Lessons in Chemistry's Unusual Pregnancy Test Scene Follows in a Long Line of Classic TV Moments

On television, if a character randomly throws up and then appears to be mentally calculating a timeline of possibilities, there is a high probability they are pregnant. Apple TV+ period drama Lessons in Chemistry proves this hypothesis in this week’s episode, “Living Dead Things.” As it is the 1950s, Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) does not have the luxury of popping to the nearest drugstore to purchase an at-home test because they didn’t exist in the U.S. until 1977. While those first marketed tests resemble a ‘my first chemistry kit,’ Elizabeth resorts to another scientific avenue to confirm whether her late period is down to grief (after the recent death of her partner, Calvin) or a baby. Viewers might be surprised to see how a frog doubles as a test, but this is far from the first time a show has resorted to wildlife in a pregnancy plotline. Whether an animal or store-bought device, TV has been at the forefront of this reproductive health and bodily autonomy conversation that, in some cases, even provoked the White House.

In 2023, a pregnancy test is a familiar story driver utilized for various reasons and not bound by genre. Lessons in Chemistry’s amphibian approach saves the unwed Elizabeth from initially going to the doctor, giving back some control in an unplanned situation. Using a textbook, Elizabeth determines she can grab a couple of female frogs from her workplace and get a result 12 hours later. As well as taking much longer, it is a delicate process — here comes the science! — injecting her urine into the female frog's ovaries. Rather than a color change or lines indicating a positive, the frog ovulating within this period has the same meaning. Spawn at the bottom of the jar are as visually emphatic regarding Elizabeth’s status as the current digital readouts on contemporary stick tests.

Notably, this series of frog-related events does not occur in Bonnie Garmus’ novel of the same name, though Elizabeth’s morning sickness does clue in one of her co-workers in the book. Considering how many titles have shown a pregnancy test in some form or another, the frog sequence is an unconventional and memorable method that underscores how science has developed over the last one hundred years. Whereas the “wheat test” that depicted Catherine (Elle Fanning) peeing on seeds in The Great has its roots in Ancient Egypt (no, really), methods requiring animals didn’t come about until the 20th century. Elizabeth uses a relatively recent discovery, and these tests moved in leaps and bounds from frogs in the 1930s to the first at-home test patent obtained in 1969 (inventor Margaret Crane’s story is worth its own limited series).

What is now an expected story arc was once a revelation, and breaking barriers isn’t reserved for prestige drama. Instead, comedies and teen shows are often the first to broach issues related to sexual health. Even Marge Simpson took an at-home test in 1991 using Barnacle Bill’s less-than-reliable kit. Sitcoms are at the forefront of these cultural shifts concerning conversations about reproductive health and starting a family. Rewinding the clock to the decade in which Elizabeth does this test reveals how the landscape has significantly evolved and that storylines we consider run-of-the-mill were once scandalous. Rather than hide her bump behind various pieces of furniture, Lucille Ball’s real-life pregnancy became a storyline in I Love Lucy. Lucy Ricardo found out this happy news in 1952 after a visit to the doctor, and famously, CBS executives banned the word “pregnant” (Being the Ricardos portrays an imagined version of the behind-the-scenes conversation).

Pregnancy was a taboo subject because it suggested sex — which, duh — but in the ’70s, the world cracked open a little wider thanks to sitcoms like the Bea Arthur-led Maude. In 1972, a radical two-part episode of the Norman Lear comedy featured an abortion on the same network that had balked at the word “pregnant.” Later that same decade, M*A*S*H depicted a pregnancy scare that could’ve led to an automatic discharge from the army for Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit). Rather than travel from the US 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in South Korea to Tokyo for a test, Margaret wanted to find an alternative method, and they were in a medical facility, after all. Like Lessons in Chemistry, the series is set in the 1950s, and Margaret had to find a female rabbit to confirm her fears.

M*A*S*H often married tragedy and comedy, and “What’s Up, Doc?” was no different as a hostage scenario involving a wounded soldier who wants to go home overlaps with Margaret’s crisis. Men like Hawkeye (Alan Alda) were supportive but also clueless about her concerns, and the unfair gender-based rules added another dimension to her concerns (which included her terrible marriage). The episode written by Larry Balmagia explained the basics of the rabbit pregnancy test that typically results in the death of the bunny when the ovaries are removed (frogs have it far better in this department). M*A*S*H being a comedy (albeit dark) with a roster of surgeons, Fluffy survived, and Margaret got her answer. Unlike Elizabeth’s frog spawn, Margaret's result was negative, and Hawkeye offered both congratulations and commiseration in a nuanced exchange, highlighting the strengths of this 1978 episode.

