Just saw some of the "Feeding Frenzy" episode from 1976. In one scene an angry police lieutenant (not Becker) calls Rockford a "scumbag".
It must have been one of the very first instances-- if not THE first-- of that word being used in a prime-time entertainment program on U.S. commercial TV.
I wonder if they traded away some other 'language' to keep that one, or if it just somehow slipped past Standards & Practices?
Nah don't think that one slipped by. They were using Damn, Hell and Bastard(MASH) so scumbag was not really a big deal then. But I know what you mean, amazing how much things have changed since then. Now pretty much anything goes except the F-bomb! But give it time!
shareOn the pilot Rockford calls the antagonist "queer".
On "Just Another Polish Wedding" a black was referred to as a "coconut".
On "Second Chance" Isaac Hayes was referred to as "an oil slick on dry land".
Looking a few years into the future, the f bomb is standard now on basic cable.
shareLanguage of the times!
Now with the PC we live in
You can't say anything without offending someone.
I put the blame on the offendees.
If they were any more thin-skinned, they'd all be hemopheliacs.
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These terms are designed to be offensive. So, it's a secondary put-down/trauma to be told that one is "too sensitive" about these things. Unless one is on the receiving end of such labels, they can't possibly know what it feels like to be the subject of them.
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"Can we all just parachute down from Cloud Coo-coo Land?" Jimmy-Better Call Saul
It's okay for you to be offended. It's not okay for you to expect everyone else to be offended as well.
shareThese terms are designed to be offensive. So, it's a secondary put-down/trauma to be told that one is "too sensitive" about these things. Unless one is on the receiving end of such labels, they can't possibly know what it feels like to be the subject of them.
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"Can we all just parachute down from Cloud Coo-coo Land?" Jimmy-Better Call Saul
I agree with what you're saying.
What bothers me are the people that constantly have their radar up, going out of their way to find excuses to make every little thing a racial issue, no matter how trivial. In my opinion they're needlessly adding fuel to the fire.
OK. Let's consider it this way. How would you feel if someone came up to you and slapped you in the face without provocation? I'm going to assume you would be offended because that would be a reasonable reaction for most people. But, what if someone else said "That wasn't anything. Stop overreacting!" If you are like most sane people, you would feel justifiably marginalized by having your pain minimized.
It's the same as "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Only the person who is hurt/offended by an action can determine the magnitude of it. By placing our judgments on what/how someone else SHOULD feel about an event, more often than not, we are silencing (or attempting to) their pain and that's not fair or humane.
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"Can we all just parachute down from Cloud Coo-coo Land?" Jimmy-Better Call Saul
It's one thing to react when they're being personally attacked. I don't blame them.
It's when somebody's looking for things to use as an excuse to play the racist card, like a witch hunt, is what's hurting this country.
Totally agree. It's one thing to deliberately offend someone and I don't hold with anyone who does that. It's quite another to take offense when none was intended and in the process to turn ordinary decent people into demonic symbols of political incorrectness.
shareI think that's going to prove to be one of the downfalls of this country - the invention of political correctness.
shareNo question about it. Political correctness is a cancer that destroys free speech. There's no freedom when the government or any kind of administrative authority (e.g., university administrators) presumes to tell people what they can say, how they can behave, and even how they can think.
shareWe need a social revolution.
shareA television first - way back when, on 3/3/95, the television show Picket Fences had little Zachary Brock (played by then child actor Adam Wylie) become the first kid actor to give someone the finger
on prime time television. He may have been the first actor PERIOD to give someone the finger on prime time television. How's that for a new television high (or low)?
First time I ever heard "hell" used on TV (in a non-religious context) was at the very end of the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever." Kirk has just had to prevent McCoy from saving the life of Edith Keeler (to prevent history from changing), and he says "Let's get the hell out of here." That was in 1967, and I don't recall a sudden rash of "hell" on TV, so Star Trek had probably gotten special permission from the censors, for dramatic purposes.
But do you recall when it suddenly became OK to say "crap" on TV? Not sure what year that was, but Friends was on, so it was between '94 and '04. Suddenly you seriously couldn't turn on the TV without hearing someone say "crap."
I remember that Kirk line distinctly. It was huge. And absolutely the perfect line for the context. That was back when profanity meant something, back when it had power. Kind of miss those days.
shareIt was perfect, yes. Saying merely "Let's get out of here" lacks emphasis, and "Let's get the heck out of here" would have been just plain silly.