TV Censorship Policies in the US

[Aussie Thoughts]

On a recent trip to the states, I couldn't help notice the odd way broadcast TV's censored. On network daytime dramas, it's pretty much anything goes, but on network affiliate sub-stations it's a different story. I was watching an old science fiction movie and they went so far as to blip 'hell and damn' or as they would have it, h#!l and d#&n. One scene featured a gal in tight jeans and a low cut top. They actually pixelated her cleavage and bum even though she was fully clothed! Yet, in the next scene she was violently killed by aliens which was shown completely unedited. What message does that convey... kill 'em just don't use bad language or look at there figure when you do it?

 

[Devils' Advocate]

Yep. You got it. Extreme violence. Bloody, gory maiming and killing. All good clean American fun. Don't you dare show even partial nudity though, or Heaven Help Us, two people making love to each other. That is unconscionable!

 

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Yep. You got it. Extreme violence. Bloody, gory maiming and killing. All good clean American fun. Don't you dare show even partial nudity though, or Heaven Help Us, two people making love to each other. That is unconscionable!

Hell, there was a time when a couple couldn't even be in the same bed at the same time, even if they were married irl, and pregnancy wasn't mentioned/alluded to in the movies/television/radio shows. When Lucille Ball was pregnant with Desi Arnez, Jr. irl, they had to tiptoe around how to bring it into the storyline in the original I Love Lucy show (especially since Lucille Ball was an Anglo-American and Desi Arnez was a Latino from Cuba.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

 

[StevePame]

be in the same bed at the same time,

I always remember being confused by that growing up because I didn't know why you would have two beds. It wasn't until later that Seinfeld explained the 'jimmy legs' as the true cause for why a married couple sleeps in two separate beds.

 

[Namaste Jesus]

Hell, there was a time when a couple couldn't even be in the same bed at the same time, even if they were married irl

That was the result of a one of the 'Standards and Practices' rules handed down by the film industry. It didn't forbid a man and woman to be in bed together, but said that if that were the case, one party had to have at least one foot flat on the ground! That resulted in a lot of strange contortions in order for actors to comply, but most film makers simply side stepped the rule by using twin beds. That went on until the early 70's. I believe 'The Brady Bunch' was the first sitcom to use a double bed.

When Lucille Ball was pregnant with Desi Arnez, Jr. irl, they had to tiptoe around how to bring it into the storyline in the original I Love Lucy show

My mom use to say, back in Lucy's day you couldn't say the word 'pregnant' on TV... now they show people getting that way!

 

[Aussie Thoughts]

I believe 'The Brady Bunch' was the first sitcom to use a double bed.

I think that was the first sitcom to show a married couple in bed together, but if I remember right, Ward and June cleaver had a double bed. Whenever it was in frame though, it was always made up with no one in it. Never even a shot with the sheets turned down that I recall.

My mom use to say, back in Lucy's day you couldn't say the word 'pregnant' on TV... now they show people getting that way!

My how times have changed. Back in '53 the movie, 'The Moon is Blue' caused quite an uproar in the US over the use of the word virgin. That's what bugs me now. We've come such a long way and the people that run the network substations are censoring things like that in old movies once again. Yet, leaving alone the violent bits. The movie I referenced in the OP was over 40 years old and had aired uncut in the states before. Why now all of a sudden is it being censored?

 

[Namaste Jesus]

The movie I referenced in the OP was over 40 years old and had aired uncut in the states before. Why now all of a sudden is it being censored?

Perhaps the program manager feels that any hint of sex or course language would spoil the joy of violence. Then again, it could be an economic thing. Since, as you point out, it's anything goes on the daytime soaps; where the bulk of network advertising income, is derived.

 

[Aussie Thoughts]

Perhaps the program manager feels that any hint of sex or course language would spoil the joy of violence. Then again, it could be an economic thing. Since, as you point out, it's anything goes on the daytime soaps; where the bulk of network advertising income, is derived.

No doubt lots of different factors at play there. Just seems like a lot more drama and inconsistencies in the US than elsewhere in the world in that regard.