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the movies. And I think the producer--I know him. I sit on a board with him on the Museum of Television--or did sit on it. I think what he was trying to show his peers in Hollywood that he could get away with it.

And what, just for the sake of the record, is the producer's name?

Steve Bochco. Brilliant guy. Oh, Tommy Smothers and the Smothers Brothers tried to get away with four-letter words on the air. Tommy told me, when I raised a question about--see, their show was live at the time. On Sunday night, I think--nine o'clock. Right in the heart of the evening. They were getting close to the edge of what might be called “blue copy.” I said I wanted to see Tommy--or the brothers--and talk with them about it--because they were doing this live. There was no way you could put a hand over their mouth. And Tommy, in his smart-ass, cocky little way, said: “Well, we're going to use the “f-word” four or five times between now and Christmas, and you can't stop us.”

I said: “Yes, I can. You'll only do it once.”

“Well, what will you do?”

I said: “We'll go black.” Because it was a live show. “And we'll have something standing by that we can run on a film. And we'll just say good-bye to you.”

“Well, you won't be able to get anybody to go to work for you, if you do that to us.”

I'm paraphrasing, because this was a less succinct conversation than I'm reporting. But the