I Love Lucy : DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

I've never seen Ward or June Cleaver, Jim or Margaret Anderson, George or Dorothy Baxter, and Wilbur or Carol Post EVER puff.
Only Ricky and Lucy Ricardo smoked like chimneys, even in front of their child.

Of course, I LOVE LUCY may have been the only TV sitcom sponsored by a cigarette company.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

I don't know about the other shows but Phillip Morris was ILL's sponsor and they had signed the largest contract in TV history with them so the least they could do was advertise for them. Lucy would put her Chesterfield's in a PM carton but she would not switch brands. Most shows would advertise their sponsors though, and cigarette companies were huge in the 50s.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

When did cigarettes become suspected of causing lung and other respiratory cancers? I'm guessing doctors had already targeted them for emphysemia.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

Probably when C. Everett Koop, the Surgeon General of the US, published his scientific findings on the dangers of smoking, sometime in the 1960's.

I'm very glad the cigarette advertising was on TV banned in 1970.
Most of those commercials were terrible, linking smoking to romantic idylls.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

C. Everett Koop wasn't Surgeon General until 82. I think you're thinking of Luther Terry.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

Smoking linked with lung cancer was becoming known in the 1950s from scientific studies. Even in 1952, a "Reader's Digest" article titled, "Cancer in a Carton" resonated with people and led to the biggest drop in tobacco purchase since the Depression.

It was short-lived. Tobacco companies advertised like crazy that the results were inconclusive and promised they were making newer healthier cigarettes anyway. It worked for a while. Sales got back on track.

It really took the 1960s to slowly make headway. It helped that studies kept showing what was first noticed a decade before, and tobacco companies eventually got severely hobbled with new laws about how they could advertise. The truth of tobacco and chipping away at advertising slowly eroded America's love affair with smoking.

In a nutshell, "Mad Men" told it all accurately, lol.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

As well as the ban on cigarette advertising on TV in 1970.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

Lucy smoked Lucky Strikes, not Chesterfields.

BTW, a new federal law was recently passed, to take effect in 2018, that bans smoking in public housing.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

Some sitcom dads smoked pipes, such as Steve Douglas on My Three Sons. On The Dick van Dyke Show, Rob smoked a lot. Laura smoked too but not nearly as much as Rob.

On Bewitched, Darrin Stephens smoked. So did his boss Larry Tate.

I've watched old shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone and smoking was fairly common.

I was curious and I looked up old cigarette commercials on youtube. One that really shocked me were the commercials for Winston cigarettes done by Fred Flintstone!

In the first season (at least) the show was sponsored by Winston cigarettes and there were a few commercials with Fred and Barney touting the wonders of smoking a Winston! Imagine selling cigarettes to kids today!😱 Yuck!

I am in favor of freedom and if people want to smoke, so be it . It's legal. I grew up with smoking parents. My sisters took it up too and smoke like the proverbially chimney. If they want to smoke in their homes, okay. But I find it disgusting and smelly! I don't let people smoke in my home.

I am so glad my son never smoked. My nieces and nephew try to get my sister to stop. They lecture their mom. Sometimes they hide her cigarettes. LOL

Af far as government involvement, I find it to be totally hypocritical. They subsidize tobacco farmers. They tax cigarettes to pay for government programs, yet they outlaw smoking in many places. Now, public housing? I don't get it. Either sh#@ or get off the pot! Government makes money from smoking yet outlaws it in different places. Which is it?

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

It's well-known her preferred brand was Chesterfield. From her IMDB page, "She put her Chesterfield cigarettes in a Philip Morris package to please her sponsor (of the I Love Lucy (1951) show)."

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I've never been a smoker, so can anyone tell me what brands of cigarettes are still around?
I know a few brands from the '50's have ceased production, mainly due to the ban on TV advertising.

There's no reason; I'm just curious.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

Well Virgina Slims are still around! I know because my mom smokes them. She smoked Lucky Strikes for years (they are still made). But she bought into the ads for Virginia Slims years ago.

"You've got your own cigarette now baby! You've come a long, long way." Yeah that was the ad to entice women.😱

My dad always smoked Luckies. My grandmother smoked Chesterfields. I think they still make those too. I had an uncle who smoked Camels.

I think my sister smokes Parliament.

Strange thing, a few times when my mom and my sister asked me to pick up cigarettes for them, they always gave me an empty pack to show the clerk. They don't trust me to get their brand! To a non-smoker, it's all the same crap! LOL

I'm pretty sure there are still Marlboros, Kools, Winstons, Camels, Newports,etc.

My other sister was buying loose tobacco and rolling her own. The first time I saw her do that, I laughed so hard.

She said, "DON'T LAUGH! They are expensive. This is cheaper."

I kept thinking, "So QUIT!"

