If I had my way, we would end the alphabet QRSUWXYZ. That’s how I learned it. And look how well I turned out.

Jessawhy,
Age shmage. My dad was a big Trekkie, too. He wanted to be Spock. He even practiced the single eyebrow raise. The Office and West Wing are good choices (although The Office would have definitely been banned in my household growing up — especially the highly superior BBC version). But no Lost? That show rocks.

And I would hardly call Bill Cosby’s “Noah” bits sacriligeous (norm ironically, did my father) — I LOVED the Bill Cosby standup records when I was a kid — I listened to them to death (literaly — I took them outside with my record player and an extension cord into my cardboard fort and scorching AZ sun warped them).

Oh, I do remember one that was banned outright. It was the Dukes of Hazzard.

My dad loved the Dukes of Hazard. The only one that was banned in my house was M.A.S.H. (that I know of: my parents may have simply steered us clear or some we didn’t know about). Somewhat ironic because in later years it became one of my mother’s favorite shows. When I asked her why she’d watch reruns of it but had banned it when we were kids, her response was that she was glad someone had made the show, but that it dealt with topics that she didn’t feel we, as kids, had been ready for. That’s a good assessment and one that I think is worth keeping in mind when some people assert that the only content we should deal with as adults consists of things we would want our kids to see. (I’ve heard this “doctrine of childishness” preached from the pulpit on many occasions.)

When I was little my mother loved WKRP in Cincinnati. I remember one time she asked me to look in the paper and tell her what was one and the listing just said WKRP. I had no idea what that was, but I knew that W was silent at the start of some words, so I told her that the newspaper said that “crap” was on. Little did I know how often the same words would be uttered during my life about what was on TV, but for very different reasons.

The biggest complaint from either parent was what we kids tried to watch on Sunday. That was consistent regardless of whether one parent, or both were present. Quite often, Sundays were a PBS day, if any TV was watched at all.

If I had my way, we would end the alphabet QRSUWXYZ. That’s how I learned it. And look how well I turned out.

Well, I shall have to spell your name Sephen Erasus Knudsen from now on, I guess… But maybe I need to get rid of the letters from “computer” and “internet” as well, which leaves you as “Sh a** Kd.”

Well, I shall have to spell your name Sephen Erasus Knudsen from now on, I guess… But maybe I need to get rid of the letters from “computer” and “internet” as well, which leaves you as “Sh a** Kd.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we have a new nickname for Stevie-boy. Thanks, Fenevad! Sh a** Kd is classic.

Kuri,
Do you think this is really a Mormon thing? Certainly there are other religious traditions that proscribethings like this — maybe even other Catholics (you were Cathilic, right?) who were more strict about media than your family was. What do you think?

Fenevad,
I like hAkd as a nickname too. Maybe we should take a blog wide vote?

Who is Charlie Brown?

A blog-wide vote? And what is that — 4 people? Oooohh, I’m shaking now. This site has gone downhill since I relinquished control to the so-called “folklorists.”

Did I strike a raw nerve, Stevie-boy? I’m sure it won’t be the last time it will happen.
FYI: Charlie Brown is the main character in a popular comic strip called “Peanuts” that runs on the comics page in most daily newspapers. I’m not sure why I’m telling you this. You probably don’t read the newspaper and will undoubtedly go off on a rant about the evils of comic strips.

Movie wise, I was exposed to the greatness of Hitchock as a wee tyke (however the plot was above me; I just wanted to see the blob eat people), was the only one allowed to see The Fugitive and when I was around 14 (after I had stopped attending church, and long since I even tried to believe) I was taken to see an AA (basically R rating) movie where the protagonist bared her breasts within the first few mintues; we stayed to watch the whole movie.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I’m a ‘heathen’ now

If I recall correctly,in Salt Lake KSL-TV used to run M*A*S*H reruns at 1035pm after the news, and it was one of the few places in the country where a different station beat “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” in the ratings.

MASH is one of the few shows I remember being allowed to watch. My memory is that my parents used a “whitelist” strategy for TV shows. Anything not on the list was assumed to be off limits. Even watching the 10:35 PM M*A*S*H (I grew up in Utah too) required wearing my parents down, with the help of Eve and Lynnette, if I remember correctly. We just kept sneaking out of our bedrooms to watch it until they finally gave in and let us.
And like has been mentioned with other shows, I totally missed all the innuendo as a kid, and I look back now and am sometimes surprised at it all.