Is it just me, or does it seems that every TV show, produced in the 1960’s, was somewhat racy? I think that’s kinda the point. Until then, entertainment was by definition, supposed to be “safe” – you could read a provocative book, or not. But with only 2 or 3 stations, if some someone writes a double entrendre or a space show wants to make put a lampshade on contemporary politics, people are just going to have to live with it.
Maybe the Ed Sullivan show was desperate to keep TV “safe”, but it seems like no one else was trying to.
The raciest The Farmer’s Daughter ever got was Morley and Katie necking on a chaise lounge.*
The raciest things in the episode of Playboy’s Penthouse I watched were the jokes Mort Sahl was telling, and each one was followed by a shot of Hef laughing uproariously.
When I was in junior high, I loved watching Joe Pyne and Alan Burke late at night. Jerry and Maury owe everything to them.
The network eventually replaced Turn On with a revival of The King Family Show. The controversy led ABC to reject a pilot written by Norman Lear, stating that the lead character was “foul-mouthed, and bigoted”, out of fear that it might anger its affiliates again. CBS liked it, picked it up as All in the Family, and began airing it in 1971.
reminds me of Bob Newhart’s telephone sketch where the premise for Laugh-In is pitched (" … And then a guy in a German helmet pops up and says ‘Veeeeeeery interesting!’"), followed by Norman Lear’s idea for “a show about a lovable bigot.”
One joke that got talked about the next day was a guy chasing a girl and a flash card comes up with the word “Sex”
In any case it is the answer to the OP.
But it was the 70s when they had a fad for “Mature audience” shows not the 60s, which was still (leave it to) beaver country so to speak. Hot L Baltimore was one. They got a lot of mileage out of that disclaimer at the front.
Speaking of The Defenders… Harlan Ellison, in his book of essays The Glass Teat, described writing edgy content for an episode of that show, and how quickly it was gutted by the network (One line that got bowdlerized was EG Marshall saying “That’s like saying Fay Wray was a feminist symbol in King Kong because she wasn’t wearing a bra.” The bra reference was deleted.) He ran the full script in his LA Free Press column and invited readers to compare it to what actually ran. Oh, that Harlan!
There’s a scene in the I Love Lucy episode “First Stop” (originally broadcast January 17, 1955) that shows not just Lucy and Ricky, but also Fred and Ethel, in the same bed.
There is one scene in “George Burns Gracie Allen Show” which has them in the same bed (although it could be two singles moved together. But it is not two separate ones five feet apart like their neighbors the Mortons have). I don’t know the episode but George says “it’s midnight and I have to get up at 4 AM to make that 6AM appointment at the airport you scheduled for me. I am only going to get four hours sleep”. Gracie replies “don’t wory, I will be going with you so together we will be getting eight hours sleep.” I don’t know why they didn’t have more bedroom scenes. Maybe George couldn’t smoke cigars in bed.
Lucille Ball had to fight to get Desi Arnaz play her TV husband. Seems to network didn’t like the idea of a white woman married to a Cuban, and wanted Richard Denning in the role.
The Ricardos had a double bed in the first season of ILL (or at least two twins pushed together). See this YouTube clip for Lucy and Ricky and said bed, engaged in some hot handcuffed action.
By the way, Richard Denning had played Lucy’s husband in the radio program “My Favorite Husband” which was much like “I Love Lucy” (in fact at least one radio script became an episode of “I Love Lucy” with minimal changes - “Lucy’s Schedule”)
