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I watched Bonanza reruns in the 1970s. In retrospect, I recall some woke episodes.

There was one in which Hop Sing, the Cartwright's Chinese cook, wanted to marry and white woman, and learned that interracial marriages were forbidden.

Another episode in which Hoss befriends a retarded man, who suffers bigotry and suspicion because of his mental condition.

There were some others. They slipped liberal messages into Bonanza and other shows from the 1960s. The Twilight Zone (which went on the air in 1959) had many explicitly liberal messages.

They just don't seem so bad in retrospect, because they were more Martin Luther King type liberal messages, instead of the ultra-left messages of today.

“Bonanza reruns in the 1970s. In retrospect, I recall some woke episodes.”

I’ve seen a couple of woke Rifleman episodes, too, one having to do with bigotry re Chinese. Basically, “we’re all the same”. Actually, 50 years ago I pretty much believed that, but I was wr.. wr. wr.. wrong.

Take a discerning look at the “Andy Griffith Show” sometime.

Situational ethics, pragmatism, and the progressive commie messages abound……

They slipped liberal messages into Bonanza and other shows from the 1960s. The Twilight Zone

The one that shocked me on Bonanza was one episode where Widower Ben fell for a beautiful woman (the only women that come into Virginia City are nieces and heiresses) and it pretty clearly implied that they went off on their own for carnal activity. It was confirmed later when he was seeking approval for his dalliance from one of his sons (Adam?), who of course gave it. My response would have been, "Gee, Pa, why don't you marry her and have her die shortly after bearing you a son like you normally do?"

I tolerate the "liberal" episodes of the Twilight Zone because some of them were very pro freedom, and warned of "perfect society" dystopias. Some of the episodes that were viewed as liberal in the day now seem downright reactionary in the modern context. President Trump's favorite episode was when a two-bit hood dies and is given every material he could want, and some beautiful agreeable women to boot, and assumes he is in Heaven, but when he is bored out of his mind after a while is informed that he was actually in the other place.