Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Television Firsts
by Stacy Conradt - January 19, 2010 - 3:42 PM

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Today marks the anniversary of the day Lucy Ricardo gave birth to Little Ricky on national T.V. This may not be a big deal these days, but in 1953, the word “pregnant” wasn’t even supposed to be uttered on the airwaves for fear of offending someone. Of course, as the saying goes, there’s a first time for everything – and here are 10 of them.

lucy1. First birth. We’ll start with Little Ricky’s debut, of course. I Love Lucy was a national phenomenon, so when Lucille Ball became pregnant in real life, it was immediately written into the storyline and achieved the series’ highest ratings ever. On January 19, 1953, Little Ricky appeared for the first time on the show – just 12 hours after the real-life Lucy gave birth via Caesarian section to Desi Arnaz, Jr. The episode received higher ratings than Eisenhower’s inauguration the next day and Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation six months later. Lucy never was referred to as “pregnant,” though – merely “expecting.”

2. First toilet. Sort of. Even though networks had decided to allow a television birth more than four years earlier, apparently a toilet on television was just still too risque. In a 1957 episode of Leave it to Beaver, Wally and the Beav ordered an alligator from the back of a comic book. They decided to keep it in the toilet tank because simply keeping it in the bathtub would surely scare the crap out of the next person to hop in the shower, who would then make the kids get rid of it. The problem? The network refused to allow the toilet to be shown on T.V. It was basically impossible to shoot the episode without showing the toilet – it was kind of the whole point of the plot – but eventually a compromise was reached. The toilet tank would be shown, but the bowl would remain a mystery.

3. First gay couple. You may not remember the show Hot l Baltimore – it’s one-season run was hardly memorable. Based on an off-Broadway show by the same name, this Norman Lear production featured the first openly gay couple to appear on the small screen. It also featured a couple of main characters who were prostitutes. These elements, which were quite controversial in the early ‘70s, also makes the Hot l Baltimore…

4. …the first program to require a “mature themes” warning at the beginning of the opening credits. Perhaps the public wasn’t ready for such mature themes during primetime, because the show was canceled after just 13 episodes. In case you’re curious, that’s “Hotel Baltimore” not “Hot Eye Baltimore.” The name indicated a neon hotel sign with a burnt-out letter.

5. First married couple to share a bed. This happened a lot sooner than most of us think – after years of seeing Rob and Laura Petrie retire to their respective single beds at the end of the night during the ‘60s it seems like we didn’t actually see a real-life couple hit the hay together until several years later on The Munsters and Bewitched. However, the first couple to share a bed happened nearly 20 years before on the early sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny. In 1947, the married title couple hopped into the same bed in their New York apartment. Why the networks shied away from such normal married behavior for the next 20 years is a mystery to most of us – as far as we know, there was no public outcry against Mary Kay and Johnny for sharing the sheets… especially since the pair were married in real-life.

shatner6. First interracial kiss. Score one for the Shat – on November 22, 1968, William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols locked lips on Star Trek. Pathetically, some stations in the South refused to air the episode.
7. First uncensored usage of the word “shit.” As far as we know, that occurred on the October 14, 1999 episode of Chicago Hope. Mark Harmon used it when he uttered the classic phrase “Shit happens.”

8. First commercial. Commercials have been around since nearly the beginning.The first one appeared during a Dodgers and Phillies game on July 1, 1941 – it was a 10-second ad for Bulova watches. The first marketing company to use the brilliant idea of advertising toys on T.V. did so for Mr. Potato head in 1952.

9. First religious service. Likewise, religion on T.V. is hardly a new invention. The first-ever televised service took place on March 24, 1940, and showed the Protestant Easter Services on NBC in New York. An hour later, the Roman Catholic Easter Services aired on the same network.

10. First abortion. The first illegal abortion occurred on Another World in 1964, when a character’s boyfriend talked her into aborting their baby. The character later killed her boyfriend. One of the most famous instances of abortion discussed on television, however, happened just two months before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal. The controversial topic was approached by Maude in a two-part episode in 1972. When Bea Arthur’s title character found herself pregnant at the age of 47, she and her husband decided against keeping the baby. Response was mixed, and many stations ended up dropping the show entirely.

What T.V. firsts do you remember?

