20 TV Groundbreaking Firsts (That Seem Pretty Mundane Now)

Americans just weren't ready to grapple with the simple fact that Beaver Cleaver poops.
20 TV Groundbreaking Firsts (That Seem Pretty Mundane Now)

Look we’re humans, just like you. Unless you are part of the dreaded lizard-people conspiracy, in which case we welcome you as our scaly and cold blooded overlords. But we digress. The original point was, we love television just like the average joe. We especially love exploring how TV has changed over the years.

If you watched a full week of TV in 1950, you'd come away unsure whether or not women have belly buttons, or whether anybody besides you actually poops. Today, you can see folks eating beetles, pooping in rivers, and competing to stay naked the longest - and that's all just one show. From the first interracial kiss, to the first scripted female nudity, we cover all the wild details inside.

So much of what we consider run-of-the-mill television programming was once extremely controversial. Here are a few big firsts that laid the groundwork for the crazypants zoo that is television in the 21st century:

The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour

The First Belly Button After half a decade being denied Barbara Eden's navel in I Dream of Jeannie, America got to see Cher's, like, all the time, on

TV Firsts

The First Couple to Share a Bed Mary Kay and Johnny got away with sharing a bed- and the first on-screen pregnancy in 1948 -because the titular couple
The First Interracial Kiss Everyone thinks Star Trek did it first, but a British televised play called Hot Summer Night broke that ground in 1959.
The First Major Character Death 570 Jean Hain Actress Jean Hagen left The Danny Thomas Show in 1956. Producers decided an unexplained death would be l
The First Gay Couple HOTIL 6 BACDMOR binlltl George and Gordon from Hot I Baltimore, a short-lived but groundbreaking show in 1975, were the first gay
The First Color Broadcast Goisar ofloll Erlg A 1951 Variety show called Premiere finally validated anyone who, for whatever reason, bought a color TV
The First Female Nudity Wardrobe malfunctions date back to at least the 1950's, but the first scripted nudity was on PBS' Steambath in 1973.
The First Male Nudity Radar went whole-hog on a 1973 episode of M*A*S*H, when he lost his towel while evading a sniper. CRACKED.COM
The First Presidential Debate The 1960 debate between Nixon and JFK was the first time America collectively decided we want a hot president.
The First Live Studio Audience SHARP I Love Lucy beat All In The Family to the punch by 20 years. CRACKED.COM
The First Cartoon CRUSADER RABBIT 1950's Crusader Rabbit was the first animation designed for television. One producer would later create The Rocky an
The First JV Cuss Word William Shatner had to fight hard to keep his big line Let's get the hell outta here from being cut in season one of Star Tre
The First Real Swear In 1999, Mark Harmon delivered the first-ever scripted CuSS on Chicago Hope: 'Shit happens.
The First Birth I Love Lucy would never say the word pregnant, only that Lucy was expecting. But it still featured the first (semi-) on-screen bir
The First Toilet In an episode of Leave It To Beaver, the boys hide an illicit pet alligator in the toilet. The network thought America wasn't ready t
The First Male Same-Sex Kiss Melrose Place ditched the first gay kiss in 1994 due to advertiser pushback. It finally happened on Dawson's Creek in 199
The First Female Same-Sex Kiss SHARP Women were allowed to kiss on screen as early as 1991, on L.A. Law.
The First Reality TV Show 1956's Queen for a Day had women take turns talking about their struggles. One was crowned the winner, seated on a throne, a
The First Cooking Show SHARP Cook's Night Out in 1937 walked SO that Gordon Ramsay could scream. CRACKED.COM
The First Commercial BU OVA AC IME In 1941, nine years before Dunkin' Donuts existed, a 10-second spot interrupted a baseball game to declare that Am
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