TV that wouldn't air if it was made today

[Limpshade]

A memory from secondary school popped up in my brain today - me and my friends quoting a L'Oreal shampoo advert to each other in a biology lesson, "Here comes the science bit ... concentrate!"

Yes, us ickle wimmin would have to concentrate to understand science as it's too darn complicated for our ickle wimnin brains

It has got me thinking, what other TV ads, scenes or shows would never make it to air today?

Are you being served is still being showed as is allo allo and hi di high

Fresh Prince of Bel Air

I recently rewatched Big Brother 3 (2002) and the housemates were often slagging Alex behind his back and calling him gay, a poof etc. On launch night Davina mentions the rumours about the housemates going in and says something along the lines of "even a transexual!!"

“ Thinking about it, if we opened it up to songs, Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" would raise a few (more) eyebrows. Gaslighting at its finest. ”

Oh come on. I’m quite po faced but that song is hysterical.

Some of the scenes in Grange Hill that I used to watch in the 1990s definitley wouldn't be allowed on children's tv today.

Limpshade don't forget that it wasn't just that the wimmin were told to concentrate for "the science part" on that advert; there was also the fact that a man takes over the narration for it! Because women don't do science/ won't come across as convincing/authoritative enough or something.
Used to make my blood boil.

How about 'The Young Ones' ?

The Kia Ora adverts..... shockingly racist

I'd say that Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes clearly positioned the racist/sexist/generally offensive 70s police crowd as retrograde. That was the whole point, wasn't it, a modern-day copper being transported back in time and being appalled at how things used to be?

@AutumnRose1 oh I know, my tongue was firmly in cheek there.

That Yorkie ad! I do remember feeling put out that my brother got a Yorkie Easter egg one year and I got the Cadbury's Caramel one (with the strangely sexualised bunny)

darling yes that was absolutely the point, I just don't think the language would be allowed on tele now if it was a newly made show.

We all know that's how things were in the 70s but I still think it would be a bit too much of a risk for the beeb to put out now.

Bolly, that's interesting. I watched it too long ago to remember the language; was it beyond the pale? It wasn't on telly THAT long ago, so if it wouldn't be allowed now then I guess we've come quite a long way in a short time. Which is no bad thing!

What’s wrong with Fresh Prince?

I always took the 'here comes the science bit' to mean it was the boring bit not that women wouldn't understand it. It would still be the boring bit today.

Benny Hill
Most of the old Disney films
Friends

@ooooohbetty science isn't boring!

Some of the scenes in Grange Hill that I used to watch in the 1990s definitley wouldn't be allowed on children's tv today

Even more so some of it in the 80s.

I remembered Benny being referred to as being bullied because he was ‘coloured.’ And a teacher pairing up a girl of Indian origin with a new student ‘the little Parkistarni girl’ to show round even though they hadn’t a clue what each other was saying. And a boy who was discovered to have dyslexia being described as ‘slow’ and having to go to a ‘special school.’

I appreciate it was ‘of it’s time’ but I remember being quite shocked even then!

I'm not sure Absolutely Fabulous would be the same if it was conceived now. Drinking and drugs! Child abandonment! Verbal abuse!

Some of the 'ladbantz' between Sam, Toby and The Angry One in early series of The West Wing is quite... and Donna is treated appallingly by most of the characters, with minimal comeuppance.

Not sure it counts because it's still on, kind of, but I reckon if Supernatural was being pitched now it'd get booted for not having enough any female characters (who aren't eventually killed, turn evil or exist only to be briefly shagged and then abandoned by one of the Winchesters).

The Good Wife, circa 2019, would be half a minute long. 'You did WHAT with prostitutes?"

darling it wasn't horrendous, like no bad swears I just think the sexist language (even though its portraying a time where we all know it was commonplace) just wouldn't be worth risking a heap of complaints.

I personally loved it (hence the name!) and watched it again recently and I was not in the slightest offended by it as a woman, however I can see that the more, ahem, sensitive of us could be I suppose.

I think the issue is that people will complain about literally anything nowadays whether its warranted or not. And everything has to be PC, and while I do understand why, I think its almost a shame because we probably miss out on a load of good tele because people wont broadcast it for fear of being labelled as whatever.

like I cant imagine seeing any of the following quotes on tele even if they were showing a different time....

"you great... soft... sissy... girlie... nancy... french... bender... Man-United supporting poof!"

"this investigation's going at the speed of a spastic in a magnet factory"

"I think she's as fake as a tranny's fanny"

they're all copied off the internet so might be slightly out but the general gist of it...

Little Britain, particularly the fat fighters fish and chips sketch lol!

Oh and the teachers advice to Benny being bullied for being ‘coloured’ was to try and ignore it

Thinking about it, if we opened it up to songs, Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" would raise a few (more) eyebrows. Gaslighting at its finest.

I just listened to this song the other day and gave dp a mouthful for putting it on. Absolutely loved it when it first came out and I was a very young teen. Absolutely disgusted in it now.

Bollykecks, I don't disagree, but I also kind of hope you're wrong, because it's a bit depressing if people can't understand when something is a comment/piss-take about offensiveness rather than setting out to be offensive, IYSWIM.

ooooohbetty, the full quote is 'Here comes the science bit... concentrate!', implying that women have to concentrate really really hard for our tiny brains to comprehend the hard stuff!

darling oh yeah I would have that same hope, I mean its so obvious that its showing the 70s and not saying its socially acceptable now, but the sheer mention of some of those words in the above quotes is enough to get some people writing to points of view, I am sure.

You see all over the internet what people have complained about and sometimes its absolutely ridiculous, but for whatever reason nowadays its absolutely not ok to offend anyone even if what they're "offended" by is ludicrous.

I didn’t much like the episode of Big Bang Theory where Leonard and Raj arrange for Howard to sleep with a prostitute. Oh but they call her a hooker and it’s a funny setup so that’s ok.

The casual references to porn in BBT and Friends I find surprising and uncomfortable given that Friends in particular is so readily watched by children now.