Florence Henderson and Robert Reed often said their characters, Carol and Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch were the first TV couple to share a bed. Is this true and if it is why did it take until 1969 to happen?
In the early days of television, broadcasters saw the need to implement a set of Standards & Practices; these would reduce the chance of offending viewers and would also reduce the risk of outside interference from government agencies like the F.C.C. Rather than reinvent the wheel, they decided to adopt the Hayes Code, created in 1930 by the Motion Picture Association of America and implemented in 1934. The Hayes Code stipulated that actors could not be seen sharing the same bed - even if the characters they portrayed were married. Movie and TV couples would have twin beds until the late 1960s.
The Hayes Code did make an exception for couples who were married in real life. In 1947 the DuMont network began airing Mary Kay and Johnny a fifteen minute situation comedy depicting a young married couple. Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns were married in real life so they were able to be depicted sharing a bed, which they did. In 1948 Mary Kay Stearns became pregnant, after unsuccessfully attempting to conceal the pregnancy, it was eventually written into the series. Mary Kay Stearns was the first TV character to give birth, sorry Lucy.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were married throughout the production of I Love Lucy yet their characters, the Ricardos, had twin beds (sometimes pushed together but made up as separate beds with separate sheets). In a 1955 episode the Ricardos and their friends the Mertzes are driving cross-country when, very tired, they stop at a hotel. Due to the lack of accommodations the Ricardos first share a double bed while Fred and Ethel are in bunk beds. The couples decide to switch and the Mertzes use the double bed. Technically Vivian Vance and William Frawley were the first couple not married in real life to be seen in the same bed together on TV.
Three years prior, in 1952, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet would premiere, the show which starred real life couple Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, sometimes showed a double bed in their bedroom; at other times twin beds were shown.
It wouldn't be until 1964 that television would regularly depict couples, not married in real life, sharing beds at home. Bewitched debuted on September 17, 1964; in the pilot episode Samantha and Darrin Stephens are in a hotel suite with a double bed. A few weeks later we would see the couple share a bed at home which they would do for the remainder of the series. Exactly one week after Bewitched debuted, the first episode of The Munsters aired. Herman and Lily Munster would also share a bed throughout the run of the series.
It could be argued that the Stephens and the Munsters don't qualify due to a technicality: Samantha Stephens is a witch, Lily Munster is undead and Herman is a collection of reanimated, recycled human remains - neither couple consists of two mortal beings. Technically Carol and Mike Brady are the first couple, not married in real life, portraying mortal characters who are married in the script, to share a bed on a regular basis.
So why did it take until 1969 for this to happen? As social mores evolved film makers began to push back against the restrictions of the Hayes Code. In 1968 The M.P.A.A. implemented a new ratings code which, depending on a film's rating, would allow the depiction of things previously forbidden. By the end of 1968, with the new code in place, the Hayes Code was a thing of the past. The following year TV producers began to test the waters of what they could and could not get away with on television.
