No, Fred and Wilma Flintstone were not the first TV couple to share a bed. This misconception has persisted for years, but the truth is that television couples had been sharing beds long before the Flintstones made their debut.
As the fall television season was kicking off in September of 1969, gossip columnist Earl Wilson had a hot scoop. He got the news from Florence Henderson herself, who was promoting “The Brady Bunch,” a new sitcom about to premiere on ABC. “Television’s really running wild!” Henderson told the writer. “In our own series, we even have a double bed! That’s a big breakthrough in TV. We had some fight to get it. They wanted to keep us in twin beds, like they do everybody else.” At this point in the interview, the PR person panicked. “That’s off the record about the double bed,” the network rep said. “We don’t want it to get around to scare people.” Wilson published it anyway.
The network had little to worry about; Henderson had little to boast about. If not the norm, television couples sleeping in the same bed was hardly new. It was as old as sitcoms themselves, in fact. It all began shortly after World War II.
The first TV couple to share a bed was Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns in their sitcom “Mary Kay and Johnny,” which premiered in 1947. This show racked up a lot of firsts, being the first sitcom in the history of television. Mary Kay and Johnny were married in real life, which perhaps allowed folks to not get too worked up about them sharing a bed. The show premiered on the long-dead DuMont Network, before briefly jumping to CBS and settling on NBC. However, “Mary Kay and Johnny” is largely forgotten today because there were only 250,000 TV sets in America in 1947, and the series was largely a regional affair out of New York. Episodes were broadcast live, with little thought of preservation. Only one episode is known to exist, in the Paley Center.
“I Love Lucy” is another iconic show that comes to mind when discussing TV couples and beds. Lucy and Desi famously slept in separate beds when “I Love Lucy” premiered in 1951. However, the show did eventually get around to a double bed. In “First Stop,” which aired on January 17, 1955, Fred and Ethel swap sleeping arrangements with Lucy and Desi while on the road at an Ohio hotel.
“The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” also featured a married couple sharing a bed. Like Mary Kay and Johnny, Ozzie and Harriet were hitched in the real world, which is likely why censors and conservatives let their shared bed slide. The bed plays a prominent role in “A Day in Bed,” broadcast on May 23, 1956, when Ozzie decides he needs to stay in his pajamas under the covers around the clock.
The Flintstones are often cited as being the first couple to share a bed on television. Not so, as we have already learned. First animated couple? Perhaps. First couple in vivid color? Likely. Chronologically, they are the first, technically, seeing how they lived in the Stone Age… but now we’re just getting technical.
“Bewitched” also featured a couple sharing a bed. Darrin and Samantha share a mattress from the get-go. In the first handful of episodes, viewers get a glimpse of the pair’s bedroom. In episode seven, “The Witches Are Out,” the two are at least shown under the covers.
“The Munsters” is another show where the couple shared a bed. Maybe it was the kooky magical elements, but networks eased up on splitting beds. Clean-cut fictional couple Rob and Laura Petrie might have snoozed in separate beds — but a witch, or some monsters? The rules could be bent, seemingly. A month after the above “Bewitched,” Fred and Lily were shown sleeping together in “Autumn Croakus,” on November 26, 1964.
In conclusion, while Fred and Wilma Flintstone are often remembered for sharing a bed on television, they were far from the first. The honor of the first TV couple to share a bed goes to Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns in their 1947 sitcom. Over the years, other couples followed suit, gradually making the sight of a shared bed less controversial and more commonplace on television.
Source: MeTV, Everett Collection, CBS Television Distribution, American International Television, Warner Brothers, Sony Television Pictures, NBC/Universal
