Maddening inconsistencies/discontinuities in old TV shows: forgot how to watch with "old eyes"?

According to this article from TV Tropes, it wasn't strictly forbidden to show couples sharing a bed, but by the 50's, it seemed that it became to be a rule. That may explain Lucy and Desi with twin beds. Ozzie and Harriet were not on TV until 1952 and thru the 60's. Is there a chance they had twin beds in the 50's, but not in the 60's? Can anyone verify this? I don't know this website, TV tropes, so I am not sure how accurate it is, they totally left out Ozzie and Harriet.

Once upon a time, back in The '30s and The '40s, there was a thing called The Hays Code. Created in 1930 and strictly enforced after 1934, it had a lot of censorship rules foisted on American filmmakers by the Moral Guardians (the Hays Office was actually created by the studios themselves, in part, because they feared that actual government censorship would be the result of failing to rein things in). One of the "do nots" that weren't to be shown in films under any circumstances was "Any licentious or suggestive nudity." Further down, in what was described as the "be careful" section, was "Man and woman in bed together."

The result was this trope: couples of any type were never shown in the same bed together, even if the work in question featured them as married and having children. If couples were shown in a bedroom at all, they were consigned to a pair of twin beds, usually with a nightstand in between so you didn't imagine them ever pushing the beds together when we weren't watching. Exactly where all those onscreen kids came from was not a question you were supposed to ask.

Although (as noted above) it wasn't strictly forbidden to show men and women in bed together, it almost never happened in practice after 1934. This trope carried over to television in the 1950s and remained in effect until censorship standards loosened and The Hays Code became a dead letter in the 1960s, replaced by the MPAA ratings system for films and FCC censorship for television. The first live-action TV couple to share a bed on television, who were not already married in real life, were Darrin and Samantha Stephens on Bewitched. By the early '70s, the trope had been discarded entirely on such series as The Brady Bunch and The Bob Newhart Show.

 

In season one’s Separate Rooms, I think there was only one bed in the BR which Harriet was already lying down in, covered up, and Ozzie was out of it but leaning on it, probably in street clothes, but it was hard to make out as the room was dark.
All the rest had double beds.

I think an episode in season three had one in bed, the other sitting on it in street clothes, probably Ozzie.

Subsequent episodes of season four on YouTube had Ozzie lying down under the covers and usually Harriet was covered up to the waist and sitting up reading the paper until season four’s Honest Face, wherein they were sitting up in bed, covers up to the waist, kissed goodnight, then both assumed the horizontal position under the covers and then...turned the lights out!

So it's possible that was the first episode (according to what's available on YouTube) that they were both in the same bed, lying down under the covers.

 

I don't pick apart my old TV show favorites I just enjoy them...still.: )
sometimes even more today...an era that cannot or will not ever return.

 

lots of laughs! boy have things changed! It's kind of sickening and disturbing... how low can we go?

 

This one never bothered me, because Taxi was a workplace comedy, and I assume taxi drivers come and go, depending on finding other opportunities, or moving elsewhere, etc. And, John was a writer, so he might have become more financially successful at it. It was much less strange than Chuck Cunningham disappearing without explanation. And, yep, Reverend Jim was a huge boost to the show. Jeff Conaway left after season 4, and I don't remember if the show ever handled it.

 

The disappearance that bothers me is Sgt. Kinchloe on "Hogan's Heroes". Kinch disappeared without a word after 5 seasons from Stalag 13 and was replaced by Sgt. Baker who also just happened to be a radio/electronics expert and African-American, just like Kinch!
I assume that trying to explain how and why Kinch left a POW camp and was replaced by somebody who was essentially a twin was too far-fetched and complicated, so they just didn't bother. Simply calling Kenneth Washington 'Kinch' would have made more sense, in my opinion.

 

I was glad that Carver's character left.
I liked the Latka or Simka characters somewhat better, but could take or leave them as well.
The cast of Taxi resented Jeff leaving, as his agent thought the show was on its way out and advised him to exit. He admitted later on it was a mistake to leave.

As others have stated here and elsewhere, one has to accept that certain things don't have to make sense in the world of fiction.

The Munsters and Gilligan's Island are the first ones to come to mind.

The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres are another, and they saw us coming when they wrote Green Acres.

It wouldn’t surprise me if someone who was looking for a new show pitched it as: The Beverly Hillbillies is about a poor backwoods family who suddenly became wealthy, moved to the big city and tried to blend in, yet kept their same wardrobe (so we don't forget the premise that was the basis for the joke(s) and/or newcomers to the show will get the premise and the joke) and hilarity ensues because of it, how about one that’s exactly the opposite, wherein rich city folks move to the backwoods, try to blend in while keeping their same wardrobe (so we don't forget the premise that was the basis for the joke(s) and/or newcomers to the show will get the premise and the joke), and hilarity ensues because of it, and then write appropriate scripts around those two basic 'Treatments'.

The story lines for TBH & GA also had so many loopholes in the premise, yet I watched them week after week and loved 'em both dearly.

 

With Jeff Conaway/Bobby they did explain it. He left to further his acting career. He came back in a 4th season episode. Bobby had gotten cast in a pilot, the show was picked up, but his part was recast. He thought about begging for his job back, but decided to continue acting full time.

The show was mostly supposed to be about losers who had dreams, wanted to do other things than driving a cab (except for Alex, whose dreams died earlier I guess) so it would be a little unusual for people to come and go.

