because I didn’t quote text from the posts (though what I meant would have been obvious to most people familiar with the show) but there is not one damn thing wrong with providing a wiki link to a detailed description of the episode, including the juice box part. That it was a link to a wiki could have been discerned by mousing over or long-pressing the link before opening, and your response to my completly cromulent reply was nothing more than you being a major jerk out of left field ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/136 "2019-01-15T15:03:36Z")
Just Shoot Me was an unbelievably bad show, with one outstanding episode: Slow Donnie. Try getting that one on the air today. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/137 "2019-01-15T15:08:55Z")
> [@Tinker\_Grey](#): > > From memory: > Ross takes Rachel to the planetarium for a date with a “picnic” as a kind-of prop complete with juice boxes. They start making out. Rachel: “Oh, Ross. Already?” Ross: “Uh, Oh, No. We rolled over juice box.” Why wouldn’t this show/scenario fly today? I’m pretty sure I see more overtly sexual things on TV today. Of course, I watch entirely through Netflix and other streaming platforms so I’m not always sure where something came from (I can pick out the HBO shows though so I’m not talking about them). ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/138 "2019-01-15T15:22:49Z")
> [@MrKnowItAll](#): > > I’ve been rewatching a lot of “Barney Miller” lately. While it’s still very, very funny, there’s some pretty cringe-worthy episodes. And not even the ones that they intended to be uncomfortable. > > For instance, there’s the appropriately titled episode “Rape”, in which a woman wants her husband arrested for forcing her to have sex with him. Totally played for laughs. > > There’s “Hot Dogs”, in which two female police officers are called on the carpet for overstepping their assigned duties, and break down in tears to get out of trouble. > > There’s “Atomic Bomb” in which a college student builds a thermonuclear device as a physics project, and gets little more than a slap on the writst. > > And there’s the recurring character Marty (and sometimes his SO, Darryl) as a very camp pair of homosexuals. > > It was truly a different time. To be fair, the bomb had no explosive components in it, but the design would have worked. I recall a story from Reader’s Digest from the 70s about a physics student who designed an atomic bomb as a research paper and only had the paper confiscated, so I could see the kid in Barney Miller not going to jail. Wojo always bothered me as he seemed to arrest people because he thought it should be illegal, when it wasn’t. I recall an episode where he arrested a guy for selling pants with the American flag on the seat, and Barney had to tel him to let the guy go as it’s not illegal. Figure that’s a lawsuit right there. ISTR there were one or two others along the same lines, but can’t recall specifics. There was also an episode (Vigilante, s1e09) )where a crossdressing man is arrested because for some reason it was illegal at the time. The play for laughs was him trying to figure out how to get a ride home as he didn’t want to out himself to his friends. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/139 "2019-01-15T15:23:55Z")
It was me that was suprised that it flew on NBC in Prime-Time in the 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312/140 "2019-01-15T15:44:47Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Jumping in late… > > ST:TNG was pretty shit until Roddenberry died. Sad but true. I suppose he meant well, but… > > The one episode of all the ST series that really horrified me was “Tuvix,” from _Voyager_. Tuvok and Neelix get combined into one being as a result of some kind of handwavey transporter thing, and the resulting “Tuvix” throws the crew into disarray. It turns out he’s great–all the best qualities of both with none of the bad! In the end Janeway personally extinguishes the existing being–who pleads for life–because she’d rather have the two guys she used to know instead of this new being. > > This might be a bad example because as I remember the episode makes some effort to “teach the controversy”–but the episode really soured me on Janeway (and Kes!). It’s ugly. Let’s just imagine we had a huge debate about this and skip to the end.🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/television-episodes-that-wouldn-t-fly-today/780312.md?page=8)