I have heard this phrase in both TOS and Twilight Zone original series both coming from the 60's. Was this a common phrase in the 1960's?
Go to the devil
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It's possible, but I'd guess that it was a TV-safe way to say "Go to hell."
It was. "Hell" was one of the 'seven deadly words' that couldn't be said on network TV in the '70s.
Unless, as I understand it, you were literally talking about the infernal location, as opposed to using it as a curse word.. Thus, Boris Karloff's Thriller could air an episode titled "Pigeons from Hell" back in the sixties, and The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh could "ride from the Gates of Hell" on a Disney show no less. (Heck, Malificent calls upon "all the powers of Hell" in the 1959 Disney cartoon version of Sleeping Beauty.)
I guess "Go to hell!" was seen as a profanity not a literal suggestion.
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"Go to the devil."
"We have no devil, Kirk."
"Go to hell, then."
"Oh yeah...that we've got."
"We have no devil, Kirk."
"Go to hell, then."
"Oh yeah...that we've got."
Hell was used in the 70s. For one example, in the Rod Serling's Night Gallery segment "Hell's Bells," John Astin uses the word loosely, to describe his location.
Where the Hell is Heck?
I think you could say the word hell on TV in the '60s... in fact it was said in two Star Trek episodes: Kirk saying "Let's get the hell out of here" at the end of COTEOF, and Decker telling Kirk that the thing that attacked his ship was "right out of hell" in TDM.
But here's my conjecture: In the 60's, telling someone to "go to hell" was a serious matter. Many people today don't realize that the US was a much more publicly Christian country in the 60's than it is now. I'm sure a lot more people watched Fulton Sheen than watched Star Trek.
And to many Christians, the phrase "go to hell" was a violation of the admonition "judge not yet ye be judged," given that the condemning of one to eternal damnation is the ultimate judgement. So, it's quite possible that the network censors of the time, not wanting to offend certain religious sensitivities, chose to substitute the less-offensive "go to the devil."
But here's my conjecture: In the 60's, telling someone to "go to hell" was a serious matter. Many people today don't realize that the US was a much more publicly Christian country in the 60's than it is now. I'm sure a lot more people watched Fulton Sheen than watched Star Trek.
And to many Christians, the phrase "go to hell" was a violation of the admonition "judge not yet ye be judged," given that the condemning of one to eternal damnation is the ultimate judgement. So, it's quite possible that the network censors of the time, not wanting to offend certain religious sensitivities, chose to substitute the less-offensive "go to the devil."
I think the example from "The Doomsday Machine" would have been okay, as it was talking about the physical place. The one from COTEOF was exceptional for its time.
In a second season episode of The Monkees in 1968 (a show that also aired on NBC), "The Devil and Peter Tork," the group directly makes fun of the fact that you can't say "hell" on television. They clearly mouth the word, but it's dubbed over with a sound effect (Starting at 9:48 in the episode, right after the video for "Salesman"):
According to IMDB, the episode was delayed for several months because of that exchange:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0650705/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
Thanks for this post. Yeah you got that right. Today you have many claiming to be Christian yet denying the essential tenants of the faith.
What episode is COTEOF?
City On The Edge Of Forever.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/go+to+the+devil
The expression certainly predates the 1960s and television. For just one instance of many, Irving Berlin wrote a popular song called "Pack Up Your Sins And Go To The Devil" in the 1920s.
The expression certainly predates the 1960s and television. For just one instance of many, Irving Berlin wrote a popular song called "Pack Up Your Sins And Go To The Devil" in the 1920s.
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I remember it used in "The Hunt," where the Hyder Simpson character talks to the Angel:
Hyder: "Son, that would be a Hell of a place without Rip"
Angel: "Mr. Simpson, you ain't far wrong. That is Hell."
Oh yeah. One of my favs.
That was an excellent episode.
I've often wondered if there was trouble about having "Let's get the hell out of here" in C.O.T.E.O.F. But I don't think another phrase would have worked or had the same impact IMO. Sort of similar to how no other line would have worked for Gone With the Wind other than "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn".
Life on Qu'Onos was bad enough without having a demon to make it any worse during TOS as Kang says in Day of The Dove butall bets were off during TNG with Feklahr!
JB
JB
Shatner did say "let's get the hell out of here" in The City on the Edge of Forever. Wikipedia says this was one of the first times it was said on television. But they didn't dare say it on the Monkees episode about a deal with the devil.
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