This page lists different music censoring incidents starting in the 50s (Which amazes me,i didnt think anything was done like that back then)

http://web.archive.org/web/200406220...dents/80s.html

I linked to the 80s list (My favourite time period)

You didn't think there was censorship, or you didn't think there was anything someone would want to censor?

Well i didnt think they were so picky about little things back then (The 50s list for example doesnt have as many listed)

Well, now you know

The 50's (and 60's for that matter) were heavily censored.

For example, Lucy had to get permission to be pregnant on TV, even though she really was in real life. She couldn't use the word "Pregnant" but had to say things like "With Child' or 'Expecting".

Toilets could not be shown or heard until All in The Family shattered that taboo (Notice the Bradys don't have a John?)

The song Wooly Bully was banned and thought to contain all sorts of offensive words (it's just gibberish)

The list is endless and still goes on to some extent today, though with the internet nothing is truly out of reach.

Ya your right Eric! (I forgot about the bradys)

I didnt know that tidbit about Lucy..

Interesting indeed.......

In the 50's and 60's we had very high standards and society tried to put it's best foot forward...we had class....this is in stark contrast to the seedy twisted anything goes mentality of today.

The old shows like "Ozzie & Harriet",Leave it to Beaver","Dragnet","Highway Patrol","Andy Griffith","The Dick Van Dyke show" etc are all considered classics today and continue to entertain audiences new and old.

Tv shows and movies did contain adult jokes and commentary back then,but it was on a much higher level,they had to be clever about it.

I just watched "The Courtship of Eddies Father" from 1962 last night,it has Glenn Ford,"Ronny" Howard,sexy Stella Stevens and Jerry Van Dyke, it also has lots of adult/sexual humor in it without being low brow and vulgar.

So who cares about Rob and Lauras silly twin beds,or Lucy being termed "expectant" rather than pregnant...or that we didn't have a Brady scene with a toilet...its harmless!,those shows were all entertaining,and after all tv is supposed to be an escape from reality.

Rest assured the real life 1950's and 1960's people watching the shows had toilets and husbands and wives slept in the same beds and they used the word "pregnant" at home in discussions,people weren't naive,they knew the difference between the tv sitcom world and real life.

The music that got airplay was censored because there were raunchy songs like "Big 10 inch record" by BullMoose Jackson,"Big Long slidin' thing" by Dinah Washington,"the walkin' blues","keep on churnin' til the butter comes",etc that parents obviously didn't want their kids exposed to so they became overly critical towards rock and roll and rythm and blues.

Yes,I agree some of the examples of censorship from that time may seem petty until you step back and look at the "big picture".
A steady decline in those standards as the envelope kept being pushed further and further has brought us to the point we are at now...a jaded,twisted world of vulgar degenerate "reality shows" where familys air their dirty laundry and broadcast their infidelitys for all to see,movies full of depraved acts of violence,gutter humor and sex,people walking around with their pants hanging down,and profanity laced rap music blasting from the car next to you.....can anyone say with a straight face things are better now?

In the late 1960s a song titled "Give a Damn" was banned in Cleveland, on radio station WIXY 1260 (now WWMK Radio Disney). I don't know if the station's management was trying to shield children and teenagers from hearing the word "damn" or what, but the record was banned from airplay on that station very shortly after it was released by whatever record label recorded it. I haven't heard the record since; I'm sure it didn't go national, due to the presence of the word "damn" in its lyrics.

Today, there is an FCC rule forbidding radio and television stations from airing explicit language (on radio, by DJs and in the records they play, and on TV by hosts of shows on mostly cable channels such as MTV) between the hours of 6 a. m. and ten p. m. This ruling has really toned down a morning radio program on the FM oldies station in Cleveland. Titled "Lanigan and Malone", this show (and believe me, it is a show) began shortly after the radio station switched to oldies in 1981 if not earlier, and featured these clowns talking about some of the darnedest things anyone ever heard of (many subjects discussed on that show really tested the limits of what could and could not be said over the radio in those days). The FCC rule I just mentioned put a stop to that. The program is still on the air (from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays), but the content has changed--a lot--from its early beginnings.

I think the FCC ruling forbidding indecent language over the radio or TV for fourteen hours of the stations' broadcast schedules doesn't do much good, as no one can shield children 24/7 from 4-letter words and other off-color language; that is, they can keep the kids from listening to radio or watching TV, but they cannot shield them from the real world. The reason is that kids hear this type of talk all the time -- in the streets, on the Internet, and even in their own homes. I had an uncle (now deceased) who could not say two words (or so it seemed) without cursing; he had four daughters (my cousins) who heard every bit of it while they were growing up. It wouldn't surprise me if, today, they swear every bit as much as their father did. I have a friend who cannot seem to stop cursing either, but that's easy to explain. His father was in the U. S. Navy, which explains why he himself swore as much as he did. I heard him swear on several occasions, but of course my friend heard it a lot more.

