Norman Lear's lecture recalls the progress of television programmes, especially situation comedies, in addressing previously taboo subjects such as homosexuality, abortions and black family life. He regrets the current backlash which seeks to reinstate these old taboos: they grow back ‘like weeds in an unattended hothouse’. The pretext of those who censor is the need to protect viewers from offensive material, but the real concern is to ‘block content which might be too informative and provocative’.

These taboos were overturned following confrontations between writers and producers like Lear and the Program Practices Department – which ‘is the euphemism for censor’: cuts in portrayals of sex and violence were typically the focus of their concerns. Lear always responded by saying that if the edit was made ‘they could not expect to find us at work the next morning’. He suggests this stance was not heroic since he knew the ‘network would eventually buckle’, but reminds that the power of the three networks over creative workers’ products is considerable: ‘Remember that the American television writer has only three doors on which to knock’.