Alfred Hitchcock is historic for many reasons. His movies defined tension and suspense for an entire generation of people. He elevated genre movies, perfectly merging arthouse instincts with populism for box office payoffs and huge cultural moments. His movies were appointment viewing. Also, Psycho is the first American film to focus on a flushing toilet. That's huge.

“The Motion Picture Production Code,” also known by the abbreviated name "The Hays Code," strictly forbade such filth. Yes, the porcelain throne that everybody has at least one of in their home was forbidden under the oppressive censorial decree. What would happen to the good American people should their eyes fall upon a lascivious latrine?!

Hitchcock did a lot to upend The Hays Code, and by the end of the sixties, other filmmakers had largely tossed it aside. From 1934, the Motion Picture Production Code stifled creativity and limited what people could and couldn't see. Morally gray characters were as salacious as toilets and were banned from movies. Luckily, by the end of the decade, the code was officially thrown out, and creators were given more leeway in what they could present. 

Watch The Brady Bunch on MeTV!

Sundays at 10 & 10:30 AM

*available in most MeTV markets

 Add to Favorites  Remind Me

However, while the Hays Code may have been "officially" done away with, it continued to influence what studios were comfortable with. Take, for instance, The Brady Bunch, which had some outmoded commode notions when it first hit the airwaves.

The Brady Bunch household did not have a toilet in the bathroom.

"That is because ABC won't allow johns on the air before 8:30 PM, and our show goes on earlier than that," Robert Reed told The Buffalo News. He would know. Reed played patriarch Mike Brady, who was— allegedly— an architect.

Here's the weird part: the bog ban wasn't due to the then-current trend of sex-and-violence censorship that was running rampant across contemporary shows.

"Oh, no," said Reed. "That particular ground rule was in effect long before the current censorship wave. On our show, the gamiest thing in the house is the laundry chute."

Stranger still— despite the visual evidence that there was no toilet in the kids' bathroom, a toilet was occasionally heard flushing on the show!