Cold open of Barney Miller- S04E15 “Rape”, which aired Jan 26th 1978. Marital rape wouldn’t be criminalized in New York until the end of 1984. It wouldn’t be considered a crime in all 50 states until 1993.



    by mrgeekguy

    24 Comments

    1. If you can watch this and not cringe when the studio audience laughs (or laugh track starts – I can’t remember if they used one ) I just don’t know what to say.

    2. Serious_Session7574 on

      Even if you disregard the fact that marital rape was not illegal, this is still shocking. She says she was raped, she’s distressed, she says the man who did it was a degenerate animal. The cops make jokes and the audience laughs.

    3. Saw this in an episode of Mad Men, during the scene they made it seem like it was common at the time. didn’t know it wasn’t illegal at the time (1961ish)

    4. stinkystinkypete on

      Yeah man this is episode is dire. Despite the odd use of a laugh track for something so awful, for a while it seems like the episode is advocating for taking marital rape as a serious crime. It was not illegal at this time so it would have been a very good thing if the issue was treated with gravity and raised awareness of it. A brave female district attorney is presented as heroic for wanting to use this case to force marital rape to be legally recognized and criminalized.

      Then at the end of the episode, Barney mediates between the couple, gives the rapist some fatherly advice and not only convinces the wife not to further pursue legal action, but also to reconcile with her rapist and remain a happy couple. Not great.

    5. It’s weird to hear laugh tracks nowadays but this is the most awkward laugh track I’ve ever heard.

    6. Extension-Serve7703 on

      this is what people want to go back to when they pine for the “good old days”.

      Disgusting.

    7. I was reading about Eric Clapton today,he used to rape his wife Patty Boyd, which he apparently admitted to in ’99, hardly a ripple.

      Thing of the past , I doubt it

    8. We look at this now and find it crazy people laughed at this. However prison rape jokes are still super common and accepted. Crazy that in 2024 we look the other way and even laugh at rape in any context. “Ha ha ha better not drop the soap” – like wtf…

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