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

...am I misremembering after all these years, or did the MTM logo on Lou Grant actually have Ed Asner almost barking the "meow"?...
 
jfrancispastirchak said:
Nothing on TV ever scared me until last week, the night I first saw the FlexAbleHose commercial.

Don't be scared...they last a week at most. The plastic is the cheapest that can be provided (of course it's made in CHINA!!!) and busts in the seam. I don't have one of these but I say, buyer beware.

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
jfrancispastirchak said:
Nothing on TV ever scared me until last week, the night I first saw the FlexAbleHose commercial.

Don't be scared...they last a week at most. The plastic is the cheapest that can be provided (of course it's made in CHINA!!!) and busts in the seam. I don't have one of these but I say, buyer beware.
-crainbebo

So, they're plastic. Whew! I thought they were real.
 
Well, us kids weren't allowed to watch certain parts of Animal Kingdom and those nature shows, we were told to "cover your eyes!" when animals were doing what came naturally, making new little animals. For what it's' worth, I've grown up without any serious hangups :-[ There was not a lot of sex or violence on TV then, but what was probably worse for us was the stuff that TV was teaching us while our parents were looking out for other things...

The logos that seriously creeped me out as a kid was Public Broadcasting Service and WBGH Boston, and the Childrens Television Network. All had those very sinister and haunting weird tones. There is a collection of those on youtube for us who need a scary reminder once in a while.
 
Yet I doubt if an eyebrow was raised when Saturday's "Today" show
had a demonstration of a vacuum-cleaner device that gets up animal
poop, and the poop was shown right there on the studio floor. Later
in the day, Animal Planet had a show called "My Cat From Hell." On it,
there were two female roommates, each probably in her 20s, one of whom
had adopted a pregnant female cat that gave birth to a litter, only one of
which survived. She named him Big Boi and he turned out to be quite
destructive; the woman invited her boyfriend to dinner and the cat urinated
all over his sweater. And these women were very frank about it. The other
roommate gave an ultimatum: get rid of the cat or she'd move out. They had
to call in a professional cat psychologist to get the cat under control.

To the poster whose parents seemed to have a problem with the depiction
of animals making babies, I remember an ABC special in 1968, "How Life Begins,"
which showed human conception...and it aired at 7:30 (ET)! I remember being
assigned to watch it for science class, yet I don't recall any criticisms in my market,
Norfolk.

And have a go at the logic behind these decisions: in 1972 ABC aired a movie of
the week, "That Certain Summer," with Hal Holbrook and Martin Sheen as homosexuals
(one of the first depictions of same on television). The movie, IIRC, was shown in pattern
at 8:30 in Chattanooga and 7:30 in Birmingham, but was delayed until 11:30 in Atlanta
(actually 11:40, since Ch. 11 had a 40-minute late newscast at the time). You'd think
Atlanta would have been more open-minded; as for Birmingham, there is an active gay
community. Yet five years later the tables were reversed: "Soap" aired on 11 Alive in
pattern, but on delay to late night in Birmingham...and there was a gay character played
by Billy Crystal. Go figure.
 
bpatrick said:
Yet I doubt if an eyebrow was raised when Saturday's "Today" show
had a demonstration of a vacuum-cleaner device that gets up animal
poop, and the poop was shown right there on the studio floor. Later
in the day, Animal Planet had a show called "My Cat From Hell." On it,
there were two female roommates, each probably in her 20s, one of whom had adopted a pregnant female cat that gave birth to a litter, only one of which survived. She named him Big Boi and he turned out to be quite
destructive; the woman invited her boyfriend to dinner and the cat urinated
all over his sweater. And these women were very frank about it. The other
roommate gave an ultimatum: get rid of the cat or she'd move out. They had
to call in a professional cat psychologist to get the cat under control.

To the poster whose parents seemed to have a problem with the depiction
of animals making babies, I remember an ABC special in 1968, "How Life Begins,"
which showed human conception...and it aired at 7:30 (ET)! I remember being
assigned to watch it for science class, yet I don't recall any criticisms in my market,
Norfolk.

And all of this hilights yet another fear of mine: REALITY TV !!
 
bpatrick said:
Yet I doubt if an eyebrow was raised when Saturday's "Today" show
had a demonstration of a vacuum-cleaner device that gets up animal
poop, and the poop was shown right there on the studio floor (snip) and the cat urinated
all over his sweater. And these women were very frank about it.snip

To the poster whose parents seemed to have a problem with the depiction
of animals making babies, I remember an ABC special in 1968, "How Life Begins,"
which showed human conception...and it aired at 7:30 (ET)!

And have a go at the logic behind these decisions: in 1972 ABC aired a movie of
the week, "That Certain Summer," with Hal Holbrook and Martin Sheen as homosexuals
(one of the first depictions of same on television). The movie, IIRC, was shown in pattern
at 8:30 in Chattanooga and 7:30 in Birmingham, but was delayed until 11:30 in Atlanta
(actually 11:40, since Ch. 11 had a 40-minute late newscast at the time). You'd think
Atlanta would have been more open-minded; as for Birmingham, there is an active gay
community. Yet five years later the tables were reversed: "Soap" aired on 11 Alive in
pattern, but on delay to late night in Birmingham...and there was a gay character played
by Billy Crystal. Go figure.

