TV shows that were a no-no for some children to watch...

[landtuna]

But ( to those who didn't allow their kids to watch MTV )..not only did you not allow your kids to watch MTV but also expanded the ban to radio too?

Usually parents who did not allow their kids to watch MTV say in 1984 did NOT allow their kids to listen to radio who had played the exact same kind of music as MTV did or, OK shown.

Radio, in those days, was not near as nasty as is is now (and I don't remember it being as bad as was on MTV then either) so I didn't have a rule about listening to the radio....but....I did have a rule about no rap in the house or car and that rule still exists. Two things make me hit the channel button immediately: rap and opera.

As it turned out, none of my kids except the two younger girls listened to the radio then, and still don't except in the car. Fortunately they both like techno so no rules were broken. ;D

 

[FreddyE1977]

Monthy Python's Flying Circus in the mid seventies. Don't remember exactly why I wasn't supposed to watch it....Though I was allowed to see The Holy Grail when it came out in American theatres. These are the same folks who were concerned about me seeing American Grafitti in the theatre. ???

But one time, in 1977, they decided to give MPFC a look. Wouldn't you know it, the one sketch they happen to catch was a Terry Gilliam animation using the three crucifixes of Calvary as telephone poles.

"That's it! Turn it off!"

Although, I had a 12" b & w Panasonic in my room - the best way to watch UHF PBS in our area...And would watch MPFC every chance I got, back when PBS ran it on sundays at 1030PM. So seeing it in color in someone else's home was always a treat.

Someone mentioned sneaking a 12" into their bedroom -- yup. When The CBS Late Movie ran The Holy Grail one friday night in 1977, I had that TV on my belly, in bed, sound turned down so low...Because my folks knew it was on that night, and forbade me to watch it! This was after the Calvary animation incident....

My mother was not a fan of Monty Python....the scatalogical humor, the references to "naughty bits", the naked boobies in the Terry Gilliam animations. But like you she could not keep me away from it.

I remember when we got MTV, my brother was sitting there watching the video for Mexican Radio by Wall Of Voodoo.
My dad wandered by and saw it, and hollered out in a voice they could probably hear in West Virginia, "TURN THAT CRAP OFF!!

 

[dave73]

The only thing my Dad tried to ban was MTV. That didn't work because he was home only on weekends, & would watch it whenever I could.

I was a dad in the early 80's when we first got cable and the very first thing I did was password-protect MTV. As the songs got rougher language over the ensuing years it validated my decision. I'm no prude but the crap that was on MTV at the time (and is OTA now) is not fit for young children (or anyone really).

I notice my kids grew up rather normally without MTV (not that they didn't get the same education from their friends but at least I didn't help it along).

Password protecting individual channels didn't exist with the cable box I had in the 80's. The box only had 3 buttons: channel up, channel down, & power. The remote was simple too. It only had number buttons, channel up, channel down, & power. The cable boxes didn't have that feature until digital cable came to my area in the late 90's.

To mleach: my dad did try to ban me from listening to WLS-AM/FM, WBBM-FM, WYTZ, WAUR, & WBUS. He only wanted me to listen to WUSN (US 99), WJEZ (and later WJMK when it was oldies), & WLJE. He wasn't successful at banning such stations. Before he died in 1991, he didn't like the change in country music & hated artists like: Garth Brooks, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Brooks & Dunn, and any country artist that came out in 1990 & 1991. He was into Charley Pride, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Jr., Dolly Parton, Lynn Anderson, and a number of other class country artists.

 

[mleach]

I remember spending a few times at one church family's house a few times in the mid-'80s for bible study (we attended the same church until I moved to Mississippi in 1989), and there...NOT ONE SINGLE TV!!!!!! Yeah, things were very strict in that household!

And believe it or not, this was around the time when "The Cosby Show" was #1!

Actually thats not too hard to believe since back then there were quite a few families who didn't allow TV and radio into their home for religious reasons. However the difference between then and now is that today those who are anti-media tend to go into your face about it and try to make one who does watch TV or listen to the radio feel like worthless trash while at the same time in some cases their comments/actions make them look like they have some kind of mental illness. For example such as that middle aged woman who had posted on the www.city-data.com site who felt that she needed to tell the world that she "isn't allowed to watch TV", calls up hotels and ask them to remove their TV before she arrives, when visiting friends who have the TV on she sticks her fingers into her ears and sing LA LA LA LA LA to herself so she can block out that evil TV and radio...you tell me is this normal behavor?

Back in the day those who had made the personal decision to NOT watch TV or listen to the radio kept their decision to themselves and for the most part most of those people didn't have the need to get others to join thme in going tv-radio free.

 

[easttxtv]

I've only seen a couple of instances in my ~2 decades in the hotel biz of guests actually requesting the TVs be removed before or at check-in. IINM, each time was either religious or some kind of retreat where they wanted no interruptions during their stay.

I've only seen one family where they were extreeeeemely limited in their TV viewing; I bought my last car from a friend of a friend, and when I went to said friend's home, there were the 2 kids watching Leave It to Beaver. My friend told me that was the only show the couple would let their kids watch.

I don't remember being kept from any particular show when I was little, just being sent to bed at like 8:20 (not 8:15, not 8:30) every school night in the earliest grade school years. I do remember whenever Soap would come on, my grandmother would have something stern to say about it.

 

[RyanHoward]

Back in 1980, there was an intense drama on TV, Prisoner: Cell Block H. It aired at 5 pm
in my area, and my parents wouldn't let me watch that show. I was 12 when that show was on.
Anyone else remember Prisoner: Cell Block H?

