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

[radiorob2.0]

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 "ER" or maybe "Chicago Hope" focusing on breast cancer. A woman was shown topless as she prepared for an exam. It was noted after the fact but unlike the "Janet's Mammary Much Adieu About Nothing" controversy, it soon past. I wonder if that scene made it into syndication?

Also, I remember reading about a TV movie staring Beverly D'Angelo unintentionally showed boobage. It seems the production didn't account for overscan of most television. So a shower scene on the in-studio monitors showed the actress from the boobs up. However, when it aired some sets that weren't adjusted properly showed much more.

 

[firepoint525]

I suppose Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" was behind a lot of what we DON'T see on TV anymore!  Remember the Solid Gold Dancers?  Gone!  And I remember every week I would see dancers on shows like Star Search and Dance Fever do all these high kicks and splits, and would get thong wedgies!    And aerobics shows like ESPN's Fitness Pros in which Tamilee Webb, Tracy York, and Donna Richardson would all be out there in their thong leotards.

I suppose you could say that the "thongatards" went out of style, and that all of the shows that I mentioned here were either on cable or syndicated.  (My local affiliates showed Solid Gold, Star Search, and Dance Fever late at night, but with network commitments, that may have been the only time that they could have shown them.)  But I can't help but notice that I don't ever see aerobics programs on morning television anymore.

I remember a truncated (half-hour) version of Solid Gold being shown on VH-1 in the '90s, but the dancers were shown, so I'm guessing that the reasons for the edits were to speed up the flow of the show, to get rid of "boring" segments like songs that didn't stand the test of time, to focus on the countdowns, or to eliminate any songs to which they were not able to get broadcast rights.

 

[stdjsb25]

When "Blazing Saddles" first aired on CBS, it allowed all uses of the "N" bomb. Saw it a few months ago on AMC, and those have all been removed.

There was quite a bit excised for the show's 1981 broadcast premiere, and a few deleted scenes (available on the current DVD and Blu-Ray editions) that were put in to pad out the film. In addition, there is an alternate cut of the famed "Bean eating" scene in the TV edit of the film, minus the wind-breaking. A print of this TV edit was seen on Comedy Central as late as a few years ago.

 

[mleach]

I suppose Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" was behind a lot of what we DON'T see on TV anymore!

On a similar note more/less it was the same with radio too. About ten years ago in the market I worked in at the time it wasn't uncommon to hear our local jocks say "god damn", "SOB", "kiss my ass","go to hell" ,tell dirty jokes and all sorts of raunchy stuff on the air and in all dayparts too. Then came the FCC fines, the issue with Bubba The Love Sponge and of course the increase of voice-tracking and firings..well its all gone now, at least in my old market anyway

 

[trusty]

Two undocumented things I heard about; maybe someone can verify:

1. June telling a neighbor: “Ward’s gone to town looking for Beaver.”
2. Some black preacher talking about “Shadrach, Meshach and Abadnegro”.

 

[ShawnHill1]

How about this classic scene from All in the Family...the one that ultimately set-up The Jeffersons sitcom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjhzhK2zryg

 

[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.

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.

Jane Kaczmarek did very boldy, and to the eternal admiration of her cast and crew, film that entire sequence while running around topless.
Of course it was carefully framed for broadcast so the home audience didn't see the naughty bits....Nice job by someone who probably never expected to be doing topless scenes (and those child actors who kept their composure)

 

[Smittian]

Can't believe no one mentioned the infamous "Have You Got A Nickel?" act from "The Gong Show". Chuck Barris was always trying to get things past the censors and most times was stopped, but this one act made it through and was aired in the Eastern and Central Time zones. The NBC censors caught it before it was aired on the west coast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUkzIx382mM

 

[LKellerIII]

Can't believe no one mentioned the infamous "Have You Got A Nickel?" act from "The Gong Show". Chuck Barris was always trying to get things past the censors and most times was stopped, but this one act made it through and was aired in the Eastern and Central Time zones. The NBC censors caught it before it was aired on the west coast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUkzIx382mM

Hysterical. Actually, if you look at it literally, they're really just licking popsicles, so it isn't censor-worthy until Jaye P. Morgan gives the punch-line.