Randall Carver's character was supposed to be the innocent, and wasn't from New York. They gave a lot of Carver's attributes to Tony Danza, and there wasn't a lot left for his character to do. It happens.

 

I actually remember them acknowledging the missing best friend Selby (Jay) whose place had been taken by Cousin Ira (a very wise choice IMHO). In an episode the season after he disappeared another character brings him up and Paul responds (paraphrased): “Oh yeah, Selby...whatever happened to him?”

Another post complained about how the baby killed Mad About You. While often true for many shows, for this one I disagree based on how uncanny so much of Paul and Jamie’s relationship seemed mirrored by my own first marriage and first child. The capper was that our daughter was born concurrent to the Buchanan baby storyline at 8:15 pm while an episode of Mad About You was airing, spooky! And writing this makes me realize just how long ago the series aired, oh that March of Time.

 

The surreal nature of Green Acres made it my favorite of the rural comedies. What was weird was GA and Petticoat Junction utilizing some of the same characters since the shows were quite different in tone. Everyone had to ramp up the weird on GA but then went back to a semblance of normalcy on PJ.

 

IMDB says:

Ivan Dixon (Kinch) left the series at the end of the fifth season (the only regular cast member to do so), stating that he was fed up with the posturings of Bob Crane, Werner Klemperer, and Richard Dawson. He was replaced by Kenneth Washington for the final twenty-four episodes.

I read into this: Dixon didn't get as much money as he wanted, and his roles diminished in the scripts as time went on. I have heard before that Bob Crane could be a tad difficult.

Green Acres producer/director Richard L. Bare, who did the majority of the episodes, later wrote a book on film direction and went into the issues of tone and weirdness in Green Acres. I think to a degree you have to buy into the show as a fantasy, because it's just so absolutely nutty and weird. People forget that in the very last season of the show, Oliver Douglas kind of "accepted" the everyday madness and they had to bring guests in every week to provide the shocked reaction to everyday life in Hooterville. It was a strange change, but I think after 150 episodes, the writers had just run out of things to do.

 

WKRP - Venus is the evening/overnight jock, but he is there during the day every episode.

 

The continuity of the Huxtable and Taylor households on their shows. (Cosby and Home Improvement), the floor plans for all floors make absolutely no sense. Both shows were directed by Jay Sandrich. I find that a interesting coincidence.

 

Before the advent of TV series being available on DVD, we had only our memories of many old shows to go by. Given that, I always thought the final season of GA was where the series reached it's peak of perfection. Watching it when the box set was recently released, I was somewhat underwhelmed and couldn't escape the nagging feeling that something was off. Still, it was a highly enjoyable series that unfairly got lumped into the rural comedy shows category.

 

MARY KAY AND JOHNNY, a live New York show in the late 40s, was.

 

My son, now aged 35, has always enjoyed GA. Myself I never got it... A big fan of tBH though!

 

In another episode there's a map where Germany is divided into East and West.

 

One episode of JEANNIE actually had Jeannie explaining to Major Nelson(when he was given supernatural powers)why he shouldn't try to do those things. Turned out Jeannie was pretty intelligent!

 

It really depended on which network and standards and practices department one was dealing with. It wasn't always consistent between networks. Also, I saw a "Joe McDoaks" short from the late 40s where George O'Hanlon and the actress playing his Wife were shown sharing a bed!

 

This reminds me of my Teacher in Middle School getting confused over BETTY BOOP. It boggled her mind that Betty lived with her parents in one cartoon, but alone in others. "How old is Betty supposed to be?" she asked.

 

And the debate continues...

Sharing a bed in the movies may have had a different set of values in the movies, IDK.
I heard several variations of the restrictions either for the movies and/or TV, at least one of the couple had to have at least one foot on the floor, as in not really in bed together, one had to be on top of the covers as in sitting on the bed, not in it.
As mentioned previously, in the third season of O&H there were a couple or more episodes wherein one was lying down in bed, covered, yet one was sitting up, uncovered from the waist up, but couples in cinema or TV really weren't both lying down, fully under the covers, facing each other, with or w/o the lights on much until...?

Actual footage source link?!

In this 1952 JM short, the headboard sort of suggests that the beds were separated, but when he reaches for the alarm clock and then stands between the two double it's evident @ 4:09:



Cool series of shorts in which Phyllis Coates played Joe's wife for the remainder of the series, and the lead was the voice of George Jetson.
Thanks for mentioning them @antonoid, I see they're available on DVD at Amazon and one reviewer claims it is the complete series...I'm in.

 

This thread reminded me of the Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman box set I bought several years ago and have yet to watch! It only ran for two seasons before star Louise Lasser took a hike and the series was re-branded as Forever Fernwood, becoming one of a handful of series that lost it's main star but bravely soldiered on with the remaining cast a la Mayberry RFD or The Hogan Family. Was there ever a more bizarre actor switch than Philip Brun's George Shumway character falling into a vat of Rustoleum and emerging as Tab Hunter only to have Brun return before the series end?

 

Ooops! I missed it!

 

Unfortunately, MARY KAY AND JOHNNY, broadcast on Dumont in the late 40s, no longer exists. Herman and Lili Munster were also shown in the same bed.

 

I'll go out on a limb and suggest they allowed it on the supernatural/monster shows because of their very nature. They weren't regular folk so standards were lower?