 

[Toledo Eleven]

Here's an TV Guide ad for Prisoner: Cell Block H which was shown at 11:00 at night in Detroit; http://vintagetoledotv.squarespace.com/picture/pcbh800430.jpg?pictureId=4091828&asGalleryImage=true

 

[oldiesfan6479]

I don't remember being kept from any particular show when I was little, just being sent to bed at like 8:20 (not 8:15, not 8:30)
every school night in the earliest grade school years.

One of your parents must have worked for A.C. Nielsen, and just wanted to get credit for both
the 8:00 and 8:15 quarter hours. ;D

 

[johnbasalla]

The teacher-Nuns at our Catholic school didn't want us watching "The 3 Stooges", so we didn't. When I became 14 or so, I started watching them, shall I say, "religiously"?

 

[markwmcneil]

Here's one that really takes the cake. I know a guy who wouldn't let his two sons watch Rude Dog And The Dweebs back when it aired on Saturday mornings in 1989. He swears that in one episode, he heard one character tell another character "I'll pee all over your face".
CBS had already canceled the show in midseason when he told me this. However, the network brought it back that summer and I decided to watch it then. I saw every episode of it that summer and not once did I hear that comment or anything else like it. I think I figured out what he probably heard. During one of the "We'll return after these messages" bumpers, Rude Dog tells a kid viewer "Hey you with the cereal on your face".

 

[johnnya2k6]

I know many kids back in the day would sneak into the living room while their parents are asleep and turn on the TV late at night with the volume down...no, not to Johnny Carson, but to the softcore porn on Cinemax!!!!

 

[FreddyE1977]

I do remember whenever Soap would come on, my grandmother would have something stern to say about it.

Thanks for the reminder. Soap and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman were two other shows on the
verbotten list at our house.

 

[bpatrick]

My mom would never miss "Peyton Place" so I had to
be in bed by 9:30 on the nights it was on.

 

[Bob1370]

"But ( to those who didn't allow their kids to watch MTV )..not only did you not allow your kids to watch MTV but also expanded the ban to radio too?

Some years back I had met a woman from Buffalo, New York who not only did not allow her kids to watch MTV but also did not allow her kids to listen to Buffalo's WKBW 1520-AM radio ( including local longtime Buffalo morning guy Danny Neverath ) or local Buffalo top 40 98.3 WKSE-FM."

ROFL! As an ex-KBer, the idea that straight-arrow family guy Danny Neaverth would be on any parent's banned list is borderline hilarious. ;-)

 

[MsMusicRadio]

My parents wouldn't let me watch the Army-McCARTHY HEARINGS CAUSE IT WAS SO SCARY.

 

[mbayus]

I was not allowed to watch the Untouchables when I was little. I could hear the TV in my bedroom, and I would say "Change the channel mommy." One night, I stayed over my Grandma's, and the Untouchables was her favorite show. We watched it, and I didn't "see" anything wrong. I am totally blind, and hearing the TV from my bedroom was the same as watching it for me. I now have the DVD, and I think of my grandmother every time I play it.

 

[ixnay]

I never bought the Lucy-Ethel/Fred-Barney/Felix-Oscar/Bert-Ernie gay angle.

OTOH you had Johnny Cymbal and the bass man on "Mr. Bass Man", which I heard in a drugstore yesterday. Hmmmm......

ixnay

 

[firepoint525]

...The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show took place on my third birthday, but my grandmother forbade me to watch; she claimed years later that she expected some Presleyesque hip shaking to be going on and didn't want me to see them. I now own a copy of the DVD of that show (as well as the following two Sullivan broadcasts) ;D ...

We have a two-DVD set of all four episodes in which the Beatles appeared, the ENTIRE episodes, the Beatles as well as everything else on those shows. I suppose it's great for seeing the Beatles in context along with everything else that was on those shows, but still, it is too easy to just skip all those other segments, and go straight to the Beatles!

 

[mleach]

ROFL! As an ex-KBer, the idea that straight-arrow family guy Danny Neaverth would be on any parent's banned list is borderline hilarious. ;-)

While the idea that some parent would consider someone such as Danny Neaverth as being taboo I agree is hilarious...but I think I can even top that. When I had worked at a top forty station in Virginia back in the mid 1990's, a local woman was sooooooooo upset that our overnighter was a SINGLE MAN that she actually went as far as writing noless than THREE letters to our local paper slamming our station and the overnighter by name because she was so upset at the idea of an unmarried person doing the late night shift. She really felt that single men being allowed on the radio was a serious threat to local children meaning that they could be into child molesting.

A few years later in our market we did sadly had a case of a local radio announcer molesting a child..however the announcer was also married to a woman for a number of years and had 3 kids of his own. Of course not a peep from this "person".

 

[firepoint525]

While the idea that some parent would consider someone such as Danny Neaverth as being taboo I agree is hilarious...but I think I can even top that. When I had worked at a top forty station in Virginia back in the mid 1990's, a local woman was sooooooooo upset that our overnighter was a SINGLE MAN that she actually went as far as writing noless than THREE letters to our local paper slamming our station and the overnighter by name because she was so upset at the idea of an unmarried person doing the late night shift. She really felt that single men being allowed on the radio was a serious threat to local children meaning that they could be into child molesting.
[/quote]Good thing that she didn't know me! I'm single, and I ran overnights for over 10 years! I would think that very few (if any) married broadcasters would even want to work overnights, if given the choice. They'd rather be at home with their spouses and kids!