[RobertGr]

WOW I just watched an episode of I LOVE LUCY in the complete series set and in one classic episode Desi actually curses! I am amazed that the scene was not redone although I know they never did retakes! Let see how good you all are - what episode is it in? And what does he say?

[MatthewA]

I give up. Was it an English or Spanish word?

[RobertGr]

English!


I will give you more! He says "Damn right"


Alright here it is - the episode is FIRST STOP. They are in the one room bungalow. Fred and Ethel are in the bed hmmm in fact that got by the standards and practices Lucy and Ricky could not be in the same bed but Fred and Ethel did for this episode! Well the bed moves across the room again because the train comes and makes everything in the room move that is not nailed down.

The bed travels to the bunk beds where Lucy and Ricky are sleeping Ricky says "I don't know about you but I'm getting out of here" someone says "what about the 16 dollars we paid" Ricky says he will sue the owner, someone asks him to the effect "you are going to sue him?" to which Ricky replies "you're damn right" play it a couple of times he clearly says it, the close caption does not caption that line, but he clearly says it!

[David Rain]

And so an entirely new thread had to be started for this ? For heaven's sake put things like this in the main show thread where they belong.

[Joe Karlosi]

I don't know the episode by heart, but I vaguely recall the moment. Are you sure he doesn't say "darn right", but it sounds like "damn" with his accent?

[RobertGr]

After first hearing it, someone watching the episode with me said the same thing you thougt so we pumped up the sound and went back more than a few times and he clearly says "damn right" we then went back past the scene and put on the closed caption and that line was the only line not captioned in the entire scene.

[Joseph Bolus]

This would (somewhat) contradict the conventional wisdom that the first use of a four-letter word on Network TV was in the 1967 Star Trek TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".

At the conclusion of that ep, the "Guardian of Forever" tells Kirk and his crew "Many such adventures are possible. Let me be your guide." Kirk stares into the Time Portal for a bit knowing that he could just step through there and be with the love of his life. But doing so could possibly mean the end of history as he knows it. His immortal response?
"Let's get the hell out of here!!"

I guess now we'll have to amend history such that this is now the first time *censors* allowed the use of a four-letter word on Network TV.

But you know what? Both of these shows were Desilu Productions!!!

[TravisR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Karlosi

Are you sure he doesn't say "darn right", but it sounds like "damn" with his accent?

That's certainly what I think it is too. I haven't pulled out the disc to watch the scene but I find it impossible that they wouldn't have re-shot it if he cursed. Considering this is one of the most famous and widely viewed series of all time, I don't think people missed the first use of a curse word on network TV for 50 years.

[RobertGr]

Well Travis check out the disc he says DAMN RIGHT. If you realize that the show was not videotaped but filmed it would have not been caught until the film was processed, they would not go back and get an audience in and refilm that one scene later someday but I betcha if anyone did pick up on it they said "people will think he said darn right because of his accent" which is kind of funny because DARN is nowhere similar to DAMN!

[MatthewA]

But the sound on TV in those days was terrible compared to today. The networks sent the audio out via telephone lines until the late 1970s. Couple that with the optical sound from the 35mm film chains (and 16mm backups if the need arose) and I can see people hearing it as "darn."