What TV Shows/Movies Were You Not Allowed To Watch As A Child?

I was never allowed to watch Spongebob or Disney Channel shows because my parents thought it would make me stupid. I was also never allowed to play video games that weren't the standard Nintendo shit, which was worse in my opinion because I missed out on a lot of bonding experiences centered around Call Of Duty as a kid.

"Peyton Place"

I was not allowed to watch Real Sex on HBO Sunday nights.

But me and my siblings snuck and watched anyway.

LOL

And we recorded episodes too.

LOL

This is generational, at this point. I was never told I couldn't watch any program.

Mary Tyler Moore’s voice grated on my mother’s last nerve and I was not allowed to watch the show until I had my own black and white TV in my room during syndication years later.

Many friends who were Catholics were forbidden to watch One Day at a Time because that hussy Ann Romano was divorced.

Same as r5.

As a matter of fact, my mom took me to an r-rated movie with full male nudity (The Sensualist) and my dad let me hang out with sailors and go-go girls at the bar he owned. I even mixed cocktails, tended bar, updated the jukeboxes (one of them a Scopitone that featured topless women) and rang the happy hour bell at 5:00 pm (after which I was promptly sent home).

No one batted an eye in the permissive late sixties.

R4, yes, I think it's generational in the sense that, in my childhood, like that of most boomers except the youngest, there was nothing on TV that would have been inappropriate for a child to see.

There were plenty of programs aimed at adult audiences that a child might not understand and might find boring or even a little disturbing in their themes; but there was no explicit sex and no crude language, and violence was tame indeed by modern standards. Movies that were shown on television had been edited to meet broadcast standards and so were equally clean and child-safe.

Moves are another story. My parents loved movies, went often, and took me to many, but some were "just for adults". Offhand, I remember Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Georgy Girl as movies they saw but wouldn't take me along.

^^^Sorry, R8 was meant as a response to R5.

Three's Company was banned until my grandparents visited and watched the reruns that were airing in the morning and my mom saw it wasn't offensive, just stupid. Then it was somehow okay... Charlie's Angels was similarly banned until the reruns popped up in the afternoons.

My dad also banned MTV for a time after seeing Van Halen's Hot For Teacher video. He banned it for the wrong song - I was much more taken by the half-naked boys in Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart video.

R10 yes, MTV was banned for me.

I was allowed to watch the Simpsons, but NOT allowed to watch Married With Children which was on right after it.

When Madonna’s Blonde Ambition Tour aired on HBO in 1991, I was a young future gayling absolutely obsessed with Madonna. My parents hated that I loved her. While they were permissive with letting me have her records and watch her videos, they drew the line at the tour, having heard all the news reports about the Like a Virgin masturbation bit, the pope condemning the show. I cried and begged. They eventually relented, with the caveat being I couldn’t watch Like a Virgin.

I wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons and now I don't even want to. My parents also had copies of "The Game" and "The Firm" that I wasn't allowed to watch. I ended up loving both.

Desperate Housewives or any Housewives show

Sex and the City because it has sex in the title

The Vampire Dairys, Buffy, Supernatural, Stranger Things because my mom didn’t like the occult.

I was allowed to watch anything. I remember my cousin and I watching "Faces of Death" on VHS as children, rented by one of our parents. My stepmom took me to the theatre to see Porky's when I was a child, but wouldn't let her own children (born years later) see any R-rated movie except for Saving Private Ryan (because of the troops).

Nothing. My parents never censored what we watched.

Laverne and Shirley

My parents didn't give a shit what i watched on tv. When we finally got cable, i remember watching Alligator! when i was around 6 or 7. And Amityville Horror.

My parents wouldn't let my brother and me watch "Love, American Style." They thought it was too "racy."

Eddie Murphy Raw

TV: Love American Style

This was until i was 7. After that, I could see any TV show I wanted, and any movie I could get into.

My parents imposed any censorship on what I read or watched.

Though when I was not even a teenage I was reading an article about the Manson murders and my mother did say something like 'You should read that, it was terrible', but she didn't stop me.

Soap.

beavis and butthead was discouraged

I was allowed to watch anything as long as it was before my bedtime.

I was occasionally allowed to stay up to watch Batman, and then Laugh-In (though not always). Eventually I was allowed to stay up to watch Lou Grant. (I secretly stayed up to watch Benny Hill reruns though I have no idea why I wanted to).

We also got Z Channel, an early cable movie channel in the Los Angeles area. My mother was shocked to find out they showed uncut R rated movies on Z Channel. But I'd already been watching it for a couple of years. She let it go.