Hey now! I didn't have a problem with animals mating, it was my puritanical parents. For what it's worth, there's absolutely nothing dirty about animals mating. It's just a part of nature. Happily, their misguided parenting has not affected me nor twisted my feelings about animals mating or giving birth or whatever- it has the same effect to me as if seeing them eat hay.

On the OTHER hand- I totally agree with you with the fecal matter being shown on TV. No reason for it other than the shock factor. On Mystery Detectives the other day, they actually showed an actual infant that had died, a homicide- and 17 yrs ago when that show taped, that image would have been blurred out. There was no reason to show that shocking image, and whatever happened to those warning disclaimers they used to have before they showed graphic images??! I was totally unprepared to see that horrific image of that child, now forever burned in my memory.

It seems now the more gore and disgust on TV, the better. Even children's cartoons have depictions of blood gushing out, things like that. I'm shocked how much TV has changed in just 20 years.
 
I can only remember once being frightened as a child by something that I saw on TV. It was strangely a live drama show that was telecast on a Sunday afternoon in the early 1950's. In the show, an elderly (and perhaps bed-ridden woman) was going to be murdered. All that I recall being shown was the woman's face and as she heard someone approach, she asked, "who's there? who's there?) and then she placed her hands in front of her face and screamed. I guess I was eight years old or so then, but I can still picture it.
 
kinphoenix2 said:
bpatrick said:
Yet I doubt if an eyebrow was raised when Saturday's "Today" show
had a demonstration of a vacuum-cleaner device that gets up animal
poop, and the poop was shown right there on the studio floor (snip) and the cat urinated
all over his sweater. And these women were very frank about it.snip

To the poster whose parents seemed to have a problem with the depiction
of animals making babies, I remember an ABC special in 1968, "How Life Begins,"
which showed human conception...and it aired at 7:30 (ET)!

And have a go at the logic behind these decisions: in 1972 ABC aired a movie of
the week, "That Certain Summer," with Hal Holbrook and Martin Sheen as homosexuals
(one of the first depictions of same on television). The movie, IIRC, was shown in pattern
at 8:30 in Chattanooga and 7:30 in Birmingham, but was delayed until 11:30 in Atlanta
(actually 11:40, since Ch. 11 had a 40-minute late newscast at the time). You'd think
Atlanta would have been more open-minded; as for Birmingham, there is an active gay
community. Yet five years later the tables were reversed: "Soap" aired on 11 Alive in
pattern, but on delay to late night in Birmingham...and there was a gay character played
by Billy Crystal. Go figure.

Hey now! I didn't have a problem with animals mating, it was my puritanical parents. For what it's worth, there's absolutely nothing dirty about animals mating. It's just a part of nature. Happily, their misguided parenting has not affected me nor twisted my feelings about animals mating or giving birth or whatever- it has the same effect to me as if seeing them eat hay.

On the OTHER hand- I totally agree with you with the fecal matter being shown on TV. No reason for it other than the shock factor. On Mystery Detectives the other day, they actually showed an actual infant that had died, a homicide- and 17 yrs ago when that show taped, that image would have been blurred out. There was no reason to show that shocking image, and whatever happened to those warning disclaimers they used to have before they showed graphic images??! I was totally unprepared to see that horrific image of that child, now forever burned in my memory.

It seems now the more gore and disgust on TV, the better. Even children's cartoons have depictions of blood gushing out, things like that. I'm shocked how much TV has changed in just 20 years.

I understand it was your parents who have or had the problem with the depiction of animals mating. My point was that ABC once showed a documentary about human reproduction in the first hour of primetime (and this was 45 years ago), and it would be interesting to know how many parents got upset about that. Mine really couldn't say much; as I said, my science teacher had assigned the program, although they cautioned me not to start getting any ideas after I saw the show.

For some reason, my dad had a problem with my watching "Dragnet" (the version with Harry Morgan) yet said nothing about my watching the far-more-violent "Mannix." But as I said on a thread some time back, I liked "Mannix" for the simplicity of the plots, and the same holds true for "Dragnet" (trite as some of them seem now).
 
I remember in '69 my Mom not letting me watch the Johnny Cash show. This was the same year that my Dad 'corrupted' me with the hit single 'A Boy Named Sue' that had profanity in it. My 45 record promptly disappeared. That record was followed up by See Ruby Fall - a song about a hooker. That record went ba bye. So in my Mom's mind - Johnny Cash swore on his TV show and wasn't very nice. Of course saying 'Hell' back then on TV was major. I remember laying in bed - listening to the TV that my Dad was watching as he had the Johnny Cash show 'on'. At least I could hear the audio portion. Plus it was way past my bedtime.

We weren't allowed to watch Dark Shadows - but I wasn't really interested in that show anyways. Witchcraft aside - we did watch Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and My 3 Sons and oh yes - Flipper.