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Comments (35)

  1. Re: Sharing a bed

    “especially since the pair were married in real-life”

    That’s probably why they didn’t complain. Maybe it’s UL territory but I had thought that a least part of the reason they didn’t show couples in bed together was precisely because they weren’t married and the networks didn’t want to appear as if they were sanctioning unmarried actors sharing a bed.

    posted by Tom in GA on 1-19-2010 at 4:09 pm

  2. Actually, I remember seeing a character say “shit” on a PBS drama several years before that, probably about ’92 or ’93. I was watching it with my grandmother, and we both blushed and commented that we didn’t know shit could be said on TV. I was about 14 at the time.

    posted by Dave on 1-19-2010 at 4:17 pm

  3. If I’m not mistaken, the first TV married couple to be depicted as having an actual sex life (shocking!) were none other than Gomez and Morticia of “The Addams Family.” (Of course, their ardor was pretty much limited to Gomez kissing Morticia’s arm.) One TV critic of the time noted that they seemed to be the only TV couple who were actually capable of having children in the first place.

    posted by amaneaux on 1-19-2010 at 4:17 pm

  4. I remember what was probably the first use of the word “tits,” on the Sharon Gless lawyer Drama, “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill.” Every episode began with her talking to her therapist, and the very first line of the very first episode was, “I’m thinking of having my tits done.” This was pre-Tivo, so I was left wondering if I really heard what I thought I heard. (The show premiered in 1990.)

    posted by Jeff Edsell on 1-19-2010 at 4:33 pm

  5. I thought the first interracial kiss was actually between Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra when they kissed briefly on the variety program Movin’ With Nancy in December 1967. I mean, sure…Shat and Nichols’ kiss was more romantic, but I did think the other one was first.

    posted by Allison on 1-19-2010 at 5:01 pm

  6. @Tom in GA

    I thought that too until I remembered Lucy and Desi (Ricky) were married in real life but didn’t they have single beds too?

    posted by Fran on 1-19-2010 at 5:13 pm

  7. I remember hearing that the first time the word \suck,\ or at least the phrase, \You suck\ was heard on TV was on the Uncle Buck show. There was quite the uproar about it! Now it’s used all the time.

    posted by Rachel on 1-19-2010 at 5:17 pm

  8. I have a question regarding toy commercials and was hoping someone could help me out with it.

    I saw a PBS program a few years back that mentioned there used to be a law forbidding toys based on cartoons or vice versa and that this was changed during the early 80′s. And as a a result, many cartoons had toys created based on them (or vice versa) and the toy commercials would air during the actual cartoon. So, of course, kids watching would immediately ask their parents to buy it.

    I’m 29 so this law changed in my early childhood and I had many cartoon based toys: Thundercats, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Voltron, He-Man, etc.

    I could never find any information about this law. Has anybody else ever heard of it? If so, do you know where I can find some information about it? Thanks.

    posted by Kedar on 1-19-2010 at 5:21 pm

  9. Could it be possible that “Mary Kay and Johnny” were able to share a bed precisely for the reason that they were married and the censors knew that they wouldn’t be having sex? At least not very often!

    posted by Dan M. on 1-19-2010 at 6:56 pm

  10. I think the law you’re talking about is that licensed characters could not appear in their own telelvision show AND have commericals aired during said show that promoted products with the licensed character. I don’t know if the law is still on the books though.

    posted by Darren on 1-19-2010 at 11:17 pm

  11. It was “Hot L Baltimore”, the “e” was supposed to be ommitted.

    posted by Dude Manbro on 1-19-2010 at 11:23 pm

  12. 6. The “Shat”? Really? Isn’t that past tense for the subject of 7.?

    posted by VM on 1-19-2010 at 11:25 pm

  13. Kedar,

    Type “toy advertising” into wikipedia, and there’s a section on that page (under “branding”) that briefly touches on this topic. The references and external links at the end of the article might lead to somewhere with more substantive info.

    posted by Michigan Mom on 1-19-2010 at 11:25 pm

  14. I saw a news program awhile ago saying that fred and wilma flinstone were actually the first couple to share a bed…

    posted by julia on 1-20-2010 at 1:22 am

  15. According to the book “Say Kids, What Time Is It?”, written by the son of its director, “The Howdy Doody Show” was the first network TV program telecast in color. “The Perry Como Show” is believed to be the first prime time show telecast in color.

    posted by oldguy45 on 1-20-2010 at 1:50 am

  16. I thought I remembered NYPD Blue using “shit” several years before Chicago Hope, around 1993 or ’94. Or did they stop at “dickweed” or some variant thereof?

    posted by clint on 1-20-2010 at 7:09 am

  17. @julia:
    It is a common misconception that Fred and Wilma were the first couple shown sharing a bed, largely because nobody remembers “Mary Kay and Johnny.” In fact, I don’t think any masters of that show even survive, so we only have reports of the bed-sharing, rather than screenshots.

