1960's and risqué clothes?

[Christopher]

Another producer (I can't remember who, or what show they were talking about, maybe it actually had to do with Star Trek) complained about the arbitrary standard of allowing women's outfits that were very low-cut on top, but the censors would go into conniptions of you tried to show the lower portion of a woman's breasts at all.

That's mentioned on the same page of The Making of Star Trek that I quoted earlier. Whitfield quipped "Perhaps the censors are afraid moss grows there." (It was probably mentioned elsewhere too.)

 

[J.T.B.]

Theiss was quoted complaining about it in World Of Star Trek. Someone on DS9 decided to get revenge for it early on, and had a Dabo Girl with underboob showing big time.

Theiss himself did it with Denise Crosby in TNG episode 2, "The Naked Now."

 

[Qonundrum]

Yes, because everyone dressed like the Puritans in the 1960s.

Honestly, the '60s were a mix of revealing clothing and uptight conventions that made no sense. For instance, married couples couldn't be shown to sleep together. They slept in twin beds, which makes one wonder where they conceived their kids, since neither had a bed big enough for two people. This was usual on soap operas, family dramas, and even The Flintstones.

That's where Sammy the Story glides in...

They needed some good looking men in the regular cast then too.
All we ever saw was top less / ripped shirt Kirk

Oh, if nothing else there's always Norman, Bele, and Lokai in those deliciously tight off-the-shelf sweatpants - which got less screen time than they deserved... Mmmm, Norman...

 

[tomswift2002]

Wasn´t there a thing internally called the "Theis Tittilation Theory" or something? That the sexyness of an outfit is directly proportional to the (perceived) probability that a "wardobe malfunction" might happen?

It was also Gene Roddenberry. I remember Bob Justman on “Inside Star Trek The Real Story” talking book saying that on the Season 1 episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” he had to stop Roddenberry from making anymore alterations to Sherry Jackson’s costume, as what we saw on screen, was already at a point where she couldn’t wear a bra under it. But Gene wanted to go even thinner on the straps.

 

[Henoch]

They needed some good looking men in the regular cast then too.
All we ever saw was top less / ripped shirt Kirk

Really?

 

[Donald G]

But that was Laugh In, maybe it was on in a later time slot.

Laugh-In aired from 8:00 - 9:00 pm Mondays for the entirety of its run.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Spock loses his shirt in "Patterns of Force." Turns out Vulcans have very hairy chests.

In general, though, we shouldn't confuse the 1960s with the 1950s, which was more much buttoned-up, at least as far as mainstream entertainment went. As noted earlier, the 1960s was the era of "Hair," the early James Bond movies and its many, many imitators, "Barbarella," Raquel Welch in the "One Million B.C," etc. Things were loosening up.

Beyond that, of course, there was a long-standing tradition, going back to Edgar Rice Burroughs at least, of pulp sci-fi and space operas being filled with scantily-clad space princesses and fembots and such. Just look at the robotrix's exotic dancing in METROPOLIS, Princess Aura in the old FLASH GORDON serials, and movies like "Queen of Outer Space," "Cat Women of the Moon," and even "Abbott & Costello Go to Mars."

I think SF, fantasy, adventure and "historical" dramas were often an excuse to show a little skin
Like Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) in Tarzan and His Mate.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Really?

If I were those 2 Enterprise crewmen, I’d still run away from Sulu even if he didn’t have a sword.

 

[Poltargyst]

Kirk: Scotty, why don't we have power?
Scotty, played by Yul Brynner: The Klingon disrupters fused our power couplings et cetera et cetera et cetera.
Kirk: How long will it take to fix them?
Scotty: I will have them fixed in four hours! So let it be written! So let it be done!

 

[Poltargyst]

Jeannie doesn't understand what's wrong with what the women wear in Star Trek.

 

[Maurice]

Jeannie doesn't understand what's wrong with what the women wear in Star Trek.

That’s post-60s Jeannie. Not period.

 

[Nakita Akita]

Really?

AND he has and EPEE!
Saber, yes, Foil, yes. Epee total fail.

 

[Nakita Akita]

Star Trek was a wonderful vehicle to show women had a choice of attire on board the Enterprise; some women wore duty dresses and some wore pants while the tunics were fitted. I thought Star Trek after TOS, before JJ Abrams, had gone too conservative on the outfits especially for women and should've embrace military standards of choices for women within the branches. Uniforms are fitted but have a choice of a skirt or pants which are flattering and professional. I didn't mind how risque' they were on Star Trek as long as these women had a choice to wear what they thought was appropriate according to the dress code. I'm open to the ideas of clothing for anyone to wear except when a power starts saying that one shouldn't or a woman shouldn't.