Thank you, GeorgeJetson, I couldn't have said it better. The coarsening of society is quite regrettable.

Thanks "Reece",I agree the current state of our society is rather sad.

I get sick of the way our current media bashes the 50's and labels it "repressive" and "conformist" when it was an incredibly ambitious and creative time and we had a great society.

We are supposed to blindly embrace todays society and ignore the fact that our current "culture",music movies and tv encourage and cultivate degenerate behavior and attitudes....."Britney Spears sister pregnant at 16"..."Tiger Woods has 14 mistresses"..."porn star enters govenors race"....yep,we've come a long way from Ward and June Cleaver haven't we?

Weve gone from encouraging the best and brightest to rewarding the lowest underachivers and criminals.
We make millionaires out of rappers who glamorize a violent criminal lifestyle with lyrics that demean women and embrace violence,alcoholism,drug abuse and greed.

Todays generation has a perverse fascination with lowclass violent and vulgar imagery and themes.
We have plastic "truck balls" hanging from bumpers and hitches and brass knuckle and skull stickers with phrases like "itz all about 'da money" and "pimpin' ain't easy" ,"livin' large" etc.

The point is censorship isn't always a bad thing,we are witnessing the fallout of a society with extremely low standards brought about by increasingly permissive attitudes.

Where's "Doc" Brown when you need him?

Let's bring back institutionalized racism, all sorts of class warfare, the HUAC and blacklists, constantly teetering on the edge of world annihilation, etc. Yay! :thumbsdn:

Remember folks, no Politics and keep it civil.
Not sure if that's possible given the topic.

Sam,
No one here said anything remotely like that!,obviously that's not what I meant.
There have been and always will be problems as long as mankind exists,no society is perfect.

My remarks were regarding the positive aspects of that society,the film,products,music,art and literature were all on a very high level.
We expected more of ourselves.there is a reason it was termed "the greatest generation".

I agree,people should be judged by their character,not color.

That being said,sadly many of the things you mention,racism,class warfare,etc still continue unabated and in many cases much greater than ever.

The racism is much more open,there are "hate crimes" all the time- blacks and mexicans are having open warfare against one another in L.A.Schools,then there is the "la raza" group which are basically the Hispanic version of the kkk openly voicing their hate for "whitie",I see "brown pride" stickers on cars fairly often...how come this isn't racist? Then of course theres skinheads, and militant blacks etc,nothings changed,its only worse,so let's not whitewash the present and act like we've got racism licked...all you have to do is be the wrong color and accidentally drive through south central L.A. (as some tourists did) and you'll be on the 10 o'clock news.

The movie "Falling Down" depicts modern society pretty well.

Society has changed drastically for the worse,people are very short tempered and violent nowadays,you can easily be shot over something as simple as a lane change...things like this didn't happen in the 1950's.



The class warfare is also still going on same as ever,and as for war...well were all aware of the sept. 11th attacks and the ongoing war in the middle east and the continued threat of another act of terrorism.

How is any of this an improvement??

Society,tv,music and products were better in the 50's and early 60's,that's all I meant.

anyway,we now return you to our regularly scheduled program....

The murder rate is half of what it was in 1980. Crime across the board has been falling for years. http://www.balloon-juice.com/2010/12...p-up-up-up-up/

Censorship of any sort, be it voluntary or involuntary, is often used for nefarious purposes. IMHO, free expression is the greatest method we have to promote and protect a free society. What's the first thing any tyrant does? Censor the various forms of media to make sure that only approved messages get out to the people.

In short, I don't buy any notion that over all things are worse today, when in fact many aspects of life are demonstrably better than they used to be.

One other thing - don't believe what certain media outlets that are pushing a very specific political/social agenda tell you about certain groups. A bit of research might prove reality to be a far cry from what their spinmeisters sell during their prime-time shoutfests.

I'm sorry, but that's BS.

Maybe there is hope. I like to go on Youtube and watch videos of the old songs from the 1970's and 1980's that I grew up with. I never saw so many people who are like 12, 14, 16, today's "yung uns" who don't like the media and music today and wish they were around during the time I grew up and I was born in 1966. That tells you something that a lot of things are not too kosher today but take it another way, maybe there is hope after all.