This is to make you feel better. Dec 20 1979 part 1

This episode of the Tonight show, one of the last from 1979, perfectly encapsulates an era, without knowing it or trying to. I was a teenager during the 'feel good era' which i will say was from 1975-1980. One thing i have noticed in my life is that when Democrats are in charge of the Whitehouse there is a different mood, a more open, more free to do whatever you want mood. 1975-1980 really was an era to feel good. It was a sexy time. This sexiness was seen on television with the T-A era of tv shows, big boobs and short shorts. The shows weren't really that lewd, the girls had big boobs but they were clean cut-good girls. the kind of verbal pornagrapghy we see on a routine basis on shows like :The Big Bang Theory" wouldn't cut it in 1979, it was all tease to please. The shows of today don't really tease, they are more like in your face, and your a loser because you aren't getting laid regularly like the characters on the big bang. there is a big difference between the two, in the 1970s the tease was designed to make you feel good. Making the audience feel good was very important.
This episode of the Tonight Show was centered around christmas, as could be expected, Johnny and Ed did thier annual Toy demonstration, going hands on with a bunch of crazy toys or inventions from 1979. Just about all they toys have a sexual double-entendre or provocative nature to them.
Being close to Christmas everybody is in a good festive mood, as the show resumes from commercial break with Johnny and Ed behind a waist high table, on the table are all kinds of toys and gadgets.
Johnny:' we have a lot of new products here, remember when you were a kid, dolls, there weren't many kinds of dolls, Raggedy-ann that was about it. Now with the celebrity dolls," Johnny looks around the table, " Lets start here as an example. " picks up a Batman doll, "Batman, these are under 10 dollars. Batman and Wonder Women. Buck Rogers dolls, Star Trek dolls...who's this?" picks up the doll of Liia from Star trek the Motion picture, which came out in that year, the doll is pretty sexy, shaven head, short outfit, "What's her name?"
off air" " Liia."
Ed: Beautiful"

Johnny:" I wanted to show you this one. This is a new doll. Marcy can you help me with this one."
Marcy:" Squeeze her stomach."
JC: " Squeeze her stomach. This is baby 'sweet licks'" JC squeezes the dolls stomach. the dolls tongue darts out of its mouth with every squeeze. the audience laughs sensing the sexual nature and the contrast of a cute, child like doll, doing a naughty act. "
ED: ' Well, they've covered everything now."
JC: "They certainly have, That's by the MAKO company. that was originally called "deep Barbie". Ed laughs hysterically. So does the audience.

Note: We can stop right here. Can you imagine Jimmy Fallon in his wildest dreams even going near a joke like this. The doll is not just lewd, it is completely child like. at the least Mattel would sue Fallon for slandering Barbies name in such a lewd way. Fallon would have to offer an apology to whoever was offended, this being modern day America, plenty of people would have been offended. NBC would take Fallon off the air for a week, as a punishment. When did America change? We were such a tough rugged individualistic country. We beat the Nazis, we went to the moon. I lived in an apartment building and neighborhood full of men who fought in World War 2. As a kid i idealized those guys. Somewhere everything changed. Now we are a totally consumer society, we live to buy things. We've become weak. We've become less free. We are controlled. We live our lives wrapped around our smart phones. Socializing with each other through verbal or physical contact less and less.
Back in 1979 you couldn't be any more free, a 13 year old boy could wander around Manhatten during Christmas time, exploring, free as a bird, nobody in the World knew where i was but me. Today every child is attached to their parents by an electronic umbilical cord called a cell phone. And hidden cameras are practically recording every neighborhood in the city. Peek-a-boo i am watching you.
And you never worried , the kid or the parent, leave the house in the summer of 79, at 9am, head by Subway with a few friends to Coney Island, come back at 9pm, nobody worried. Now a parent panics if their kid doesn't return their cell phone call or text within 1 minute.
We built a more fearless society. Today fear is our middle name and the news media can make the entire country jump, with talk of Ebola or some other catastrophe.
The sexuality of the 70s was a form of freedom, so was the drug use. The crack down on drugs and everything else would begin the second Ronald Reagan entered the White House. Today Reagan is recalled as a Great President, its all revisionist history. Reagan brought some of the meanest men in the country with him to Washington. Like James Watt, who wanted to strip mine in National Parks...and i could go on. The 1980s were like a constant winter, eight years of Winter, Fun was expunged from the national vocabulary. A crackdown came against lewdness on TV, drugs, welfare,etc. The Budgets of Cities were cut, and the cities exploded in urban decay and violence, a crack epidemic swept the nation. the epicenter of this was in Chicago and the infamous Cabrini-green houses. Mayor Jane Byrne became famous when she stayed the night there, the project was so dangerous, that it was thought that the mayor of Chicago couldn't make it through the night.
The years 1975-1979 to me are like an eternal summer,a time of fun and freedom, Farrah and Dolly Parton and Pet Rocks and Studio 54, and girls in tight shiny pants.
Its a goofd parallel between the time of Obama and the democrats and the coming time of Trump. Network Televison was conquered a long time ago, its been disneyfied, but Cable Tv is wonderland of great shows and freedom of expression. And the Internet, the wonderful internet is totally free. They are coming for the internet first. Count on it.
the point is that Self Censorship is the worst censorship. And Jimmy Fallon couldn't go near any of the Jokes Carson harmlessly said on the air on Dec 20 1979, to no outrage, just plenty of laughs. It was fun, and Fun is designed to make you feel better. It was fun for ADULTS.