GROWING PAINS.

Can you believe that a TV show in the 80s was able to name one of their characters "Boner"? Seems like someone would have realized that's slang for an erect penis and called for a change. But astoundingly, one television show got away with saying Boner on the air from 1985-1989. I tip my hat to the writers of Growing Pains. I imagine the writing session that produced Boner went something like this:

WRITER 1: So this kid needs a sidekick, some sort of nerdy kid.
WRITER 2: The kid should be a total boner.
WRITER 1: That's it, let's call him "Boner."
WRITER 2: The network will never let us call a character "boner." We might as well call him erection or hard-on.
WRITER 1: No, no. We'll just give him a last name that would make sense to be shortened to boner. Like "Stabone."
WRITER 2: Did you just say "like stabone"? Likes to bone. Nice.
WRITER 1: Seroiusly, let's just make his last name Stabone and see if we can sneak it through.
WRITER 2: And let's make his first name Richard.
WRITER 1: Ha! Dick "Boner" Stabone. They're going to fire us.

But they apparently did not get fired. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr. Richard "Boner" Stabone.



SCORE: writers 1, network execs 0