In erpisode 1, Ed and Kara dive into the wild, lawless early days of cinema before the rules were written and before the moral police took over. From Thomas Edison’s cutthroat patent wars to the incredible women, immigrants, and Jewish creators who literally built Hollywood from the ground up in the sunny hills of California, early film was a thriving frontier of taboo topics and artistic freedom. But with massive success came massive scrutiny. Join us as we explore the rise of feature films like the highly innovative (and deeply racist) The Birth of a Nation, the groundbreaking work of Lois Weber, and the trio of dark, sensationalized 1920s scandals, including the tragic downfall of Fatty Arbuckle, that ultimately forced a roaring, jazz-age Hollywood to face its very first major dumpster fire: the call for federal regulation.

In Part 2 of our exploration into the scandalous history of movie ratings and film censorship, we cover the dramatic rise of the rules that defined Hollywood. While the movie studios struggled to keep their public image clean amidst early Tinseltown scandals, a wave of cultural, political, and religious pressure forced the industry to police itself. The result? A wild, decades-long battle between pure artistic expression and heavy-handed censorship. And finally in part three, we trace messy downfall of the Hays Code. Armed with Catholic boycotts, $25,000 fines, and the iron fist of Joseph Breen, the Production Code Administration thought they had Hollywood on a leash. What they didn't count on was the sheer spite, loop-holing genius, and legal maneuvering of iconic directors determined to push the envelope.

From Howard Hughes suing censors over Jane Russell’s cleavage to Alfred Hitchcock orchestrating a flush heard 'round the world in Psycho, discover how code-breaking filmmakers, Supreme Court battles, and a rapidly changing 1960s culture finally burned the Hays Code to the ground, paving the way for the MPAA ratings system we know today.