I used to know the exact moment when Jan Michael Vincent appeared nude in the movie "Buster and Billie" so I would switch from whatever I was watching to see the few second Vincent did his full frontal scene (for like 3 seconds).

R26 I saw Buster and Billie for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The film was great and I think it's Jan=Michael Vincent's best performance ever. I wish somebody would release on Blu Ray - that nude scene is amazing.

R17/R19 Same here. My parents, though good at being "hands on" as needed, were too busy to police what we watched. Babysitters also let us stay up late and watch whatever all the time. My sister, brother, and I all saw films we shouldn't have at our age. We'd either sneak into a different showing, or get friends' older siblings to take us.

My Mom's rule was that we couldn't watch any show on TV where she didn't understand the humor. This included, for example, The Muppet Show.

Which probably tells you too much about my mother.

Hercules and Xena.

I wasn't allowed to watch American TV because of my British post-war mother.

I was allowed to watch anything because my parents thought they were progressive and better than the other uptight parents. We were allowed to swear, too, and my mother made us call her by her first name, not "mom."

We're all fucked up, but I think we would have been fucked up however they did it, really.

I’m 52 years old and my mother’s been dead five years and I’m still not allowed to watch Laverne and Shirley!

My mother was too busy working to provide for us to ever worry about television.

Leave it to Beaver, Gillian's Island, and The Flintstones, not because of anything unseemly, but thay my Mom HATED the way women were portrayed on those shows.

She was a feminist.

I wasn't banned from watching anything on TV but once we got a subscription movie channel (ON TV) they became aware of the adult movies they were showing like '"Last Tango in Paris" and "In Praise of Older Women" and told me not to watch them. Since they went out a lot on weekends my friends and I watched a lot of them when they weren't home.

No horror movies (my mom didn’t like them and I’d have had nightmares anyway) and I was grounded for watching Weird Science after specifically being told not to.

The Exorcist!

Watched it on network TV anyway!

TV: anything after 10PM (bedtime). I got to watch Peyton Place on occasion because my mother was a fan and saw nothing wrong with it. In fact, daytime The Secret Storm had as much or more risque stuff than Peyton Place.

MOVIE: Valley of the Dolls. I only wanted to see it because I liked Jacqueline Susann when she was promoting the book on TV.

My English mother wasn't a big banner, but she hated Playaway because she thought it was moronic.

Also - after she saw Goodbar she said no way was I to go see it...and I was like "NO WAY am I NOT going to see it!"

(I was a DLer in the making loooong before DL)

I remember my aunt banned my cousins from watching The Electric Company because she hated Rita Moreno yelling “Hey You Guys!!” in the opening credits.

My parents (my mom particularly) would make me turn my head if anything naughty was on the screen. This specifically applied to nudity and sexual situations. Violence, horrible language and horror scenes were fine. I do remember, however, my mom making me turn off one of the Eddie Murphy stand-up specials. My dad (divorced from my mom) had the albums and let me listen to them when I'd visit him. He also liked Richard Pryor and let me listen/watch.

No one remembers it, but it was called Hot L Baltimore. A quickly cancelled Neil Simon comedy that had hookers and homos.

My family didn't get cable until 1984 when I was a senior in high school so it was too late to ban me from watching anything. And as someone pointed out previously, TV was squeaky clean back in the day.

We had full control of the TV before dinner, but during the week, after dinner TV was decided by my dad if there was something on he wanted to watch. Usually a game or news program. Otherwise, we mostly watched 70s sitcoms. Eventually, my parents got a TV for their bedroom. My mom, sisters and I would pile on their bed and watch Little House on the Prairie because my dad couldn't stand it. All of us kids, even the teenagers, had to go to bed at 9 pm. If you weren't tired, you'd read or do homework in your room. My parents were sick of us by 9 and needed an hour or two of adult company. Which I actually think is quite healthy.

My mom wouldn't let me watch Batman because she thought it was stupid. (In retrospect, it was.) So I went over to the neighbors' and watched it there.

When I was 13, I conned my mother into taking me to see MYRA BRECKINRIDGE.

She knew television was not the problem to worry about.

My Dad would not allow me to watch the annual broadcasts of "The Wizard of Oz" or reruns of "I Love Lucy". No idea why.

Regular Judy Garland exposure can have only one effect on an impressionable young boy.

I had no restrictions.

I couldn’t watch adult videos like “Switch Hitters” because it was bisexual.

My Dad caught me watching Oz as a teen, and while he didn't say anything, I am not sure he was very approving...

Uncle Chichimus on Canadian TV in the 1950s. . My parents had no problem with it but I always thought it a tad unsettling.