It's a disgusting habit that I never understood!

On youtube there is an ad for an old brand called SPUD! I never heard of it. Was it made partially from old potato skins? LOL

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

My mother smoked Pall Mall's.
My father, brother, and I never smoked, although we had to breathe in my mother's second-hand smoke.
And this was during the time when so-called "experts" claimed that second-hand smoke was not harmful!

pj, your story reminds me of when I was 14, and a neighbor sent me to the store to buy a pack of cigarettes for her.
That would be impossible today.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

Your story reminds ME of going to buy cigarettes for my parents. We had a "mom and pop" store in the neighborhood and I often got sent to buy smokes. Sometimes they were out of my dad's brand so I'd get 'creative' and pick another brand. I think I got him Pall Mall's once because I liked the color of the pack.

My dad: I don't smoke THESE! Take them back!!

Me: What's the difference??


Of course you must be 18 years old today to buy cigarettes. If that law had been in effect years ago, it would have saved me a lot of trips to the store!! LOL


There was a lot of smoking in sitcoms back then like Bewitched, Andy Griffith, Get Smart, etc. It was just the thing to do. Somehow it never convinced ME to smoke though. I am so glad.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

I believe both Gomez and Morticia smoked on The Addams Family.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

I remember Morticia smoking on The Addams Family. It made Gomez go wild!







The most important thing is being sincere, even if you have to fake it. -Cesar Romero

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

To me it seemed most of the dramas throughout the late '70s carried on with smoking; however I'm not so sure I saw ANY sitcoms (including THE LUCY SHOW) from the mid-'60s on include cigarettes, apart from casting them in a negative, buffoonish light.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

I watched an episode from the Andy Griffith Show yesterday where Andy was smoking a cigarette.




Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

You're right. And now that I've re-thought my assumption, I think there were cigarettes on BEWITCHED too. But for some reason pipes and cigars seem to trump the cigarettes---in my opinion---in the mid-'60s.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

A little bit of trivia:
Philip Morris was one of the sponsors of HAZEL in its final season on CBS.
Yet, you never see anyone on that show smoking.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

Gomez and Mortica Aadams smoked, he cigars, she just sat in the chair as smoke wafted up from behind her. Of course, "Addams Family" was sponsered by Dutch Masters cigars.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

They also smoked hashish from a hookah.
But then, the Addams' were hardly "typical".
Which is why I loved that show and wish it could have lasted longer than it did.

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

After the Surgeon General's warning to be put on each cigarette package, there were few if any smokers shown after that. Oddly, on "Married With Children,"Peg Bundy was a smoker and of course on "Mad Men," who didn't smoke was more like it. I really can't think of any others, although the next to last episode in Season 9 of "Everybody Loves Raymond" revealed that Robert's mother-in-law smoked a few cigarettes a day.

"I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me..."

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

If we're talking newer shows, Carrie smokes like a chimney in Sex and the City

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

I seem to remember that even though Lucy and Ricky smoked a lot, Ethel very rarely smoked. Fred I believe never was shown smoking. Anyone know. So funny how a cigarette case was on the coffee table, to offer one to a guest. Andy Taylor smoked often but Barney never except once when he put himself in jail (Citizen's Arrest) I swear I saw a cigarette in his hand.

I think if you are over 50 every kid tried to smoke once. Every restaurant had a cigarette machine and kids could always go down to the corner store and buy for their parents. Uncle smoked Camels and when he saw me light up he said when did you start that? He was appalled. I smoked for a short time.

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I seem to recall one episode where the four were trying to find something to do and all four of them lit up cigarettes as part of the story. It seems like neither Fred nor Ethel did much with it after they got theirs lit, as though they just held them without taking any other puffs, which I thought (many years ago) indicated that they probably didn't actually smoke. Lucy and Desi clearly were regular smokers, which is part of why they smoked so often on this series.

I believe you're right about Barney only smoking the one time, for a bit of humor, on Andy Griffith, while Andy used to smoke at the times when he was supposed to be thinking about something. They didn't show him lighting up all the time, like most real smokers do.

For folks over 50, certainly MOST people did try it once. But not everyone, Janet. To me, just looking at the ash trays all around my house convinced me as a young boy I never wanted to smoke, and I never had an interest in trying it. My sister was much the same way--at least, as far as I know, she never even tried it.

Of course, Get Smart had several smoking scenes done comically by Max and others.

Some people love to claim MASH was realistic. One way, of many, that it wasn't was that virtually nobody was ever shown smoking a cigarette, even though the early 50s were about the height of cigarette smoking by Americans by percentage.





Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it?

Re: DID ANY OTHER SITCOM PARENTS/COUPLES SMOKE?

In fact, weren't cigarettes supplied for free to those in the war?
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