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the first/last TV show to feature....

K

kyleP

Guest
**I could be wrong about some of these.

The first show to feature a husband and wife in bed together? I heard it was The Flintstones but I seem to remember some early I Love Lucy shows that showed both Lucy & Ricky sharing the same bed.

Speaking of I Love Lucy, I am pretty sure that was the first show to use the word "God" that wasnt in a religious context such as when one gets uupset/excited and they say "Oh My God !! or "My God !!". The episode where Lucy cries wolf. When Lucy is missing Ricky says in front of Fred and Ethel "My God if anything ever happens..."

The first show to use "damn" and "hell"? The Fugitive with David Jannsen I am pretty sure.

The first show to use the word "sh*t". Believe it or not, Mamas Family !!
The April Fools show when Vinton answers the phone in the kitchen after he puts shaving cream on the mouth/ear piece, you can clearly see Ken Berry utter the word, though you cant hear it. Possible blooper here.

The "f" word? Back in the late 70s I remember a special on jail life ( I think ) called Scared Straight. The word was used some on it. I would guess that would be the first one. BTW the show aired on broadcast stations, it was not a cable only show.

The last cigarette commerical? Virginia Slims just before midnight on 1/1/71 during Johnny Carson.

The last commerical for smokless tobacco? I heard it was an ad for Skoal Bandits on ESPN. These ads were banned in 1986.

The 1973 PBS play "Steambath" was the first show to feature bare female breast.

I heard on the radio a few years back that Law & Order's Chris Meloni was the first actor to well..take a leak on TV, in HBO's OZ. They didn't say who the first female to do the same was.

Last daytime game show on NBC? Not sure the exact name but it had to with Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas, 1994. What was ABC's?

First made for cable movie? HBO's Terry Fox Story in 1983

First TV show to show a toilet? I heard it was the Captian Jack episode of Leave it To Beaver

First TV show to feature a gay couple? Hot L Baltimore

First TV show to feature the internet? Believe it or not I think it was Alice !! There was an episode where Mel has a PC hooked up in his storeroom only to have Vera logging on to check movie listings but instead she "erases Mel". This show aired back in either 1982 or 1983 some 12 years before Windows 95 !!

any other TV firsts?
 
> **I could be wrong about some of these.
>
> any other TV firsts?
>
The first abortion (before it was legalized) storyline was on Another World, within the first year or so it was on. All My Children was the first to deal with abortion after it was legalized.

The last regularly-scheduled fictional show to be aired live was The Edge of Night; its' last CBS ep was in late November 1975...after that, when the soap moved to ABC, it was taped.
 
> The first show to feature a husband and wife in bed
> together? I heard it was The Flintstones but I seem to
> remember some early I Love Lucy shows that showed both Lucy
> & Ricky sharing the same bed.


No, Lucy and Ricky had twin beds. Actually, I think the first show to show husband and wife in a single bed was, believe it or not, The Munsters! Although I also have a vague recollection that there was a one-season sitcom back in the 50's that featured such a scene, but it's obscure, so Lily and Herman usually get the prize.

> The "f" word? Back in the late 70s I remember a special on
> jail life ( I think ) called Scared Straight. The word was
> used some on it. I would guess that would be the first one.
> BTW the show aired on broadcast stations, it was not a cable
> only show.


I think that was a case of the FCC making a special exemption because of the serious educational value of the subject matter.

Of course, the "F" word and its variant "****" has been uttered unexpectedly many times in a live news context in the days before electronic delay buttons. During the Patty Hearst/SLA thing in the 70's, some SLA members used "****" on a live interview. And I have seen on tape a very funny segment from maybe late 70's/early 80's -- a reporter doing a live interview with the head of a biker gang at a funeral for their former leader who was killed by a rival gang, "The Seven Sons." The interview goes well for a few minutes, until the biker looks right at the camera and intones, "You Sons.....are dead ****s!" The look on the reporter's face was priceless.

But, yeah, "Scared Straight" was probably the first time the "F" word was part of a filmed production where it wasn't unexpected or live.


> First TV show to show a toilet? I heard it was the Captian
> Jack episode of Leave it To Beaver.


Pretty sure you're right on that one.

> First TV show to feature a gay couple? Hot L Baltimore


I remember that show! Boy, that was a bizarre show way ahead of its time.

> First TV show to feature the internet? Believe it or not I
> think it was Alice !! There was an episode where Mel has a
> PC hooked up in his storeroom only to have Vera logging on
> to check movie listings but instead she "erases Mel". This
> show aired back in either 1982 or 1983 some 12 years before
> Windows 95 !!


The Internet as we know it (at least the World Wide Web component thereof) wouldn't have been around back then -- the Internet existed, but was used only by university, military, & goverment types. But BBSes were around back then, plus wasn't Compuserve aroung in '82 or '83? (Heck, I remember logging on to Compuserve on my old Commodore 64 and 1200 baud modem!) She could have been getting her movie listings from one of those sources.
 
