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TV myths

great TV rumors I remember..*In 1979 I remember when a bunch of churches were upset, planning boycotts and such over CBS's plans to do a TV movie about a mother who had an affair with her own son. One scene that was to be featured had the son watching his mother taking a steamy shower. The CBS movie never happened ( if it did I am sure we all would remember that ), but in the early 80s there was an incest themed porn flick called "Taboo" with Kay Parker. I haven't seen that movie since I was in high school in the early 80s. I wonder to this day if people got the two confused?*Hustler Magazine's Larry Flynt decided to run for President ( I believe that was true ). One rumor that never happened though was he was planning to show hardcore sex scenes in his political ads. *Soupy Sales on his kids show asked the question "what begins with F and ends with K? FIRETRUCK !!" Soupy himself says that never happened but many people still says to this day it did.*Back in the late 70s and early 80s I remember hearing all these rumors about the the then-big three networks were to supposed to start showing full nudity "soon".The late Natalie Wood I remember was mentioned to do just that..on ABC !! *Real People's Skip Stevenson was supposed to take over Johnny Carson's hosting duties whenever the king of latenight was to go on vacation and possibly take over his show once Johnny retires. Not to be since Stevenson had severe drug problems ( or mental problems ) which scared the hell out of NBC. Now I do remember an aritcle in TV Guide back in Real People's heyday that claimed it was John Barbour ( another Real People co-host ) who was to take over for Johnny but for one reason or another, never happened.*The Flinstones were to be a show for adults, not kids. But once the ratings came out and discovered that most of the viewers were kids it was decided to aim the show to children. Imagine what the Flintstones would be like had they stayed "adult"? Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty heading to "Wood-stone",listening to "rock" music, sitting in the grass smoking pot. listening to Janis Jop-Rock". any other TV myths?
 
I remember the one about "full frontal nudity will be on the soaps within 5 yrs. time". I had seen that allegation in local TV/Radio columns. Has been 20 yrs. or more and I still haven't seen it happen.
 
CrankyYankee said:
Was a broadcast by Houston station KLEE picked up in England three years after it had gone off the air?http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/klee.htm
Would not have been possible for the average British viewer to receive at the time, due to technical issues.UK standard was 405 line, 25 frames per sec., positive modulationUS standard was (and still is) 525 line, 30 frames per sec., negative modulation
 
*The Flinstones were to be a show for adults, not kids. But once the ratings came out and discovered that most of the viewers were kids it was decided to aim the show to children. Imagine what the Flintstones would be like had they stayed "adult"? Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty heading to "Wood-stone",listening to "rock" music, sitting in the grass smoking pot. listening to Janis Jop-Rock". It is partally true, their first sponsor was Winston cigarettes!
 
Many people - including my dad - swear they were watching the night Arthur Godfrey fired Julius LaRosa on the air. First, it did not happen on Godfrey's prime-time variety show. It happened on his morning talk-variety show. Second, that show ran an hour and a half. The first hour was simulcast on the CBS radio and television networks. The final half hour ran on radio only. At the end of that half-hour, Godfrey fired Julius. Nobody who wasn't in the studio saw it.
 
There was a rumor along about 1980 or so -- that CBS was going to start showing soft porn on its late-night movie lineup. I even remember the anchor of the CBS affiliate in Syracuse doing an editorial -- assuring people that was *NOT* going to happen , and if CBS did such a thing, ch. 5 would never show them.
 
"The Flintstones" was sponsored by Winston cigarettes, and commercials aired with Fred and Barney smoking their favorite brand. The cartoon story did NOT have the men smoking. There were some VHS tapes of various "oddities" like this available in the late 80s, but I haven't seen anything to compare on DVD.
 
Madalym Murray O'Hair is spearheading a petition before the FCC to ban all religious programming.This myth started in 1975, when two broadcasters petitioned the FCC to ban religious programmers from using frequencies designated for non-commercial use. The FCC obviously denied the petition, but somehow, O'Hair's name got attached to the issue, being the most notable "atheist" of the time, and the ban from non-commercial frequencies got morphed into all religious programming.http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa050599.htmThe myth persists today - every now and again, I get an emergency e-mail from someone who just heard about the story and decided it was their Christian duty to get everyone to take action and stand against this. It doesn't matter that O'Hair has been dead for years and that the FCC denied the petition over 30 years ago. ::)
 
Buddy Hayes said:
There's an urban legend about a kids' show host who had cut to a cartoon and didn't realize that his mike was open, saying something like "that oughta satisfy the little bastards", or something to that effect.And then there's the famous Newlywed Game episode that Bob Eubanks denied ever happened:http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/newlywed.htm
They showed the full clip, without the bleep, in the Chuck Barris pseudo-biopic "Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind" during scenes immediately after the "creation" of "The Newlywed Game."
 
