Television and Kids

In 1952, CBS held the conviction that it was improper for a pregnant woman to be shown on television, and it was pretty sure that you couldn't say the word "pregnant" either on the air. It created a buzz among religious leaders of the time, who tried to help the network reconcile the issue. Now fast-forward fifty-six years to 2008. Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon, is pretty sure you cannot show a pregnant teen mother on the air, considering their demographic, and their fragile emotions.

Yes, I know, Jamie Lynn Spears is hardly Lucille Ball (in image or acting ability), but the dilemma is still essentially the same as it was so many years ago. I Love Lucy was the top-rated show on television in its day. Lucy was pregnant and it was beginning to show, which was causing the writers and network executives some headaches. They wanted to put the show on hiatus until after the birth, but it was a risky venture since the show brought in such a large viewing audience and so much money for the network.

In the end, the network had to decide if it was going to treat its viewing audience as "stupid" and pretend that women do not get pregnant; thereby, putting Lucille Ball out of work until she did something about their problem. Or the novel idea was to accept that people already knew where babies came from and work her pregnancy into the show. Of course, as we all know, the latter prevailed and the episode of the birth of "Little Ricky" was the most watched in television history. Also, the event made the first cover of TV Guide, in early 1953.

I'm not certain that the Spears-scandal can match Lucille Ball's delivery, but what I am sure of is kids--particularly teens--are not ignorant of where babies come from (God knows I've learned a few things from them on the subject). I know they have seen a woman who is pregnant, but whether or not they have seen a teen who is pregnant on television is another story. What is certain is people had not seen a pregnant woman on their tv sets before Lucille Ball, and CBS, took a risk.

I understand, also, the network is not afraid of pregnancy, per se, but rather the implications of showing a role model, who is their age, as pregnant. It will be interesting, however, to see how the executives of Viacom overcome this snafu.