Scenes that passed the censors the first time around.....

[mleach]

There was one non-racial thing I remember hearing years ago but I was too young to get the drift then. In an episode of "Leave it to Beaver", there was a scene with just Ward and June and she said to him, "Ward, I think you were a little too hard on the Beaver last night". I wonder how many takes that took get it without soneone cracking up...

Several years ago I was at the Potomac Mills Mall in Virginia and I can remember some store in the mall was selling a T-shirt with the cast of Leave it To Beaver on front and those words "..Ward, I think you were a little too hard on the Beaver last night.." on the back of the shirt. Instead I bought a Lucy shirt instead for my sister.

I Love Lucy....I believe there is at least one episode where Desi Arnaz says "god damn". Its the one where Lucy stages a robbery in the apartment, calls up Ethel and then Ricky..then sneaks out to the ledge. Ricky comes home ( the Mertzes are already there ) and says "...god damn..if anythin ever happin to her...". Then again maybe he did say "god DANG" instead..but then again..again..Desi off camera was known for his colorful language and I am not talking about his broken english either ...maybe he DID say "god damn" afterall.

Its been years since I have seen that episode so I am not sure if this line has since been cut or not.

 

[LKellerIII]

In the cases of the "n word, I think George Carlin hit the nail on the head when he said it all comes down to this, "I can make fun of me but you can't"...

There was one non-racial thing I remember hearing years ago but I was too young to get the drift then. In an episode of "Leave it to Beaver", there was a scene with just Ward and June and she said to him, "Ward, I think you were a little too hard on the Beaver last night". I wonder how many takes that took get it without soneone cracking up...

One has to wonder why they decided to name the kid "Beaver" in the first place. In today's less naive society, I'm sure the show would have been "Leave it to Teddy" (wasn't his real name Theodore?) or something similar

 

[BobSacamano]

There's plenty of cases where the "N" word was on "Sanford & Son"..one of my faves is when Fred tries to fight a ticket in Traffic court, and says; "Your honor, don't the police arrest any white people?..look around, you got enough N*@!'s in here to make a Tarzan movie!"

it got a huge laugh, but sadly is edited out of syndication...

Another ridiculous TV Land edit that has since been restored, was on "The Beverly Hillbillies" when Granny is arrested with some hippies, and explains: "'I'm goin down to the to smoke crawdads, but first I need a little pot"

 

[azumanga]

The "******" verse of "Money For Nothing" is edited out completely whenever the video is shown on VH-1 Classic. When the song is featured on MusicChoice, that verse is left in, but all the "******" references are garbled.

Most of the time I heard this on the radio (especially when the song first came out), the offending verse was also edited out completely.

 

[bpatrick]

In the cases of the "n word, I think George Carlin hit the nail on the head when he said it all comes down to this, "I can make fun of me but you can't"...

There was one non-racial thing I remember hearing years ago but I was too young to get the drift then. In an episode of "Leave it to Beaver", there was a scene with just Ward and June and she said to him, "Ward, I think you were a little too hard on the Beaver last night". I wonder how many takes that took get it without soneone cracking up...

I've heard a couple of stories over the years about how Beaver
came by his nickname. One, obviously, is the prominent pair
of front teeth he had; the other is that when Beaver was a baby,
Wally (then about five) couldn't say "Theodore"; it kept coming
out "Tweeter," which somehow got modified into "Beaver."

One has to wonder why they decided to name the kid "Beaver" in the first place. In today's less naive society, I'm sure the show would have been "Leave it to Teddy" (wasn't his real name Theodore?) or something similar

 

[cklw800]

I love this strand. Some real heady subject matter here and the most inteligent discussion of it that I have ever seen. I kept scrolling waiting to be offended and it didn't happen. A lesson you all could teach others who try to make the points you've made here with such finesse.

"All In The Family", "Maude", "Good Times", "The Jeffersons" and "Sanford & Son" all had use of the "N" word to good effect. At the time those shows were made there was little debate on its use, because it appeared the people who tuned into those shows totally got it. It was shock value, hipness, relevancy and it opened up dialogue between the races. Use of the word was not intended to hurt anyone, even the characters in the shows. Plus, Richard Pryor was riding high on his album "That "N*****'s Crazy" and black and white audiences ate it up. It may sound a little cheesy to say it now but the context in which the word was used seemed to bring both sides together for dialogue about race. It was a different time and no one got hurt by the word making it to TV in the context in which it was used in those shows. Shocking, yes. Offensive, maybe to older viewers who experienced the word in a negative context or didn't "get" these shows. Norman Lear was a genious. Only he could have gotten that word uttered on a very conservative CBS Television Network and made it work.

