[rond]

I don't think our society has profoundly changed. People in 1952 (when the Nelsons hit the air) certainly used curse words; does anyone want to say Ozzie Nelson never turned the air blue? People had sex before marriage. They used and abused drugs, including alcohol and cigarettes. There were children out of wedlock ... love affairs that resulted in murder ... music that confounded the elders of the day and made them think society had gone to hell in a handbasket (though in the '50s, the ruling elders would have had a hard time explaining the "innocence" of "In The Mood").

The difference, in my opinion: People in the 21st century talk more about it. People get out of detox or rehab and tell everyone they know. People take meds for mental illnesses and tell everyone they know. We're living in a huge, Oprah-like world, where disclosure is king.

Better, or worse? Or just different?

[RLK]

I don't think our society has profoundly changed. People in 1952 (when the Nelsons hit the air) certainly used curse words; does anyone want to say Ozzie Nelson never turned the air blue?

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Throughout my younger years I never heard even one of the men in our neighborhood use the language now routinely heard in movies and on TV. To do so would have got them blackballed from association from other men of stature in the community. How old are you?

[SamAdams76]

You are correct in that all the evils that are so apparent to us today were around in the white-bread 1950s too. You just didn't see them on TV. The "Leave It To Beavers" and "Ozzie & Harriets" of the 1950s only existed in the minds of the producers and writers. Shows of that day never exposed the underbelly of everyday life.

In the 1950s, there were big problems with juvenile delinquency. Kids sniffed glue, popped pills, had sex, committed crimes, etc. Wife-beating went on except in those days, a battered woman didn't get much sympathy. There were big problems with alcoholism. Organized crime was much more prevalent then it is today, business owners on Main Street USA often had to pony up protection money to the local mob and the local police were on the take too.

The difference today is that everybody is out in the open with their problems. It is no longer considered shameful to be on welfare or to be a homosexual, for example. Also, kids are not sheltered like they used to be. I was 12 years old before I even knew about sex and when I was 13, I remember being horrified by the movie "Jaws" and it was years before I could swim in the ocean again. My 10-year-old son saw the movie on TV last summer and he thought it was "dumb."