As I got older into the early '70's - I thought I pushed the envelope as I watched Adam-12 and I sat on the edge of my chair expecting at any moment my Mom would turn the TV channel (no remote then) as I watched the Rookies and Kate Jackson and Police Woman. Back then the drama was so exciting but as I watch Adam-12 now it's so corny. Couldn't really watch Mod Squad or Laugh-In or the Smothers Brothers.

Then it soon became required viewing - cuz we only had 1 television - we had to watch the Waltons, Little Houe on the Praire and my Dad watched Hee Haw every Saturday night as I watched Emergency every Saturday night after Hee Haw.

The MGM lion used to scare me back when I was 5 to 6 years old as well as the evil witch on the Wizard of Oz.

Once I hit my teens - then TV viewing became more relaxed as I watched religiously Rockford Files, Charlies Angels, $6Million Dollar Man, A Man Called Sloane and then really later - Hunter - Sgt. McCall - the Brass Cupcake.

As far as logos - I remember the build up of excitement when watching the ABC network - knowing a show was preempted they would play the ABC jingle. A build up to the announcer saying this is an ABC Color presentation - Tonite..... and the thrill of what they're gonna show or something I've been looking forward to watching all week since I saw the promo.

Man, the memories. And we did it all with 2, 4 and 7. In Buffalo, we had the luxury of picking up 5, 9 and 11 out of Canada. In Nov. of '69 Johnny Cash at San Quentin - the whole prison concert and documentary was on. It was on CHCH TV Channel 11. In Canada, they didn't censor the swear words so when Johnny Cash came to the bleeped out part of A Boy Named Sue - I for the first time in my life heard the SOB word and asked my Dad how come they didn't play the bleep sound. I was only 7. It was a struggle between trying to watch that show and my Mom yelling at me to get back to her bedroom where she had another TV to watch Daniel Boone. That concert had major swearing in it and she didn't go for that at all.

Those are my memories.
 
Language aside, that Cash special was one of the highest-rated
on Canadian television that year, and ranked first on the Canadian
viewer enjoyment index. It may have been a factor in ABC's decision
to put him on as a summer replacement for "The Hollywood Palace"
in 1969.

Not a TV show, but TBN has aired "The Passion Of The Christ" several
times this past week. The movie itself was rated R, but TBN gave it
a TV-MA content rating, and at the point where Christ is scourged, it
ran a crawl saying this is not for children. (And without trying to start
a religious argument, even though some churches thought it relevant to
the story--which it is--still, Mel Gibson spent ten minutes on that scene,
and I keep wondering why.)
 
bpatrick said:
Language aside, that Cash special was one of the highest-rated
on Canadian television that year, and ranked first on the Canadian
viewer enjoyment index. It may have been a factor in ABC's decision
to put him on as a summer replacement for "The Hollywood Palace"
in 1969.

...where Christ is scourged... Mel Gibson spent ten minutes on that scene,
and I keep wondering why.)

Working through his own demons?
 
In 1977, our CBS affiliate, WGCL/ch. 46, was independent WANX and was owned by Pat Robertson's CBN organization. As such, they rejected any programming that dealt with things like the occult, or hypnotism, stuff like that. That fall, WANX acquired the Fred Flintstone And Friends series and The Fun World Of Hanna-Barbera package. As part of their policy, they replaced Jeannie and Goober And The Ghost Chasers from FF & Friends with elements from other syndicated cartoons. On the FW of HB package, The Funky Phantom was omitted. To accommodate the omission, the Monday and Friday spots at that time period were filled with the Jackson Five cartoon, and on Wednesdays, Wacky Races rotated with The Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan.
 
For people who think Andy and Barney, or Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, or Felix and Oscar were gay, they should have taken a closer look at all three shows. Andy Taylor's first wife had died (she was Opie's mother) under circumstances never explained, and Andy had a succession of girlfriends: Ellie Walker, Peggy McMillan, and finally the woman he married: Helen Crump. Barney Fife had two girlfriends: Thelma Lou and the unseen Juanita at the diner.

Fred Flintstone must have been straight; he did father a child. The relationship between him and Wilma was based on Ralph and Alice Kramden: they fight but they really love each other (and for the record, would people who thought Fred and Barney were gay say the same thing about Ralph and Ed Norton?). Barney Rubble would no doubt have gladly fathered a child, but there's some implication that Betty couldn't have children so they adopted Bamm Bamm.

Felix and Oscar also had girlfriends (Elinor Donahue played Felix's, Miriam Welby; Joan Hotchkis was Oscar's, Dr. Nancy Cunningham). And don't forget that Felix was always trying to get ex-wife Gloria to take him back, which she did; they remarried on the last episode. (BTW, is it more than coincidence that Elinor Donahue would play a character named Miriam Welby while at the same time her ex-TV dad, Robert Young, was playing Marcus Welby? Their shows were filmed at different studios ("The Odd Couple" at Paramont, "Marcus Welby, M.D." at Universal) but it could it be that in casting Ms. Donahue, "The Odd Couple"'s writers might have had flashbacks to "Father Knows Best" and thus gave her the same last name as Robert Young's character?
 
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