# Which TV Shows Were You Not Allowed To Watch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 12, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376 "2011-10-12T01:38:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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 12, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/41 "2011-10-12T14:02:37Z")
> [@voguevixen](#): > > Get ready to laugh. > > I wasn’t allowed to watch **Mr. Rogers** because my mom thought he was “creepy”. I did laugh. Bewitched: There was a witch in it, which necessarily meant it was satanic. Dennis the Menace: He wasn’t respectful toward his elders. He-Man: General “elements of the occult.” ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/42 "2011-10-12T14:12:15Z")
The only one I can remember being banned from watching was “Married With Children.” I remember telling my mom that when I was older I was going to purposefully seek it out in reruns and watch it ever chance I got. She said that was fine, but as long as I lived under her roof, I would not watch it. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/43 "2011-10-12T14:26:51Z")
> [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](#): > > This is an anecdote, one data point, etc but the one kid I knew growing up who had zero censorship (he watched South Park, rated R movies, and probably porn) would swear constantly and was a terrible kid. I think he got sent off to an institution or something for trying to stab his parents. I never had any censorship on what I watched or read (we didn’t have cable, and it was well before SP or even Ren and Stimpy, but I read Valley of the Horses when I was 13). Granted, I do tend to cuss like a sailor, but that’s more a function of being around other cussers as an adult. I was _the_ good kid. My friends swore they could tell their parents they’d been asked to ride to Vegas on a motorcycle with two guys named Snake and Knife, and I was going, it was fine. Your classmate’s problems most likely did not stem from anything he saw on tv. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/44 "2011-10-12T14:28:00Z")
My mom banned (of all things) Marlo and the Magic Music Machine. (I think I have the title right.) No clue why. I guess it just annoyed her. I also remember her getting her bloomers in a huge bundle because one of my 9thkids grade teachers showed the TV movie “The Day After.” I sort of understand my mom’s point, but it wasn’t nearly the big deal she made over it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/45 "2011-10-12T14:28:25Z")
I am what the kids today call “old”. Back when I was young, we didn’t have cable TV or VCR’s (or the internet). So parents had to do less work supervising your viewing because there weren’t many options for seeing something objectionable. I don’t think my parents were 100% happy with us watching _Soap_ or _Dallas_ but they never outright told us we couldn’t - we were teenagers by the point these shows came on. My parents did enforce movie ratings. We were not allowed to see R-rated movies until we were seventeen. I can imagine how impossible it is to enforce a rule like that nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/46 "2011-10-12T14:36:34Z")
I don’t remember being restricted at all. My mom even let me read The happy hooker when I was 13. It was the only book in the house and I loved to read. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/47 "2011-10-12T14:53:55Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > I did laugh. > > Bewitched: There was a witch in it, which necessarily meant it was satanic. > Dennis the Menace: He wasn’t respectful toward his elders. > He-Man: General “elements of the occult.” I can relate. Bewitched was banned in our house because it was considered disrespectful to witches and the hard work that goes into their craft and promoted mixed marriages. The Munsters was banned and most of Seseme Street because they promoted positive vampire images. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/48 "2011-10-12T15:10:49Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > I don’t recall ever being told I wasn’t allowed to watch certain programmes. I think I was pretty self-regulating in terms of what I was interested in watching. Same here. Except we watched “programs” at our house in the US 😉 My parents did totally restrict the movies we could watch but I can’t think of one TV show they kept us from. We watched _All In The Family_ reruns together and I remember watching the premiere of _Married…With Children_ with them. My brother watched _Dallas_ and that vampire mini-series with my mom - I bowed out of that. I think my parents had tons of faith in the FCC and the MPAA, because they let us watch whatever was on broadcast TV (we didn’t have cable) and see any G or PG movie, and PG-13 when we were 13. I censor their TV watching a lot now 🙂 I keep telling my mom that\* 2 1/2 Men\* is filthy, and Fox News will rot their brains 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/49 "2011-10-12T15:15:53Z")
Saturday Night Live until I was 14. That would have been in 78 or 79. ---
**Author:** ![dasmili](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@dasmili](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmili)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/50 "2011-10-12T15:21:47Z")
Growing up in the 80’s, the only show I can specifically remember being forbidden was “You Can’t Do That on Television” which my dad thought was “rude.” ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/51 "2011-10-12T15:22:28Z")
My parents never ‘banned’ anything. When we were little, there was only one tv, so we watched what my parents watched. I imagine they adjusted their viewing habits accordingly but there was never anything banned. I did, however, watch the Young and the Restless from birth. My grandma has been watching it since it started airing. Drives me nuts with all the plot inconsistencies lately (though I only keep up with it by reading synopses online now). It seems they can’t remember things that happened 25 years ago. Well, I can. \ ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/52 "2011-10-12T15:24:36Z")
Until the Viet Nam war ended I was not permitted to watch the evening news on TV. My parents, especially my mother, did not want us seeing the war on TV. Fictional shows, though - none of them were off limits, though some required adult supervision when I was younger. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/53 "2011-10-12T15:28:10Z")
The only one I can really remember being not allowed to watch, not having to do with bed time was _Three’s Company_. I’m pretty sure I was young and would have asked my parents over and over “what does that mean?” at every double entendre. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/54 "2011-10-12T17:01:23Z")
Wow. We apparently had it good as kids in our house. Our viewing was pretty unrestricted. Quite a few shows that were on in the dark ages that might have been off limits, I watched with my parents. My Dad loved Loony Tunes, I remember watching Laugh-In with my _grandmother_ and Mom and I watched Dark Shadows faithfully. My brother freaked completely out one night while we were watching Night Stalker when a large cat jumped at the camera, but it still was something we watched with Mom every week. The only time I can recall being banned from watching something was when _Go Ask Alice_ came on as an ABC movie of the week. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/55 "2011-10-12T17:28:45Z")
The one show my folks forbade me from watching was _Hogan’s Heros_. They said that there was nothing funny about what the Germans did in POW (and by extension, concentration) camps. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/56 "2011-10-12T17:39:19Z")
_The Man from Uncle_ and _The Dick Van Dyke Show_ were on my mother’s blacklist. ---
**Author:** ![osme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/df788c/32.png) [@osme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/osme)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/57 "2011-10-12T17:51:58Z")
My parents really didn’t want me to watch Peyton Place for reasons that are obvious. I watched it anyway. It was on twice a week, too. ---
**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 12, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/58 "2011-10-12T18:23:30Z")
I wasn’t _forbidden_ to watch anything, but back in the day most families just had one TV in the house so parents had quite a lot of input into deciding what was going to be watched. This wasn’t usually an issue, but there were a few thing that my parents would not watch, due mainly to their political views. I remember my older brother wanting to watch the Smothers Brothers without really understanding why, but our folks clearly didn’t want to watch that. My time in college was mostly in the late 1970s; there was one girl in the dorm, at one point, who said her parents hadn’t permitted her watch _Star Trek_. I never did learn why. ---
**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 12, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/59 "2011-10-12T18:26:34Z")
Moved thread from IMHO to Cafe Society ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/60 "2011-10-12T18:27:28Z")
I’ve forbidden my daughter from watching some age appropriate shows, not based on subject matter, but on the fact that they were just crap. “Why can’t I watch it?” “Because I don’t want to _listen_ to it. The voices are shrill, the plots are ridiculous, and the music is horrible. Trust me - you’ll thank me when you’re older.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376.md?page=4)