Reminds me of another Gong Show episode. As I remember it, the entire half-hour consisted of different singers coming out and singing the song They Way We Were. You know..."Memories...". The pay-off is the final act, a very...uh...well endowed and buxom woman who comes out and sings: "Mammaries..."

It was a long way to go for a punchline, but very funny.

 

[nightfly61]

I always thought Beaver got his name because he looked like a little beaver?
There was another "pot related" phrase I just saw on RTN, plus have used for imaging in the past with a little girl named Mary Jane". "Where ya goin', Wally? "Upstairs to see Mary Jane" "Oh"....(later near end..."Wally...that Mary Jane sure can getcha into big trouble"
Not sure if any get edited out, but LOTS of 70s & 80s shows had girls & women wearing pants & shorts so skin tight, well, I'll just say the Grand Canyon comes to mind in the front of their pants. This has always fascinated me that Charlie's Angels (one of the BIG culprits of this), Daisy Duke & the hotties on Three's Company "showed all" in the front through their pants, but you never ever see it anymore on new shows. Nips poking through shirts lasted through the 90s & 2000's (Friends & lots of Christina Applegate's on "Jesse"). I used to have a girlfriend that called Baywatch televised porn.

 

[Tom Wells]

TV had no problems about showing people in correctly fitted pants of the 70's.
Jeans or slacks, it was tight. Kentucky Fried Chicken had just invented extra crispy
and most people didn't need enormous clothes to hide in.
It may be hard to believe today when "jeans" are worn falling off, but
when I was in Jr High and High School skinny was pretty much normal,
and you could tell which girls did and didn't wear panties.
I guess that made life in much of the USA pornographic for about 10 years.

The most "beautiful" or "pornographic" pair of pants I've ever seen on a glrl was in church on a Sunday in 1977.

 

[nightfly61]

Other great 80's shows where "frontal looseness" was very apparent & never taken out:
the Saved By The Bell girls.
the women of Dallas.
the ladies of ABBA,
Bailey on WKRP
Family Ties girls,
Penny Marshall in a leotard on Laverne & Shirley's talent show episode,
Heather Thomas on "Fall Guy"
...and lots more un-edited eye candy.

 

[mleach]

TV had no problems about showing people in correctly fitted pants of the 70's.
Jeans or slacks, it was tight. Kentucky Fried Chicken had just invented extra crispy
and most people didn't need enormous clothes to hide in.
It may be hard to believe today when "jeans" are worn falling off, but
when I was in Jr High and High School skinny was pretty much normal,
and you could tell which girls did and didn't wear panties.
I guess that made life in much of the USA pornographic for about 10 years.

The most "beautiful" or "pornographic" pair of pants I've ever seen on a glrl was in church on a Sunday in 1977.

Sometime during the mid 70's the tide was turned between girls and guys when it came to what they could "show". In the early 70's the girls of that era ( Susan Dey, Sally Field, Eve Plumb, Lucie Arnaz, etc..) seemed so conservative as far as how they were seen in magazines like 16 and Tiger Beat and even on TV went where as the guys, well you had David Cassidy showing pubic hair in Rolling Stone, Burt Reynolds in Cosmo and singer Daniel Boone ( remember the song "Beautiful Sunday" ? ), when he appeared in 16 Magazine I believe in 1972 , Gloria Stavers had him photographed in the ocean wearing nothing but a JOCKSTRAP and yes he was showing his bare ass too.. in 16, a magazine for teen GIRLS. I can recall hearing an interview with Rick Springfield years ago saying when he had just recorded "Speak to the Sky", Gloria wanted him to do shower pic for 16 but he said no way. Maybe Gloria Stavers was giving her female readers a "taste" of Playgirl or something or maybe the purpose of doing such pics was to turn Gloria on herself ( from what I read Stavers was not exactly the Virgin Mary LOL ), who knows.