    posted by amaneaux on 1-20-2010 at 8:20 am

  18. Hot’l Baltimore didn’t premiere until 1975, All in the Family premiered in 1971.

    All in the Family was the first to have a “mature audience” warning. This was only done for the first six episodes, but it was still four years before Hot’l Baltimore.

    posted by Wayne on 1-20-2010 at 9:23 am

  19. “I saw a news program awhile ago saying that fred and wilma flinstone were actually the first couple to share a bed…”

    So you can say they made their “bed rock”?
    hahahahaha…

    Sorry, sorry! Had to do it.

    posted by OkieMelissa on 1-20-2010 at 9:52 am

  20. … i remember when Carl Winslow on ‘Family Matters’ said ‘jack-ass’…. it blew my 7 year old mind

    posted by Amy on 1-20-2010 at 10:47 am

  21. RE: #7- People always report that it was Ozzie and Harriet. Even Tvland said so.

    posted by Sara in AL on 1-20-2010 at 11:01 am

  22. I recall Nichelle Nichols claimed they didn’t actually kiss. They did a few takes really kissing and a few takes where they turned away from camera and pressed their cheeks together. The network ran the fake kiss to satisfy souther sensibilities and they still pulled the episode.

    posted by Lewen on 1-20-2010 at 1:44 pm

  23. Not sure this counts as a first, but remember the time Harry Belefonte and Petula Clark touched and caused a major to do among the affiliates…

    posted by Decam on 1-20-2010 at 2:15 pm

  24. I think Marlo Thomas was the first actress to go bra-less on TV (on That Girl) followed closely by Elizabeth Montgomery (on Bewitched)…I remember following those events closely…

    posted by Decam on 1-20-2010 at 2:26 pm

  25. I remember first seeing a naked ass on NYPD Blue circa 1993. Blew my pre-teen mind.

    posted by BKReporter1 on 1-20-2010 at 4:05 pm

  26. Michigan Mom,

    That was very helpful. With more specific information I can use as search terms, I was able to find more articles about the deregulation of children’s TV in 1984. Parents couldn’t have been happy.

    Thank you very much.

    posted by Kedar on 1-20-2010 at 4:49 pm

  27. Another first: I believe the first time anyone flipped the bird on prime time was in the made for TV movie \Pueblo\, which was released in 1973. One of the sailors flips off a North Korean guard. Man, that blew me away!

    posted by berserkley on 1-20-2010 at 6:31 pm

  28. T.V. firsts?…The first time I fell in love with a woman, Daisy Duke 1981.

    posted by CJ on 1-20-2010 at 9:36 pm

  29. @OkieMelissa: ahahahaha! good times, I should have done the samething…

    @amaneaux: so what youre saying is diane sawyer lied to me?… or was it geraldo?… I forget, oh well! =D

    posted by julia on 1-21-2010 at 1:25 am

  30. I believe M.A.S.H. was the first program to use the word “bitch.”

    posted by CL Robertson on 1-21-2010 at 12:16 pm

  31. Additionally, did Lucy and Ricky never kiss? If not, then wouldn’t that count as the first interracial kiss?

    posted by CL Robertson on 1-21-2010 at 12:24 pm

  32. I don’t remember experiencing any true TV firsts, but I do recall the first time I heard someone curse on daytime TV. When Kelly called Nola Reardon a bitch on “Guiding Light” at 3 in the afternoon back in the early 1980s, my friends and I were all abuzz about it at school the next day :-).

    posted by Dani in NC on 1-23-2010 at 2:47 pm

  33. Re #7- I don’t think the Flintstones should count. After all, they were cartoons.

    posted by Sara in AL on 1-23-2010 at 6:39 pm

  34. CL, you are correct. Lucy and Ricky did kiss. On the same note–I live in CA and actually it wasn’t against the law here for a Caucasian and a Hispanic to marry, however the same did not hold true for a Caucasian and an African-American. Just thought I’d toss that out there (my husband and I fall into the former category, and we looked this up during the Prop 8 election).

    But I agree with you, that technically would have been the first interracial kiss.

    posted by shirleyfeeney on 1-25-2010 at 1:55 am

  35. And didn’t Erica Kane of “All My Children” have tv’s first legal abortion? Though they managed to screw that up a few years back by having the aborted fetus show up as a hunky 20something man. Wrong! He would have been older than that!

    posted by shirleyfeeney on 1-25-2010 at 1:57 am

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