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This article is from the Saturday Night Live: Commercial Parodies FAQ, by Doug Krause snl-faq@lido.com with numerous contributions by others.

25 Didn't somebody get fired for saying "fuck" on the air? (Saturday Night Live)

Depends on how you look at it. On 21 Feb 1981 (when the
show was doing very poorly) there was a running "who shot
J.R. Ewing" gag. At the end of the show Charlene Tilton
was on stage with Charles Rocket (who was playing J.R.)
and she asked how he felt. Charles responded: "Oh man,
it's the first time I've been shot in my life. I'd like
to know who the fuck did it." Needless to say, NBC offi-
cials were not happy. On Monday 10 Mar 1981, Jean Doumanian
(the post-Lorne Michaels producer), and most of the play-
ers were fired. Only Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo sur-
vived. There was also a featured player who accidently
mumbled "fuckin'" instead of "floggin'" during a sketch.
It was none other than our good friend Mr. Paul Shaffer on
15 Mar 1980. You can hear a couple of people in the
audience gasp after the mistake, but nothing much else
came of it.

 

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