The content allowed to be aired on
TV has been a touchy subject of debate since the very beginning of programming.
In television shows today, it’s not uncommon for the casual mention of various
forms of sex to be brought up, implied, or even shown to some extent. Many
forms of relationships are being explored, including (but not limited to)
married couples, unmarried couples, interracial couples, heterosexual couples,
homosexual couples, or polygamous relationships. Of course, television was not
always so liberal in what they aired. Why? Mainly because of how the times have
changed and what is viewed as acceptable.
During 1947, a show called Mary Kay and Johnny featured an
off-screen married couple sharing a bed. It’s important to remember that the
couple was married, because this was the sole factor that made this even
slightly acceptable, however it ventured into dangerous waters and wasn’t
brought up again for another twenty years.[1] In
I Love Lucy, the couple slept on beds
pushed together, however were forced to separate once a child was born between
them as it would have too strong implications that the married couple did more
than sleep beside each other in bed.[2]
The first couple to be shown in a bed together without being married on- or
off-screen came from the show Bewitched
in 1964.[3]
Between these years, the concept of dating was first established, which led to
a rise in marriages and between younger couples.[4]
Though it is commonly said that the first
interracial kiss on television occurred between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant
Uhura in Star Trek in 1968,[5]
this was only in America. The first interracial kiss was originally broadcast
on a British shown by the name of Emergency-Ward
10 between two of the doctors in 1964. However, this was quickly a topic of
great controversy, and the black female doctor was soon after written off the
show in an off-screen death.[6] The Jeffersons was the first to depict
an interracial couple between a white man and a black woman in 1975.[7]
These were fairly large steps in introducing interracial couples into
television, considering that Americans had just come from portraying
African-American males as sexual predators of white women and were just
recently viewing the idea of romantic love between two races in the 1969 film 100 Rifles.[8]
Homosexuality
popped in television a number of times, but was often downplayed. In the late
1940’s to the early 1950’s, homosexuals were scapegoats of the Cold War Witch
Hunt, and were frequently ambushed and arrested from gay bars for no real
reason.[9] It
wasn’t until 1991 that a lesbian couple on L.A.
Law was allowed to share a passionate kiss on primetime television, and
until 2000 on Dawson’s Creek that a
gay couple was allowed the same exchange.[10]
[1] Murphy, Ryan, "Top 10: TV
Firsts," AskMen,
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/114_top_10_list.html (accessed April
28, 2014).
[2] Moore, Crystal, "Redrawing
Boundaries," Lecture, The History of Sexuality in America from The
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, April 15, 2014.
[3] Sex and Entertainment: Exploring the
portrayal of sexuality in the media over time,
http://visual.ly/sex-and-entertainment-exploring-portrayal-sexuality-media-over-time
(accessed April 28, 2014).
[4] Moore, Crystal, "Redrawing
Boundaries," Lecture, The History of Sexuality in America from The
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, April 15, 2014.
[5] Murphy, Ryan, "Top 10: TV Firsts,"
AskMen, http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/114_top_10_list.html
(accessed April 28, 2014).
[6] Akil, Jamila, "#Throwback
Thursday: The First Interracial Kiss On TV - Beyond Black & White,"
Beyond Black White.,http://www.beyondblackwhite.com/throwback-thursday-real-first-interracial-kiss-tv/
(accessed April 28, 2014).
[7] Nittle, Nandra, "Early
Interracial Couples on TV," About.com Race Relations,
http://racerelations.about.com/od/hollywood/tp/Interracial-Couples-On-Tv-Shows-In-The-20th-Century.htm
(accessed April 28, 2014).
[9] Moore, Crystal, "Redrawing
Boundaries," Lecture, The History of Sexuality in America from The
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, April 15, 2014.
[10] Wood, Jennie,"Timeline: Gays in
Pop Culture 1934 – 2010," Timeline: Gays in Pop Culture,
http://www.factmonster.com/entertainment/gays-in-pop-culture-timeline.html
(accessed April 28, 2014).
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