It was an amazing time to experience. Yes, I remember that line from "Sanford & Son" with Aunt Esther and also Fred Sanford in the courtoom when Lamont gets a traffic ticket. I rolled on the floor when those were first on. I saw the reruns on TV Land and turned them off when the references were edited out. I ended up buying "All In The Family" and "Sanford & Son" DVDs and everything is intact---the way I first saw them.

 

[71dude]

Archie said "goddamn" in the Christmas draft dodger episode but CBS wanted it dubbed because it aired on Christmas night. TV Land edits out Archie's rape line from the baby-birth episode.

Mike Brady supposedly said the F-word in the Cousin Emma episode when they are at the top of the stairs. "it's 5:00 in the ____ morning". He also said something like "what the hell is going on here" in the "Father of the Year" show. Carol walking in on 12-year-old Bobby in the bathtub ("My Brother's Keeper") was also missing from the syndicated prints for years but I think has been restored.

Judd Hirsch said "bastard" on one early episode of "Taxi" - was that common back then?

 

[radiorob2.0]

Archie said "goddamn" in the Christmas draft dodger episode but CBS wanted it dubbed because it aired on Christmas night. TV Land edits out Archie's rape line from the baby-birth episode.

Mike Brady supposedly said the F-word in the Cousin Emma episode when they are at the top of the stairs. "it's 5:00 in the ____ morning". He also said something like "what the hell is going on here" in the "Father of the Year" show. Carol walking in on 12-year-old Bobby in the bathtub ("My Brother's Keeper") was also missing from the syndicated prints for years but I think has been restored.

Judd Hirsch said "bastard" on one early episode of "Taxi" - was that common back then?

There was a hysterical heated exchange between Meathead and Archie regarding "Watergate". Archie yelled "God Damn it" and Edith became upset. I can't find the specific quote but Archie reasoned how God Damn was okay because it was God Damning it.

 

[Braves2005]

Another Sanford and Son episode where Fred says the "N" word was when Donna brings Osgood to Fred's house and Osgood shows off his karate prowess and Fred says "that N's crazy". The Sanford and Son episode where Lamont is going to marry Crystal at the church and Fred calls Crystal's family uppity and "a bunch of jive N's". One other episode is where Julio and Lamont takes Fred out to eat at the Mexican restuarant and then Julio calls the waiter "Negro" and then the audience got a huge laugh (and me too for that matter) that lasted a while when Fred told the waiter "Hey Negro, come here."

 

[firepoint525]

In the Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited" video, about a minute into it, right before the first chorus, June gets out of the bathtub wrapped in a towel that was obviously too short for her! This version was shown on Friday Night Videos back in 1984 when it became a hit. That scene was edited out later, and in doing a quick search on youtube, I was only able to find the version in which that scene was replaced with some other random shots.

 

[bpatrick]

Archie said "goddamn" in the Christmas draft dodger episode but CBS wanted it dubbed because it aired on Christmas night. TV Land edits out Archie's rape line from the baby-birth episode.

Mike Brady supposedly said the F-word in the Cousin Emma episode when they are at the top of the stairs. "it's 5:00 in the ____ morning". He also said something like "what the hell is going on here" in the "Father of the Year" show. Carol walking in on 12-year-old Bobby in the bathtub ("My Brother's Keeper") was also missing from the syndicated prints for years but I think has been restored.

Judd Hirsch said "bastard" on one early episode of "Taxi" - was that common back then?

Norman Lear had planned to have Archie say it on the premiere episode,
but CBS, already nervous about potential audience reaction, decided it
didn't want to go too far, too fast, and persuaded Lear to hold off using
it until a later date. I do remember when he said it.

 

[firepoint525]

There is a whole scene from an episode of the Brady Bunch that is currently edited out. Bobby and Cindy are naked (not shown), and Alice is shocked and tries to get them to get dressed, but the kids argue with her. It is on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuZy1pRKUEY

I've never seen this part in that episode EVER not when it was on TBS, Nick at Nite, local syndication, etc. so this is new to me. I've seen this episode where Alice quits after the kids get after her for tattling on them and she goes to work at the diner dozens of times and I swear I have never seen that part of the episode.

I believe TBS often dropped that last (30 seconds or so) scene from the Brady Bunch (and probably other shows as well) just so they could run more commercials!

 

[71dude]

There was a hysterical heated exchange between Meathead and Archie regarding "Watergate". Archie yelled "God Damn it" and Edith became upset. I can't find the specific quote but Archie reasoned how God Damn was okay because it was God Damning it.

Here it is (at 7:00):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX6MPVGByK0

 

[radiorob2.0]

Archie said "goddamn" in the Christmas draft dodger episode but CBS wanted it dubbed because it aired on Christmas night. TV Land edits out Archie's rape line from the baby-birth episode.

