The Password Is Not Suitable for Younger Audiences

On Friday night, the DVD finished and the TV went to what it had been displaying earlier that day: The Game Show Network. In fact, we happened to be just in time for an episode of Allen Ludden-era Password featuring Elizabeth Montgomery from Bewitched and Jim Backus, a.k.a. Thurston Howell III from Gilligan’s Island. I’d guess the date of the show at around 1966 or so. It was also standard retro-game show stuff until one of the later rounds introduced a word that I didn’t expect to be uttered on TV back in the day.

Yes, the password was vibrator, which apparently meant something different than it does now, as it elicited nary a snigger from anyone on stage or in the audience. Spencer guessed the sense of the word referred to a vibrating belt weight loss device, though I actually have no idea for sure what what definition these people would have been familiar with.

Vibrator wasn’t the only sexually-tinged word thrown Montgomery’s way, however.

I thought this one was also funny, but nothing can be at the creepy-voiced announcing declaring “The password is vibrator.”

Previous instances of sex when perhaps none was expected:

• Desperately Seeking Amy
• Those Olden Days of Video Game Sexism
• Pardon My Tube Sock
• The Rooster Stampede of 1978
• Toupee of Shame