My, my, my – how times have changed! On this day in 1969, a new television show debuted. The premise of the show was a sketch comedy with rapidly changing scenes. Hosted by and starring Tim Conway, other famous comedians of that era were incorporated into the show.
The show was originally presented to CBS and NBC. Both networks turned it down but ABC picked it up for a projected 13 episodes. Two episodes are all that made it and, in some markets, it was only played for 10 minutes.
Tim Conway himself reported that “the Cleveland ABC affiliate, WEWS-TV, replaced the show after the first commercial break and utilized an “emergency protocol” of a black screen with live organ music.
“Ten minutes into Turn-On, WEWS general manager Donald Perris called ABC’s headquarters by telephone to notify them that they would no longer air the show and sent to ABC president Elton Rule an angry telegram: “If your naughty little boys have to write dirty words on the walls, please don’t use our walls. Turn-On is turned off, as far as WEWS is concerned. You tried too hard.” After the program aired, a WEWS spokesman claimed that the station’s switchboard was “lit up” with protest calls, and Perris derided Turn-On as being “in excessive poor taste”…
“Perris told The Cleveland Press that neither he nor the station’s then-current program director, Ernest Sindelar, had gotten a chance to preview the show prior to its broadcast, saying that:
“It was previewed by a member of our staff whose judgment is usually good. Last night it wasn’t very good. The show shouldn’t have gone on … this was just plain dirty. This was a hate show. Its spirit was dirty. I watched it at home and I felt very bad that it was on.”1
Johnny Carson famously declared, “Turn-On, the show that got cancelled during a commercial.” He wasn’t too far from the truth, however, ABC wanted to spin the narrative differently. Technically, the show wasn’t cancelled in 1969. Instead, the network went to the creators of the show and said that they would buy out the remainder of the episodes if they promised that this show wouldn’t air anywhere — ever. The terms were agreed upon, and the show has remained buried until a couple of years ago when the two lost episodes made it to YouTube.
Was the show dirty? By today’s lack of standards, probably not. By Biblical standards, absolutely! It was rife with sexual innuendo with phrases being constantly turned and twisted. There were sketches that seemed antisemitic. Some made a mockery of law enforcement. Others joked about the racial tensions that existed in our nation.
What would happen today if we had television station managers who said, “We are not going to air this show because it is dirty!” We all know what would happen. The station manager would be fired because if you removed all the dirty shows, there would be very little left – if anything!
We live in a cancel-culture. Several renowned individuals have been cancelled, losing jobs and positions because of the conservative stands and comments they’ve made. If they voice that they are pro-life, pro-gun, pro-marriage only as defined by the Bible, pro-Israel, Republican, or Christian, it won’t be long before someone is taking aim at them, getting them cancelled from the culture. However, if you are a leftist, pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ+, anti-gun, or pro-socialist, you are heralded as a progressive visionary.
I am not whining, complaining, or protesting. I’m just stating a fact, a fact that the Lord told us about in passages like 1 Peter 2:12. “Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” Those who hold Biblical positions on the issues are viewed as evildoers.
What are we supposed to do? Four things come to mind from Scripture found in 1 Peter 3:15-18.
Get ready to give an answer for your beliefs with a right attitude: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
Have a good, clear conscience before God: “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”
Suffering for well doing is so much better than suffering for evil doing: “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.”
Jesus set the example: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”
And remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 3:14. “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled.”
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn-On
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