Bob Newhart: 'We were the first married TV couple to have a single bed'

Fox News ^ | September 14, 2017

[ConservativeStatement]

“We were the first married TV couple to have a single bed,” the 88-year-old told Closer Weekly. “I didn’t think it was risky — I just thought it was about time.”

[jiggyboy]

Brady Bunch or before

[dfwgator]

Brady bunch. I believe he was reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Let's just say that Carol had nothing to worry about.

[agatheringstorm]

There is a similar controversy about which show first showed a toilet (this was another no-no on early TV).

[Rio]

You may be right...

[ConservativeStatement]

I thought it was Bewitched but others reference Brady Bunch.

[wardaddy]

I lived that era

Regardless

Susan Pleshette

Liz Montgomery

Yvonne DeCarlo

Wilma Flintstone

Florence Henderson

Any of those gals and I’m all in on the single bed concept

And then some...

Especially Pleshette

[Not gonna take it anymore]

Bob Newhart is one of my favorites but, I swear Hollywood has the worst dentists. Those teeth are so big that they don’t even fit his mouth.

Amazing. All that money and such poor dentistry.

[RegulatorCountry]

Wilma Flintstone

I thought Betty Rubble was hotter, personally.

[Married with Children]

Me too-love those Brunettes.

[xp38]

Yeah but that was a real fantasy given the ahem proclivity of Dad.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Not true.

The first married couple to sleep in the same bed were Frankie and Johnny, who starred in a sitcom by the same name on the Dumont Network in the late 1940’s.

Frankie and Johnny were married to each other in real life.

[sparklite2]

Never understood why married couples had separate beds in movies and tv.

---

That would be the Hays code. Movies weren’t censored, originally, but you knew sooner or later the blue-hairs would take all the fun out of them. I remember reading that under the code, a couple could be shown in bed together so long as each had one foot on the floor. The Hays code was eventually replaced with the MPAA rating system.

And of course, if something tacky was disallowed in the flicks, it sure as HELL wouldn’t make it to television without a fight.

[sparklite2]

The most lascivious show of that era (which isn’t really saying much) was probably “The Bob Cummings Show” — (Hold it! I think you’re going to like this picture!) wherein photographer Cummings tried to lay every model.

[AceMineral]

I have seen movie made in the 30s and 40 where there is a bedroom scene where one character(usually the woman) is in a large bed, but the other character(usually the man) is either standing still or walking around the room. Never a scene with them in a large bed together. I wonder if the actors and actresses thought that it was ridiculous.

[sparklite2]

Remember “It happened one night” with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert? Colbert flashing some leg to get a car to stop and pick them up? The trumpet sound when the Wall of Jericho finally came down? Hotcha!

[lowbridge]

Not even close, Bob. The first was mary kay and johnny. And also before you were ozzie and harriet nelson

[Oratam]

I believe the first on-screen toilet was on Leave It To Beaver. I think Wally and the Beave kept a pet turtle in the toilet’s tank.

[Oratam]

The Bob Cummings Show was memorable for Ann B. Davis in the role of Bob’s secretary Schultzy. I don’t know why I should know this as I have never seen an episode but I had an uncle who never failed to tell me this fact if The Brady Bunch was on.

[Rastus]

Remember all the work Wally and the Beav put in to fake taking a bath? Wet the washcloth. Dampen the towel. Throw a little turtle dirt in as the tub drains to leave a ring. LOL.

[Rastus]

You know how memorable Sam the butcher was? Turns out he was only in 8 episodes!