Mike Brady supposedly said the F-word in the Cousin Emma episode when they are at the top of the stairs. "it's 5:00 in the ____ morning". He also said something like "what the hell is going on here" in the "Father of the Year" show. Carol walking in on 12-year-old Bobby in the bathtub ("My Brother's Keeper") was also missing from the syndicated prints for years but I think has been restored.

Judd Hirsch said "bastard" on one early episode of "Taxi" - was that common back then?

Norman Lear had planned to have Archie say it on the premiere episode,
but CBS, already nervous about potential audience reaction, decided it
didn't want to go too far, too fast, and persuaded Lear to hold off using
it until a later date. I do remember when he said it.

That's right. TV Land, back when they aired classic TV, found one of the pilots that lead to AITF called "And Justice For All". In that episode Archie "Justice" said the word in a altercation similar to a few years later.

Oh, in this version Meathead was Irish.

 

[jfc40ts]

Lkeller noted,

One has to wonder why they decided to name the kid "Beaver" in the first place. In today's less naive society, I'm sure the show would have been "Leave it to Teddy" (wasn't his real name Theodore?) or something similar

Supposedly the Beave got his name because when his brother Wally was little, he couldn't say the name Theodore. It always came out Beaver. In today's less naive society, the show could be about life in a brothel...

 

[FreddyE1977]

There is an episode of Becker which has a running gag that involves Shawnee Smith running around
in very, very sheer tops (you could say she is about 96% topless). I remember seeing it when it ran
initially on CBS. I was kind of dozing off on the couch thinking "am I really seeing this on broadcast TV?"
After another 30 seconds it definitely woke me up in a hurry! Now that it is syndicated those scenes have
a ridiculous electronic black bar running across her chest. I am guessing it did not generate much of a
reaction, leading someone to think (falsely) they could get away with the Janet Jackson Super Bowl
Halftime Show.

 

[LKellerIII]

There is an episode of Becker which has a running gag that involves Shawnee Smith running around
in very, very sheer tops (you could say she is about 96% topless). I remember seeing it when it ran
initially on CBS. I was kind of dozing off on the couch thinking "am I really seeing this on broadcast TV?"
After another 30 seconds it definitely woke me up in a hurry! Now that it is syndicated those scenes have
a ridiculous electronic black bar running across her chest. I am guessing it did not generate much of a
reaction, leading someone to think (falsely) they could get away with the Janet Jackson Super Bowl
Halftime Show.

There was an episode of Malcolm in the Middle in which his mother (played by Jane Kaczmarek) is running around the house topless because she's too busy and frazzled to put a shirt on. She's doing this in front of the kids (who predictably showed no reaction at all), but also goes to answer the door topless. It's a very funny scene.

I remember noticing that they were filming her about as low as they could get without showing her breasts, and was also wondering how they could have filmed it without her actually going topless on the set.

I have not seen it in syndication.

 

[dmargalotti]

I saw an episode of Adam-12 on Hulu recently where Reed and Malloy responded to a call about a gas station armed robbery. After interviewing the station owner, they put the call out on the radio giving the description of the suspect as a "negro". Later in the episode the robber is captured after pulling off another robbery at the same gas station. Reed and Malloy are shocked to learn that the robber is actually a white guy with make-up and an afro wig. As he's being taken into custody, he says "Had you fooled. Bet you thought it was some n-word pulling off those jobs".

That's one episode that wouldn't make it onto TV today with out some editing or dubbing.

Season 4, Episode 10 "Day Watch" - 11/24/1971

http://www.hulu.com/watch/46165/adam-12-day-watch#x-0,vepisode,1,0

 

[fortmill]

Personally I think it's retarded that Blazing Saddles is edited like that now. Oh wait, you can't even say retarded now, can you? And what's the big deal with the "N" word anyways. It's not you don't hear ***** every freaking day anyways. Hell, my son and his friends call each other *****. If Cleavon Little didn't have a problem with it, the general population shouldn't have a problem with it either.

It's about time to clamp down on your son and his friends, but their use of the word is not surprising since you see nothing wrong with it.....

 

[LowPayDJ]

And how the hell do you do that exactly? He and his friends are 16 to 20 somethingish are they write and record Rap songs that include the N word each week. To his friends, I'm just some old cracker that doesn't know anything. You can do your best to try and teach your kids what you think is right, but at the end of the day, they still will make up their own minds and be what they want to be. Hell, my parents brought me up right, and they didn't want me to work in Radio or be a working Musician either. (Get a real job Son) But after all their lectures, I still became a musician and I've worked in radio for a number of years.