Meanwhile the second part of the 70's, shots of girls in bikinis and tight pants, the posters I can remember seeing of Cheryl Tiegs, Cheryl Ladd and of course Farrah Fawcett..a lot was indeed shown ;D
But with the guys, they became more/less conservative. Maybe a shirtless shot here or there but nothing like Daniel Boone and his jockstrap. My sister at the time actually felt this was "unfair".

Oh well !! LOL

 

[desertv]

Also, I remember reading about a TV movie staring Beverly D'Angelo unintentionally showed boobage. It seems the production didn't account for overscan of most television. So a shower scene on the in-studio monitors showed the actress from the boobs up. However, when it aired some sets that weren't adjusted properly showed much more.

You mean the Bev D'A shower scenes in the first 2 "National Lampoon's Vacation" movies?-Back when she was kinda hot?

 

[4dude]

I think censorship is stupid!! (ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY SELL THESE VIOLENT GAMES AND LET KIDS PLAY THEM (Whats worse this or bad stuff on TV for thier minds??))

I think games ARE WAY WORSE!!

 

[nightfly61]

Even though they're using food I think the CSI type shows show a lot more blood & gore today than they used to, compared to, say "Quincy".
I also not too long ago say an episode of "Las Vegas" where the waitresses were nude & just walking around in body paint. Not that I'm complaining whatsoever ;D, but was kind of surprised & reminded of a Hugh Hefner Playboy special I saw once. Baywatch used to sow a lot of thong bikini butts which was a surprise.

 

[mleach]

I think censorship is stupid!! (ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY SELL THESE VIOLENT GAMES AND LET KIDS PLAY THEM (Whats worse this or bad stuff on TV for thier minds??))

I think games ARE WAY WORSE!!

I have always felt it was so ODD to see parents blocking out certain channels, won't allow their kids to watch certain shows or listen to certain radio stations and/or different forms of music YET many of these same parents do NOTHING when it comes to video games much less monitoring what their kids do on the net. Like the 12 year old boy in my hometown several months back who was found in a cheap motel naked in bed with a 42 year old woman who he had met online. His parents? Well they admitted they didn't montior what their child does online because as the mother said "..but we put our trust in the INTERNET POLICE !!!!" Internet police ???????

 

[Ultimajock]

Sometime during the mid 70's the tide was turned between girls and guys when it came to what they could "show". In the early 70's the girls of that era ( Susan Dey, Sally Field, Eve Plumb, Lucie Arnaz, etc..) seemed so conservative as far as how they were seen in magazines like 16 and Tiger Beat and even on TV went where as the guys, well you had David Cassidy showing pubic hair in Rolling Stone, Burt Reynolds in Cosmo and singer Daniel Boone ( remember the song "Beautiful Sunday" ? ), when he appeared in 16 Magazine I believe in 1972 , Gloria Stavers had him photographed in the ocean wearing nothing but a JOCKSTRAP and yes he was showing his bare ass too.. in 16, a magazine for teen GIRLS. I can recall hearing an interview with Rick Springfield years ago saying when he had just recorded "Speak to the Sky", Gloria wanted him to do shower pic for 16 but he said no way. Maybe Gloria Stavers was giving her female readers a "taste" of Playgirl or something or maybe the purpose of doing such pics was to turn Gloria on herself ( from what I read Stavers was not exactly the Virgin Mary LOL ), who knows.

Meanwhile the second part of the 70's, shots of girls in bikinis and tight pants, the posters I can remember seeing of Cheryl Tiegs, Cheryl Ladd and of course Farrah Fawcett..a lot was indeed shown ;D
But with the guys, they became more/less conservative. Maybe a shirtless shot here or there but nothing like Daniel Boone and his jockstrap. My sister at the time actually felt this was "unfair".

...she apparently missed a certain 1977 photo of Pat McGlynn of the Bay City Rollers (for about three or four months; I don't think he even recorded anything with the band and just did some Asian and American concert touring) that 16 ran -- in it McGlynn is only wearing an extremely long and wide necktie that covered his giloolies...Gloria Stavers, it should be noted, actually dated Lenny Bruce at one time right after he divorced Honey Bruce...