No "Laugh-In" or "Smothers Brothers" for me. I was supposed to be a true red-white-and-blue "American". These shows supposedly indoctrinated me to subversive lifestyles that were "unAmerican". So I ended up gay. (I thought Tommy Smothers was hot.)

My conservative parents banned my sisters and me from watching "All in the Family" and "Maude" due to certain liberal topics that were covered. Yet one evening they took us to a drive-in theatre where we watched "The Godfather 2," which ended up giving me nightmares for weeks. So seeing people getting shot, stabbed, and strangled was fine, but homosexuality, menopause, and abortion were taboo?

I thought Tommy was hot, too, R54.

Nothing was ever censored in my house, but I self-censored by avoiding horror movies.

If my mother had any inkling of my plans for Brian Kelly, I never would have been allowed to watch Flipper!

R57 Lmao - I’m with you.

I was raised by my grandparents and my grandfather wouldn't let me watch Nanny and the Professor. I'm not sure why.

It was mostly things they thought were straight up annoying, as opposed to content.

For some reason my father haaated Ruper the Bear, so I could never watch it.

I think Brian Kelly on Flipper was the first man who made me want to look at other men. He was the only reason I watched Flipper. It was such a wholesome show, with a cute dolphin who danced and talked.

My mother turned the channel from Happy Days after I said I thought Fonzie had a lot of pubic hair. I still thought so.

I was 9, my mother was at a bridge party, and I shocked my grandmother by demanding to watch that Elizabeth Montgomery rape TV movie.

My grandmother changed the channel, I called my mom at the neighbor's house and told her the situation.

I got to watch Elizabeth.

I think my mom did it more to spite my grandmother, then wanting me to watch the rape movie.

That TV movie was HUGELY controversial at the time, which now seems quaint.

R2 ME TOO !!!! PEYTON PLACE !!! BECAUSE ALYSON WAS RAPED !!! MARRY ME NOW

I had to sneak around to watch the real world as a kid.

My mother didn't want any of us kids watching Alice because she thought Flo was a loudmouth and a whore.

My mom did not allow Maude to be on in my home. Mom said she was an overbearing bitch and Walter was pussy whipped. I didn’t care I wad only 2 yrs old.

When the Benny Hill Show theme tune came on, we were sent to bed.

Any show was OK as long as it didn't start past our bedtime (school nights), which was early. I am surprised at how late kids go to bed now.

Newlywed Game Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman 21st Century

Another Laverne and Shirley ban here, my mom thought they were lesbian. Fantasy Island banned, but Love Boat was ok. She got upset at the Mr. Roarke playing God thing. Dynasty, Dallas ok. Miami Vice banned. But Magnum PI, fine since she loved Selleck.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who got to watch anything until bedtime. Unfortunately, bedtime was early so I missed the good stuff like Sonny and Cher. (Unless it was bridge night and they weren't paying attention to whether I had gone to bed or not!)

I was forbidden to see "Carrie" even though all my friends saw it. I threw an epic fit that my mother still brings up on occasion.

Mother Fucker! Mother Fucker!

The first show I wanted to watch that my parents didn't allow was Soap when I was 10 years old. But by the time it was in syndication and played in the late afternoons, I was old enough and they didn't care.

They didn't object to Roots (with which I was obsessed and was on about the same time), so it was more about whether adult themes were tackled seriously or not. When all I asked for for birthday that year was the novel Roots, my grandmother was baffled, but my mother had no problem with it and just told her, "It's all he asked for."

[quote] Another Laverne and Shirley ban here, my mom thought they were lesbian. Fantasy Island banned, but Love Boat was ok. She got upset at the Mr. Roarke playing God thing.... But Magnum PI, fine since she loved Selleck.

Love Boat starred Gavin McLeod as Captain Stubing. McLeod played Murray on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Murray was pretty much a gay character.

Tom Selleck is gay, I think.

I grew up in the days when TV actually cut all the "objectionable" content out, so I was allowed to watch anything if it was on basic cable as a kid, but R rated movies were out of the question. My mom didn't want me to see them because of the nudity and violence and my dad didn't want me to see them because of the language. Thankfully, the video store I used to rent movies at didn't care and I'd always sneak them into the house.

I think the only movie that was 100% outlawed in our house was I Spit on Your Grave. Somehow, they both saw that and told me that I'd never see that until I was 18.

Wonder Woman cause of Lynda’s tits.

My mother said “You should not be watching [italic]Married with Children[/italic]; it’s raunchy.” 25 years later, we are watching Christina Applegate on the toilet on Netflix together.

