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The early TV sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny was the first television series to portray a married couple who slept in the same bed.

Others claim that Fred and Wilma bunked together on The Flintstones from 1960-66 (but their eligibility is also questioned because despite being human in character, they were cartoons and not real actors).

On Tuesday, 18 November 1947, a 15-minute program entitled Mary Kay and Johnny made its debut on the Dumont network.
... Mary Kay and Johnny's apartment included a bedroom (but not a bathroom), and their bedroom had but a single bed, which they shared. How do we explain this lack of the squeamishness about bedroom (if not bathroom) functions that was soon manifested in the television industry? Who knows? Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the show was on Dumont, that it was live, or that in those days the production of shows was financed by sponsors rather than by the networks. Perhaps the medium was just too new for anyone to have grown uptight about such concerns yet. All that matters is that Mary Kay and Johnny were there first.

Unfortunately, not even kinescopes of Mary Kay and Johnny have survived, so it exists only in the memories of those who saw the program during its original run half a century ago.

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/t v/marykay.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2011 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson.

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