> No, Lucy and Ricky had twin beds. Actually, I think the
> first show to show husband and wife in a single bed was,
> believe it or not, The Munsters! Although I also have a
> vague recollection that there was a one-season sitcom back
> in the 50's that featured such a scene, but it's obscure, so
> Lily and Herman usually get the prize.

I believe that in a few episodes of I Love Lucy that Lucy and Ricky were in bed together. In the episode where they get handcuffed together,they are sitting on a double bed. Afterwards,they slept in twin beds.

The Flintstones slept in twin beds,but during the 3rd season when they had Pebbles they slept in a double bed.
 
> > No, Lucy and Ricky had twin beds. Actually, I think the
> > first show to show husband and wife in a single bed was,
> > believe it or not, The Munsters! Although I also have a
> > vague recollection that there was a one-season sitcom back
>
> > in the 50's that featured such a scene, but it's obscure,
> so
> > Lily and Herman usually get the prize.
>
> I believe that in a few episodes of I Love Lucy that Lucy
> and Ricky were in bed together In the episode where they
> get handcuffed together,they are sitting on a double bed.
> Afterwards,they slept in twin beds.
>
> The Flintstones slept in twin beds,but during the 3rd
> season when they had Pebbles they slept in a double bed.
>
But were Lucy and Ricky in bed in pajamas or bed clothes ever. In the handcuff episode they were fully clothed? Also you could see that often the "double" bed was in reality twin beds pushed together. And because they were married many people don't count this.

Ozzie and Harriet sometimes shared a bed too.

Fred and Ethel shared a bed in the episode where the "Wacky Foursome" went to California and had to spend a night in Ohio in a dumpy cabin.

Other early sharing of a bed was Lisa And Oliver Douglas. And of course Darrin and Samantha. Though Florence Henderson has often claimed Mike and Carol were the first to be seen in bed this clearly isn't the case.

Reportedly the first case of a couple in bed together on a regular basis occurred in 1947 on the Dumont sitcom MARY KAY AND JOHNNY. Of course this was a real life married couple. Though no copies of the show survive so it is unprovable.

So eliminating actors married in real life, my bet goes to Fred and Ethel. <P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
> > First TV show to show a toilet? I heard it was the
> Captian
> > Jack episode of Leave it To Beaver.
>
>
> Pretty sure you're right on that one.
>
Techinically it's true, but you will notice, the toilet is not seen. Only the toilet tank is seen. Never the bowl part. Since the tank isn't even essential for the toilet (my apartment doesn't have a tank on its toilet) I don't know if I'd count that

<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
> Last daytime game show on NBC? Not sure the exact name but
> it had to with Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas, 1994. What was
> ABC's?
>
The show was called "Caesar's Challenge" hosted by Ahmad Rashad. It was done at Caesar's in Vegas.

ABC's last daytime game show (I think) was a revival of "Match Game". It ended in the summer of 1991.
 
>
> > First TV show to feature a gay couple? Hot L Baltimore
>
>
> I remember that show! Boy, that was a bizarre show way
> ahead of its time.

I barely remember Hot L. Baltimore but I think the Alan Sues sportscaster
skit he did on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In was the first gay character to appear on TV, of course it wasn't meant to be that way. Oh course there was Liberace and Paul Lynde but Liberace always denied he was gay and Lynde well...

> > First TV show to feature the internet? Believe it or not
> I
> > think it was Alice !! There was an episode where Mel has
> a
> > PC hooked up in his storeroom only to have Vera logging on
>
> > to check movie listings but instead she "erases Mel".
> This
> > show aired back in either 1982 or 1983 some 12 years
> before
> > Windows 95 !!
>
>
> The Internet as we know it (at least the World Wide Web
> component thereof) wouldn't have been around back then --
> the Internet existed, but was used only by university,
> military, & goverment types. But BBSes were around back
> then, plus wasn't Compuserve aroung in '82 or '83? (Heck, I
> remember logging on to Compuserve on my old Commodore 64 and
> 1200 baud modem!) She could have been getting her movie
> listings from one of those sources.
>

Commodore man here myself. One thing to remember about home computers back when this Alice show aired in 1982, for the most part most people thought of the home PC as nothing more than a more fancy ( and expensive ) version of Atari. Something to play video games with and with better graphics. Do you remember the horrible graphics of the Atari 2600 Pac Man game?

Most people back then had no idea one can do their banking let alone check whats playing at the local theatre at home or in the back of Mel's Diner on a PC so this show, and Alice was quite popular back then so for better or worse what Vera did was give people a sample of what a computer can do.

Not sure when Compuserve began but I do remember Sears offering some online service way back in 1986.

oh...the subject of smokeless tobacco ads that was brought up earlier. Don't know when the last one aired or where but those ads were banned in 1986 as a result of some high school football player who began dipping that stuff only to develop mouth cancer and later died. I think part of the suit the family had against the makers of the product had a clause which included a ban of smokeless tobacco ads on radio and TV. Skoal I think was a huge sponsor of Nascar back then.