Go to toontracker.com and you can downloada Winston commercial with Fred and Barney sneakinga smoke while their wives do all the yardwork.Is the story true that Soupy Sales once told hisyounger viewers to go their parents' wallets andsend him "all those little green pieces of paper"?
 
I recall seeing a show hosted by Al Roker about the history of TV in NYC (on WNET I think) and one of the things they did touch on was the Soupy Sales incident on WNEW (now WNYW) involving the "little green pieces of paper" to collect and send him.
 
Larry Flynt did run either for governor or Congress in Ohio and aired radio commercials on WLW with obscentities. WLW pulled the commercials, causing legal action and it is now known, and tested all the way to the Supreme Court, that candidates at least for federal office cannot be censored in any way, shape or form in political advertising. There's a guy in Southeast Indiana who has run for Congress several times, airing graphic photos of aborted fetuses on TV and consipracy theories about the Israelis and the U.S. government flying the planes by remote control into the WTC.Here's his web site:http://www.realnews247.com/
 
bk77 said:
great TV rumors I remember..*Back in the late 70s and early 80s I remember hearing all these rumors about the the then-big three networks were to supposed to start showing full nudity "soon".The late Natalie Wood I remember was mentioned to do just that..on ABC !! any other TV myths?
True about Wood. I think it was in People ( maybe US Magazine ) were she said that she made some sort of deal with ABC to be the first actress to appear totally nude on TV. Robert Wagner her then-husband was actually supportive of the idea. She died not long afterward.other myths, I know many who have said that HBO and Showtime used to show hardcore porn late at nite back in the 70s. Don't know about Showtime ( have doubts though ) but HBO has said over the years they had never shown such movies.When Showtime aired Queer-As-Folk a few years back there were stories at the time about how some cable systems in the more rural & conservative areas would block it out by either letting the screen go dark or showing or some announcement that the program can not be seen there. I would think this practice would be illegal.I remember hearing back in the 70s when she was on Charlies Angels that Farrah Fawcett sued some porn company when they did some movie where some blonde was billed as "Farrah Fawcett's look a like".
 
bk77 said:
great TV rumors I remember.. *Soupy Sales on his kids show asked the question "what begins with F and ends with K? FIRETRUCK !!" Soupy himself says that never happened but many people still says to this day it did.any other TV myths?
What about Soupy telling the kids to get the "green pieces of paper out of Mommy's purse" and send them in?There's another that's been floating around for years about Tom Selleck being on "Password" and trying to get his partner to say the word "deer". He says "Doe" and his playing partner (who was a black woman) responded with "knob"
 
bpatrick said:
Is the story true that Soupy Sales once told hisyounger viewers to go their parents' wallets andsend him "all those little green pieces of paper"?
True !!according to his bio that came out a few years back Soupy says this incident happened on New years Day 1965. Meant to be a joke and the kids who watched thought so too but not WNEW-TV who suspended him for a few days.Another Soupy Sales myth which is false though ( according to Soupy anyway ) was when he was supposed to say the joke on his show "..my wife makes great pies..I eat her cherry and she eats my banana".
 
mleach said:
other myths, I know many who have said that HBO and Showtime used to show hardcore porn late at nite back in the 70s. Don't know about Showtime ( have doubts though ) but HBO has said over the years they had never shown such movies.
To my knowledge, Showtime has never shown hardcore porn, although in the early 80s they had quite a bit of softcore stuff (like you see on Cinemax nowadays).
 
There's an urban legend about a kids' show host who had cut to a cartoon and didn't realize that his mike was open, saying something like "that oughta satisfy the little bastards", or something to that effect.That story came from radio; supposedly, Uncle Don Carney, on WORNew York, said that one night, thinking he was off the air. The storygot some credibility because Kermit Schaefer included it on one of his"bloopers" albums, but the fact is that it never happened. Schaefer"recreated" it using either himself or an actor. The story was eventuallytraced to a kids' show host in Baltimore who had never even heard Uncle Don (WOR didn't get into Baltimore) and made the whole thingup for some publicity.Indeed, had Uncle Don said it, I'm sure he'd have been lookingfor a new job the next day, but his daily show and his Sunday-morningshow on which he read the comics lasted for years.
 
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