But did any of the women wear anything like Scotty or Spock wore?
I think I may have seen one woman in the background wearing pants, or something like that.
The uniforms for the women were very impractical. I remember even noticing and thinking and saying that when I was nine years old.
I think it's just that women are objectified, and seem to want to be, for the most part.
Today is no different than whenever.
Sad.

 

[scotpens]

How many bedroom scenes did we see on Star Trek that featured a married couple, in the Original Series? The only married couple I can even think of were Sarek and Amanda, and they weren't in their bedroom.

There was Thomas Leighton and his wife Martha in "Conscience of the King," but we didn't see their bedroom either.

But did any of the women wear anything like Scotty or Spock wore?
I think I may have seen one woman in the background wearing pants, or something like that.
The uniforms for the women were very impractical. I remember even noticing and thinking and saying that when I was nine years old.

The two Trek pilots, "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before," featured unisex tunic-and-trousers uniforms for both men and women. The female uniforms were changed to short (really short) dresses when the show went into production.

I also thought the miniskirt uniforms were silly and impractical for general duty aboard a military starship. But, hey, it was the Sixties, man!

 

[M'Sharak]

AND he has and EPEE!

What, too risqué?

 

[Henoch]

What, too risqué?

Must be a kinky French thing that escapes us normal Americans.

 

[johnnybear]

Spock loses his shirt in "Patterns of Force." Turns out Vulcans have very hairy chests.

Which goes against the Roddenberry edict which got Lawrence Montaigne into trouble in Amok Time! The fact that all the Vulcan males seen in the episode had to have shaven chests and Stonn refused to shave his chest and so wore the black polo shirt which earned him Gene's ire! so either that was all bunk or Spock had a hairy chest because his mother, Amanda, drank a quart of Brown Ale before her bedtime?
JB

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Which goes against the Roddenberry edict which got Lawrence Montaigne into trouble in Amok Time! The fact that all the Vulcan males seen in the episode had to have shaven chests and Stonn refused to shave his chest and so wore the black polo shirt which earned him Gene's ire! so either that was all bunk or Spock had a hairy chest because his mother, Amanda, drank a quart of Brown Ale before her bedtime?
JB

Didn't Gene also make Shatner shave his chest because he thought there would be no chest hair in the future? Or was that not a thing? I'm not the biggest TOS expert but the words "chest hair" tend to capture my attention...

 

[Commishsleer]

But did any of the women wear anything like Scotty or Spock wore?
I think I may have seen one woman in the background wearing pants, or something like that.
The uniforms for the women were very impractical. I remember even noticing and thinking and saying that when I was nine years old.
I think it's just that women are objectified, and seem to want to be, for the most part.
Today is no different than whenever.
Sad.

My mother-in-law told me she wore mini-skirts to work in the 60s. i asked her how did she keep her modesty when bending over, walking up stairs. She said the ladies managed. It was just the fashion at the time. And she was a pretty conservative lady. However it looks crazy to me now. It seems sexist. But at the time it wasn't mandatory that ladies wore mini-skirts to work. They wanted to mostly. So the outfits on Star Trek to a certain extent reflected the fashions at the time it was made.
Also its a TV show and I'm not against seeing attractive looking people on it. Of course on Star Trek TOS the ladies wore mini-mini-skirts with stockings (totally impractical), 7of9 wore massive high-heels, Troi low-cut tops, Kira, Troi and T'Pol all wore skin-tight outfits.
And maybe it would be better if the skin-exposure was a bit better balanced among the sexes. It started off OK in the pilots. We had topless Kirk a bit (sorry it doesn't do it for me) and Sulu prancing down the corridor shirtless but you're right it was mostly the ladies in the crew and guest alien ladies who were scantily clad.
However it doesn't really matter what you are wearing, its mostly when the ladies in the crew scream and cower and say I'm frightened that seems stupid.
I suppose when you see someone in a silver bikini you're first instinct is not to take them seriously. Or a gold toga

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Regarding navels, cartoonist Mort Walker ("Beetle Bailey") once remarked about the comic strip censors insisting that he remove navels, and about how he would sometimes draw characters with multiple navels, just to piss off the censors. I understand he also kept a box of trimmed character navels. (I don't recall whether that was in Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook, Lexicon of Comicana, or some other book, but at almost 1:30 in the morning, I'm not going to research it; as soon as my trousers are out of the dryer, I'm going back to bed!)

And I could have sworn that the whole discussion of Theiss, garments that look like they're about to fall off, moss on the underside of the breast, and skin in unexpected places was in Gerrold's The World of Star Trek, but I was definitely mistaken on that; it's right there on page 360 of Whitfield.