Sometimes I like to imagine what it would have been like to publish Plugged In decades ago, back when we could have been so much more positive about so much more that was broadcast on TV or projected onto movie screens, not to mention the condition of popular music lyrics. And video games? Well, they didn’t even exist in those days of yore, so maybe we would have devoted a section of our website, er, I mean, printed magazine, to board games like the brand new Monopoly or Connect Four.
But, I’m sure, we’d still find things to complain about. And we ran across a quirky example of that just recently. It was the second episode of Leave It to Beaver in 1957, and it was simply scandalous! You see, Wally and The Beav planned to buy a pet alligator, and when they were confronted by the logistical hurdle of where to keep the baby creature, they struck upon … the family toilet.
Not cool. Not cool at all.
“At that time, you not only couldn’t show a toilet, you couldn’t show a bathroom on television,” recalls Jerry Mathers, who played Beaver. “It was prohibited.” So what happened? Eventually, the show came to a compromise with the network censors: keeping the camera focused only on the top of the toilet tank.
I can see Paul Asay’s TV review now! “Beaver and his family remind us every week just how important our God-given family bonds really are. But if he and his friends continue to associate with reptiles in that wicked water closet, we’re going to have to say so long to the Cleavers and Howdy Doody to This Is Your Life.”
Boy, what would the world be like today if we were still concerned about the amount of porcelain seen on our shows?
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