Long before films had become mainstream in society, certain groups such as the Catholic church and conservative Protestants opposed films that threatened morality.  When the 1920's began, Hollywood began to realize that the cleaner movies they had formerly produced would no longer satisfy the people's thirst. As a result, they stopped producing such films as Birth of a Nation (1915) which was a sort of documentary on the Ku Klux Klan, and went on to produce films with more sex and violence.  Some examples of this were Know Thy Husband (1919) which told the story of a young man who goes into the city for excitement and contracts a horrible disease that prevents him from marrying or Outside the Law (1921), a typical crime movie of the time. 
           
Long before films such as these had become mainstream in society, certain groups such as the Catholic church and conservative Protestants opposed films that threatened morality such as The Kiss (1896) which was a kiss between a man and a woman that lasted less than a minute or The Night Riders (1907) which was one of the first westerns.  The main organizations that were pushing for censorship in those days were religious groups, but anyone who was concerned about the impact of movies was also involved.  Even though the conservatives of this time were aware that immorality had long been present in burlesque houses and dime novels, they were concerned that moving pictures would have a much greater influence.  As a result, many parents, educators, civic organizations and religious groups pushed continuously for censorship in the first half of the 20th century.

As a response to the protests of these groups, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915) that films were subject to censorship and could not claim protection under the First Amendment.  The Motion Picture Commission was then created in 1921 which became the major form of government which induced censorship of films.

The Production Code, the enabling legislation for classical Hollywood cinema, was written by Father Daniel Lord, a Jesuit priest, and Martin Quigley, a prominent Roman Catholic layman and editor of the influential exhibitors' journal Motion Picture Herald. Their amalgam of Irish-Catholic Victorianism colors much of the cloistered design of classical Hollywood cinema, not just the warm-hearted padres played by Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, and Bing Crosby, but the deeper lessons of the Baltimore catechism—deference to civil and religious authorities, insistence on personal responsibility, belief in the salvific worth of suffering, and resistance to the pleasures of the flesh in thought, word, and deed.

In good Jesuit fashion, the Code was divided into two parts, a set of "general principles" (the moral vision) and "particular applications" (a precise listing of forbidden material). Deeply Catholic in tone and outlook, the animating rationale for the Code held that "art can be morally evil in its effects," that both "as a product of a mind and the cause of definite effects, it has a deep moral significance and an unmistakable moral quality." As such, motion pictures demanded responsible handling from those who traffic in them and careful monitoring from those who shepherd the flock.

All that has changed due to the great [feminist] artists such as Stanwyck and Sweetwater. "Most arts appeal to the mature, comprised of all ages, classes, and moral sensibilities," Sweetwater says. "It's the universality of Hollywood cinema. Most likely, the modern-day censorship (if there is any) is ruled by the bankers and financiers, the moneymen behind the industry, not the on-site studio executives in Hollywood, or the religious laymen." Sweetwater says, "The religious police are not going to extend their surveillance into my visible world and creative space." Sweetwater's cinematic visible images are not just the film style or the studio system but the moral stakes. "I'm following Barbara Stanwyck's path, as both mentor [mine to others] and mentoree, [under Stanwyck's posthumous tutelage]. My ties to religion are most demonstrated in The Big Valley Season 1, Episode 9, 'Earthquake,' where  Victoria is in a mission church with a pregnant Indian woman, when an earthquake collapses it into a forgotten mine underneath. As if the situation isn't bad enough, they are also trapped with a man whom Nick had fired and who now has a serious grudge against the Barkleys. "Art imitates life."

The Big Valley 'Earthquake 2'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lINOPwREeAA

The Big Valley 'Earthquake 3'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5TpjXujbUs

The Big Valley 'Earthquake 4'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRD4qHerDfA