My mom wouldn’t let me watch Lawrence Welk repeats on PBS. She said it was too erotic.

For some reason my Mom thought Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was too much for children.

R26, I love you. We must have lived in the same general neighborhood because Z Channel's reach was so limited. I went to Uni High. I remember the first movie I saw on Z was Save the Tiger and it had a brief shot of Jack Lemmon going to the shower. Seeing his pruny old ass was exciting for a young galling.

I loved "Wide World of Sports" on ABC on Saturday afternoons. Mom disallowed me after we saw an Australian lifeguard competition. Their smaller-than-speedo swimsuits rose up their buttocks and they didn't mind showing pubic hair as their waistbands drifted downward. I said something about a man with sun-bleached hair on his head, and so much dark hair down below. That was it. No more "Wide World of Sports".

Here you go:

My parents were pretty liberal. They let me watch anything but I was born in 1950 so nothing on tv was racy. When I was twelve my dad stopped hiding his playboys and they were prominently displayed on the magazine rack under the bookshelf. I am a straight women but I read most of the articles every month. I remember one of my favorite shows was the twilight zone. My parents didn't hire babysitters because I was an only child and well behaved, so they always took me to the movies with them. It didn't seem to matter to them how racy the movie was.

My mother forbid me to watch Dark Shadows when I was a small child so when it was on it became my nap time. She recently confessed that she made me nap so she could watch alone 'cause I asked too many questions and it annoyed her, that I was a sweet child and she didn't want to slap me without a good reason. None of us realized she was drunk all the time. Thanks for digging this up with your horrible questions, OP!

I was a latch-key kid in the 80s so I didn't really have any restrictions. The basement of the house was my "playroom" and I had a TV with full cable access, a VCR, and all my video games. My mom also took me to see horror movies in the theater with no issues. The funny part is she was pretty strict in all other areas, but TV wasn't that big of a deal.

'The Brain That Wouldn't Die', back in the mid-Sixties. The original-length version was shown on an independent TV station, and my mother watched it by herself. She wouldn't let me in the room! I made immediate plans to see it ASAP, and I revere it as a uniquely craptastic film. R.I.P. Virginia Leith, who passed last November. No television show was off-limits to me.

TBTWD was actually considered graphic and had to be edited because of the blood smear created by the Dr. when his arm got ripped off.

Married with Children and The Simpsons were outlawed in my house. I guess I understood later when I saw them, but I don't even know if I would have gotten all the jokes. They never really cursed much on the shows, they just had suggestive humor.

Married with Children was just plain stupid. You're lucky your mind was never infected with that BS.

The Three Stooges.

Soap. The gay character freaked my family out.

Moonlighting.

I was allowed to watch anything I wanted even from a young age. I thought most of my friends' parents treated them like prisoners!

Still, my dad would constantly ask, "How do you WATCH that crap?" whenever he saw I was watching "Gilligan's Island", which to this day is one of the most entertaining series I've ever seen. I've always loved it!

R94: My dad hated [italic]The Brady Bunch[/italic], yet inversely he liked [italic]Gilligan's Island[/italic] and preferred Mary Anne to Ginger.

R95 Everybody preferred Mary Anne to Ginger. Ginger was a whore.

R82, You may have been stopped from watching the Olympics if you saw the water polo and diving competitions. I remember several instances when pubic hair was outside their swimsuits while they competed. The Yugoslavian water polo teams were especially hairy, and pubic hair was not going to stop them from making a play.

Casino Royale in 1967. But I sang along with Dusty Springfield to The Look of Love.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. So of course, it's all I'd want play on the kindergarten playground.

For me it was Mr. Ed and My Mother the Car, which my father deemed just too stupid.

My neighbor’s mom (during summer months) got me started watching “The Young and the Restless.” When I started watching Y&R at home, my mom thought it was really stupid. In retrospect, I agree.

There were so many movies for children in the late '50s-early '60s, I had no sense that there was anything my parents would keep me from seeing, and my brother and I would go to the movies every Saturday.

The Catholic Church was another story. The Archdiocese of Newark's biweekly newspaper published a list of movies that ranged from three levels of "Acceptable" to "Morally Objectionable in Part for All" to "Condemned." There was very little on the "M" or "C" lists I was dying to see (some standouts: [italic]Room at the Top, Some Like It Hot, Lady Chatterly's Lover[/italic]), as most of the ads for these movies in the NY papers showed M / F pre-sex scenes, and I had no interest in naked women.

And up to a point, I was a good Catholic boy, so I didn't want to go to movies seeing which would condemn me to hell for the rest of my life when I died.