--- title: Television History and the Family Hour Censorship: What Happened description: The 'family hour' was bad for the Constitution—and for business canonical: https://time.com/3917142/the-reason-tv-was-allowed-to-get-dirty-any-time-of-day/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-11T20:30:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:06:33.445Z article:section: History og:title: Television History and the Family Hour Censorship: What Happened og:description: The 'family hour' had to go og:url: https://time.com/3917142/the-reason-tv-was-allowed-to-get-dirty-any-time-of-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68852a441ea56b76/6988540fe20a8765afa8bca9/all-in-the-family.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: All In The Family og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Television History and the Family Hour Censorship: What Happened twitter:description: The 'family hour' had to go twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68852a441ea56b76/6988540fe20a8765afa8bca9/all-in-the-family.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Reason TV Was Allowed to Get Dirty Any Time of Day > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 11, 2015 8:30 PM UTC  Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker, Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, show creator: Norman Lear, Rob Reiner as Michael Stivic, Sally Struthers as Gloria Bunker Stivic and Mike Evans as Lionel Jefferson. On the set of 'All in the Family,' Sept. 25, 1971. Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker, Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, show creator: Norman Lear, Rob Reiner as Michael Stivic, Sally Struthers as Gloria Bunker Stivic and Mike Evans as Lionel Jefferson. On the set of 'All in the Family,' Sept. 25, 1971. CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 11, 2015 8:30 PM UTC In 1976, when a U.S. District Court [ruled](http://www.leagle.com/decision/19761487423FSupp1064%5F11303.xml/WRITERS%20GUILD%20OF%20AMERICA,%20WEST,%20INC.%20v.%20F.%20C.%20C.) that the “adoption of the family viewing policy by each of the networks constituted a violation of the First Amendment,” it was a victory for freedom of speech—and for television ratings. In the lawsuit, the Writers Guild—and famous-name plaintiffs like Norman Lear and Allan Burns—successfully established that the FCC had pressured the networks into a programming policy that neither the public nor the artists chose. The so-called family hour or family viewing policy (also known as the “prime time censorship rule”) mandated that the hours before 9:00 p.m. should be used only for shows that were appropriate for all ages. As this preview clip from CNN’s [_The Seventies_](http://www.cnn.com/shows/the-seventies) (premiering Thursday night at 9:00) shows, that wasn’t working for anyone: But free speech wasn’t the only reason why the writers were glad to ditch the family hour. As TIME had [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1975-11-10/page/92/) in 1975, attempts to rearrange schedules to fit with the family viewing policy had also contributed to a noted decline in ratings: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story, here in the TIME Vault:_** [When Things Are Rotten](http://time.com/vault/issue/1975-11-10/page/92/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3917142/the-reason-tv-was-allowed-to-get-dirty-any-time-of-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3917142/the-reason-tv-was-allowed-to-get-dirty-any-time-of-day/"},"headline":"The Reason TV Was Allowed to Get Dirty Any Time of Day","datePublished":"2015-06-11T20:30:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:06:33.445Z","description":"The 'family hour' violated the Constitution—and was bad for business","url":"https://time.com/3917142/the-reason-tv-was-allowed-to-get-dirty-any-time-of-day/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68852a441ea56b76/6988540fe20a8765afa8bca9/all-in-the-family.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68852a441ea56b76/6988540fe20a8765afa8bca9/all-in-the-family.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"All In The Family","caption":"All In The Family","creditText":"CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3917142/the-reason-tv-was-allowed-to-get-dirty-any-time-of-day/","name":"The Reason TV Was Allowed to Get Dirty Any Time of Day"}}]}] ```