Abortion is the eighth dirty word.
Remember the George Carlin skit, “The Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say on Television”? The words — shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits — were considered so profane that the Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that the FCC had the right to ban them from broadcast television and radio.
The skit makes its first appearance on Carlin’s 1972 album Class Clown at a time when public mores are in flux and a massive political backlash is brewing.
It also is the year in which Maude Findlay has an abortion.
That two-part episode, broadcast before Roe v. Wade, stands as a rare moment on commercial TV — a thoughtful exploration of the impacts of unwanted pregnancy, the options available and a decision to abort. occasionally, TV has gone to this well, telling the story of the unwanted pregnancy, but in nearly every case abortion was removed from the discussion.
There is an interesting contrast playing out now on television, with two shows introducing unwanted pregnancies into their narratives in very different ways. On Grey’s Anatomy, Christina Yang has an abortion and sticks to her guns despite what it does to her marriage — a gutsy move, especially when you contrast it with Desperate Housewives.
On that show, Julie Mayer, daughter of Terry Hatcher’s Susan character, shows up from grad school six months pregnant, which precludes any discussion of abortion and allows the show to avoid wading into the controversy.
This is a cop-out from both a storytelling standpoint, and from a political one and just underscores how politically challenging Maude was and how timid TV remains.
Some of Carlin’s dirty words have made it onto broadcast TV, but the abortion issue remains too hot for most TV shows to touch.
Hank Kalet 