# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/121 "2011-10-15T14:22:09Z")
“Lawrence Welk”. My mother thought those Lennon sister hussies were showing too much leg. Kidding. She never said any such thing, just that she didn’t care for his show (her mother, on the other hand, LOVED Mr Wunnerful). Growing up in the 1960s, there wasn’t too much “dirty stuff” on TV. There was a curfew, depending on how old you were…got to be ready for school. And on two occasions she did read “Letters to the Editor” denouncing “Bewitched” and “Hogan’s Heroes” as bad shows. I heard nothing, I said nothing and I continued to watch both. On the other hand, I didn’t have any toy guns or comic books but then very few of my friends did either. They may have objected to guns, although as a teenager they gave me a BB gun. Comics books were seen as a waste on money, grow up in a Depression, they were very frugal. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/122 "2011-10-15T15:07:30Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > they forbid me from watching nearly the entire 1971 ABC Saturday morning line-up because they thought–with one exception–the shows were too stupid for even a six year old. However, they said I could watch CBS’s cartoon schedule instead which, in retrospect, was rather odd because, on the whole, the shows on CBS weren’t really any less mind-numbing than ABC’s. [Maybe they just liked Bugs Bunny.](http://www.tvparty.com/sat71.html) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/123 "2011-10-15T18:53:19Z")
I wasn’t particularly sheltered as a kid from R-rated movies and mature-themed TV shows, but pretty much anything Mom deemed ‘‘weird’’ was forbidden. So, no _Simpsons_ and no _Pee Wee’s Playhouse_. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/124 "2011-10-15T19:03:20Z")
When I was a child my folks didn’t tell me there were any programs I couldn’t watch. But then I was a kid in the 50’s and early 60’s. But once we sat down to watch the movie “The Birds” on TV and mom, noticing it, said we couldn’t watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/125 "2011-10-15T21:53:18Z")
We kids were not allowed to watch Batman(early 70’s version) because it was too violent. 😛 So I got up and snuck downstairs to the den and watched black-and-white Batman at 6 in the morning anyway, pttbbbbbtttbbtt! ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/126 "2011-10-15T22:05:40Z")
_Emergency!_, not because it was not allowed, it was because I was unable to watch it. _The Lawrence Welk Show_ was at the same time and Mom and Dad had the one and only TV tuned into the polka master. God I hated that show. Bunch of blue haired people dancing. yeech! ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/127 "2011-10-15T22:22:47Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] I WASN’T allowed to watch _Dallas_ at that time (which I really, REALLY wanted to), but that was only because it was on past my bed time. ☹ [/QUOTE] I thought Dallas was on Friday nights? ---
**Author:** ![loshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce73a5/32.png) [@loshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loshan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/128 "2011-10-16T04:45:57Z")
Nothing was off limits in our house. Grandma and Mom got into it one time because Grandma made me turn off \*The Mary Tyler Moore Show \*(independent woman, no man, job…HORRORS). The only time I remember an issue at home, Mom got out of bed at 10:30 P.M. to see why I was laughing so loud. (I was trying to be quiet.) Late '70s, we just got cable. She came out of the bedroom just in time to hear this: > [@](#): > > King Arthur: Look, you stupid Bastard. You’ve got no arms left. > Black Knight: Yes I have. > King Arthur: _Look_! > Black Knight: It’s just a flesh wound. “WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU WATCHING?!?!?!” Then she sat and watched (and laughed at) the remainder of the movie, and looked to see when it was coming on again so we could have popcorn. I love my Mom. ---
**Author:** ![Sea\_Creature\_Turner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@Sea\_Creature\_Turner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Creature_Turner)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/129 "2011-10-16T05:07:57Z")
I can remember only three shows off limits to me, an only child, back in the '70s: Saturday Night Live, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert. All were prohibited due to the hour which they aired when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![67java89](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/aeb1de/32.png) [@67java89](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/67java89)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/130 "2011-10-16T23:12:33Z")
We were absolutely forbidden to watch All In the Family. ---
**Author:** ![alfonzos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alfonzos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alfonzos)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/131 "2011-10-17T00:19:16Z")
There was a brief moratorium on watching The Three Stooges after my mother caught my friends and me bonking each other on the head. (But, I turned out okay. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!) ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/132 "2011-10-17T00:34:38Z")
Married With Children, because it was “bathroom humor” and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because of the violence. Just made me enjoy the shows even more when my parents weren’t looking. I’m in my 30s and my mom STILL won’t let me watch Futurama because she thinks it’s the stupidest thing she’s ever seen. Good thing I haven’t lived with her since season 3. ---
**Author:** ![zombiebacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/76d3ee/32.png) [@zombiebacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombiebacon)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/133 "2011-10-17T00:58:42Z")
I will never figure out my parents logic…my mom was the first to tell me about “Beavis and Butthead” and “South Park” - she used to cry laughing at my brother doing impressions of cornholio. My dad had a screaming fit when i tried to watch local television channels because he “paid good money for cable and what was the use if i’m just going to watch channels that are free”. He hated “In Living Color” and banned me from it because it “was about the gays” but he did not have a problem with me watching “Kids in the Hall” on HBO which was way more “gayer”. I can say he hadn’t watched an episode of either that i ever saw. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/134 "2011-10-17T01:20:01Z")
_Simon and Simon_. But that was just because it came on at 9, which was our bedtime. In later seasons we were allowed to watch it. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376/135 "2011-10-17T19:17:08Z")
I can’t remember my dad ever forbidding us from watching anything based on content, but Mom was the “ban queen”. _Laugh-In_. “Too subversive.” _All in the Family_. She didn’t like Archie. My dad, however, loves ethnic humor, so we watched the show on the rare Saturday when he wasn’t playing his clarinet and sax at the restaurant where he was part of the house band. Oh, and Grandma let us watch the Bunkers when she babysat – however, she wondered why Mom let us kids watch that “racy” _Love, American Style_. _Happy Days_. Mom read a preview that mentioned a line about Richie getting a hickey, and thus decided the show was inappropriate. She eventually relented on that one, though. _Alice_. We missed the first episode, and the review the next day told about Tommy telling his mom (about to go on a date) that she had to show some leg and cleavage if she wanted the guy to be interested. Mom decreed _Alice_ off-limits, but the series lasted long enough that it became one of her regular programs long after any of her offspring had ceased to be titillated by its promise. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-tv-shows-were-you-not-allowed-to-watch/599376.md?page=6)