Hard to believe now kinda like the way cigarettes were back in the 50s and 60s, but back in the 70s and early 80s quite a few guys ( and I would imagine some women too ) didn't know such stuff was dangerous. In fact at my high school in the early 80s, gum was banned on the playing field, but Skoal was not. Quite a few guys took up that habit. Wonder how many of them still have their teeth if not the cancer that came with it?
 
>
> any other TV firsts?
>

According to the website www.snpp.com, the first male-on-male kiss came from the Simpsons episode "Simpson and Delilah" which features Homer's assistant Karl (played by Harvey Fierstein) planting a big one on Homer.

The show's creators say they got this through the censors by exploting the "Elmer Fudd loophole" in which Elmer kissed Bugs (a male character, though frequently disguides as a lady bunny).
 
> > **I could be wrong about some of these.
> >
> > any other TV firsts?
> >
> The first abortion (before it was legalized) storyline was
> on Another World, within the first year or so it was on.
> All My Children was the first to deal with abortion after it
> was legalized.
>
> The last regularly-scheduled fictional show to be aired live
> was The Edge of Night; its' last CBS ep was in late November
> 1975...after that, when the soap moved to ABC, it was taped.
>
First video ever played on MTV--"Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles.
(Tangentially, the last song to make #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 without having a video to play on MTV was "Amanda" by Boston (Oct. 1986)
Don't know if it was the first use of the word "Damn", but the first time I remember it was on "Dragnet" (The color eps).
I have a question...I know "Bonanza" was NBC's first color series, and either "The Flintstones" or "The Jetsons" was ABC's, but what was CBS' first series to air in color? I'm guessing Ed Sullivan, but that's just a guess.
 
> I barely remember Hot L. Baltimore but I think the Alan Sues
> sportscaster
> skit he did on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In was the first gay
> character to appear on TV, of course it wasn't meant to be
> that way. Oh course there was Liberace and Paul Lynde but
> Liberace always denied he was gay and Lynde well...


Don't forget Ernie Kovacs' "poet laureate" Percy Dovetonsils -- there was a character who was blatantly and flamboyantly gay on TV before any of them. He even used the word "gay" in the modern sense in one of his poems, WAY before anyone else did.

> Commodore man here myself. One thing to remember about home
> computers back when this Alice show aired in 1982, for the
> most part most people thought of the home PC as nothing more
> than a more fancy ( and expensive ) version of Atari.
> Something to play video games with and with better graphics.
> Do you remember the horrible graphics of the Atari 2600 Pac
> Man game?


Never used an Atari. The C64's graphics were pretty good for the time. And I remember how excited I was when I first upgraded from a 300 baud modem to 1200 -- man, I was FLYING then!!! (bg) Let's see, if we were still connecting at that speed, the average video file would take about.......maybe 3 years to download? (g)

> Not sure when Compuserve began but I do remember Sears
> offering some online service way back in 1986.


That's probably right about the time I was first on CS -- around '85 or '86 -- as well as a ton of local BBSes on which I wasted many hours of time to avoid work like the plague.
 
> > > > I have a question...I know "Bonanza" was NBC's first color
> series, and either "The Flintstones" or "The Jetsons" was
> ABC's, but what was CBS' first series to air in color? I'm
> guessing Ed Sullivan, but that's just a guess.
> Actually, if my brain is working correctly, which I seriously doubt, I believe NBC's first color series was "Laramie" When the more familiar peacock with the flute music debuted, it debuted just before an episode of "Laramie" so the bird was dubbed the "Laramie peacock" Therefore, I believe that makes "Laramie" NBC's first color show and not "Bonanza"
 
> > Not sure when Compuserve began but I do remember Sears
> > offering some online service way back in 1986.

Wasn't that the original Prodigy?<P ID="signature">______________
"Radio is like musical chairs. When the music stops, I sit down and say something."</P>
 
> The last regularly-scheduled fictional show to be aired live
> was The Edge of Night; its' last CBS ep was in late November
> 1975...after that, when the soap moved to ABC, it was taped.

I gather Saturday Night Live doesn't count in your book ...?<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
> > The last regularly-scheduled fictional show to be aired
> live
> > was The Edge of Night; its' last CBS ep was in late
> November
> > 1975...after that, when the soap moved to ABC, it was
> taped.
>
> I gather Saturday Night Live doesn't count in your book ...?
>
I was thinking of SNL when I posted, but I guess I didn't clarify what I meant. I did say 'fictional' and 'regularly-scheduled', but maybe I should have included other identifiers ('scripted', 'dramatic', 'daily', etc.)...
 
> I was thinking of SNL when I posted, but I guess I didn't
> clarify what I meant. I did say 'fictional' and
> 'regularly-scheduled', but maybe I should have included
> other identifiers ('scripted', 'dramatic', 'daily', etc.)...
>

Maybe you should've mentioned "soap opera"?
 
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