5 Worst TV Shows (By Today’s PC Standards)

Friday Feature, The Worst

None of these TV shows could be made today because #NetworkCowardice.   Ranked from “Least” Offensive to “OMG I Need Counseling!”:

  • The Bob Newhart Show (makes fun of mental illness / psychoses, plus airline pilot Howard is a serial seducer / rapist)
  • Dukes Of Hazzard (OMG Confederate Flag Warning!)
  • Tom ‘n Jerry cartoons  (all that violence, sexism and animal cruelty)
  • Benny Hill (sexism, male chauvinism / piggery, etc.)
  • Monty Python’s Flying Circus (sample):
    “I don’t like darkies!”
    “Hahahaha… she doesn’t like darkies… who does?“

…and a special Dishonorable Mention for female stereotyping:

  • How To Marry A Millionaire

Your suggestions in Comments.

12 comments

  1. Two that spring to mind that could never be made in these PC days are:

    All in the Family
    Married with Children.

    Both were hilariously funny and poked fun at a herd of sacred cows.

  2. I just wanted to mention that when I was in college, in the mid-80’s, a Chicago TV station was running all the old Looney Tunes cartoons, but with every incident of violence taken out.

    Remember the one where Bugs and Daffy are arguing about whether it’s Duck or Rabbit season, and Elmer Fudd keeps shooting Daffy? It was just the two of them arguing back and forth, with Elmer in the middle, and Daffy sometimes having holes in his bill or smoke coming from his head for no reason. Or Road Runner, but every time the Coyote would fall or be smashed by an anvil, or blow up, it just cuts to the next scene. Did the rocket boots work, or not? Why is he building a giant magnet now?

    It was really strange to think that someone not only came up with the idea, but actually spent the time to cut a Road Runner cartoon down from 10 minutes of light entertainment to 6 minutes of utterly disjointed scenes, and then managed to sell that idea to a TV station in a major market.

    Also, are we teaching kids that they can just wire up a bunch of dynamite, light the fuse, and nothing happens? Think of the CHILLUNS!!

    1. I recall hearing about a DVD set of (IIRC) Loony Toons cartoons where, at the beginning of each DVD, there was an un-skippable segment of Whoopi Goldberg informing you that some of the scenes in these cartoons are racist and therefore not funny (like the little African native with the spear).

      I think I’d have brought them back.

  3. A classic oldie TV show that I grew up on was Love That Bob starring Robert Cummings. His character was a panting horny photographer. The entire premise of the show was Bob getting laid that week with some photography model.

    This also reminds me of when my oldest kid was hooked on the oldy comic books The Adventures of Tintin. One of the books Tintin in the Congo was impossible to get. It took a couple of years to find a copy.

    1. GP,
      When the Son&Heir was a youngin, my bedtime reading to him was Tintin — every single volume, chronologically. He displays them proudly in his bookcase to this day.

  5. This won’t mean anything over the pond, but ‘Love they neighbour’ was about as politically un pc (hoorah!) as you could get. Loved it as a kid. Liberal use of the words honky, chalkie and Sambo abounded. Eddie secretly lusted after Bills wife, played by Nina Baden-Semper.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B1dakp4FT0w

  6. Petticoat Junction. Three beautiful women all with the initials B.J. living in a town called Hooterville.

  7. The Three Stooges.
    All that physical violence and poking fun at the “differently abled”.

    Also hilariously funny, therefore verboten today.

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