It was almost a decade until a store-bought at-home test made its primetime debut on the Golden Girls Season 2 premiere in 1986. The journey to public availability was a long one marred by concerns over sexual morality and the ability of women to perform the test and cope with the results on their own. When Crane initially pitched her at-home test, she was met with opposition that posed hypothetical questions such as, “What if a senator’s daughter, unmarried, found she was pregnant and jumped off a bridge?”

By 1986, this product was widely available, but entering a mainstream lexicon is another story, and a monster hit TV show instantly raises awareness. In the Golden Girls episode “End of the Curse,” there was none of the pre-test anxiety as Blanche (Rue McClanahan) revealed the test tube — stick tests were introduced in 1988 — after finding out it was positive. Jokes about how it resembled a perfume sample were interspersed with the science behind the test; it was informative and kept the Golden Girls' tone (Susan Harris wrote both this episode and the seminal Maude abortion double-bill).

After confirming the news with a doctor, Blanche founds out she was actually going through menopause, and at first, this was way worse than an unwanted pregnancy. What Golden Girls expertly did is discuss all the various myths, misnomers, and preconceived ideas of menopause, and decades after, this scene still feels revolutionary. It could be argued that this false negative could have given at-home tests a reputation for being inaccurate. Still, pre-stick tests were reported to have better accuracy when the person was actually pregnant, and a trip to the doctor after finding out this information was and still is strongly recommended — something Elizabeth Zott does not do until her third trimester. McClanahan won the Emmy for her performance in this episode, and this wasn’t the only Emmy given to a show for a revelatory portrayal of a pregnancy scare.

The following year, Degrassi Junior High tackled the opposite end of the pregnancy scare spectrum with very different results, paving the way for many teen shows (including later Degrassi spin-offs). “It’s Late” won an International Emmy in the “Children & Young People” category, and in this episode, after 14-year-old Spike (Amanda Stepto) has unprotected sex at a party, an at-home test is procured from the drugstore. This being 1987, the tests were still of the chemistry test-looking variety, but before she even took it out of the brown paper bag, Spike told her mother, and the test was abandoned in favor of the doctor. Almost 20 years later, in 2005, Degrassi: The Next Generation would use a stick test as part of the fifth season promotion.

In the decades since Spike, you would be hard-pressed to find a teen drama that hasn’t turned to this plot device as a teachable moment about safe sex and the consequences of not using protection. Since motherhood is a serious, long-term plot requiring commitment, onscreen teen pregnancy scares rarely result in a baby. Or, the person taking the test is actually a parent, like Gail Leery (Mary-Margaret Humes) on Dawson’s Creek, and a later-in-life pregnancy opens a different can of worms.

Undoubtedly, one of the most culturally significant onscreen pregnancy tests took place on Murphy Brown in 1991, when the show’s titular character — an investigative journalist, news anchor, and single woman over 40 — was shown holding a positive pregnancy test. Fans were left wondering who the baby’s father was and whether Murphy (Candice Bergen) would keep it. Her story ignited a national debate about single mothers and garnered a negative review from the Republican administration. In what’s become known as the “Murphy Brown Speech,” then-Vice President Dan Quayle called her “a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid, professional woman” yet “mock[s] the importance of a father by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another ‘lifestyle choice.’” The scene when Murphy discovered she’s pregnant — hair disheveled and stick test in hand — solidified the at-home test as a symbol of a great, unknown, terrifying life change.

Pregnancy scare storylines are not exclusive to comedy and teen shows, but the groundbreaking depictions of the development of this technology and the wider implications are notable in these genres. While a character taking a pregnancy test can feel like a tired trope used to evoke suspense, there are still some surprises, and Lessons in Chemistry reveals there are still creative, informative ways to deliver a new take on an old story if you’re willing to think outside the (home pregnancy test) box.

Emma Fraser has wanted to write about TV since she first watched My So-Called Life in the mid-90s, finally getting her wish over a decade later. Follow her on Twitter at @frazbelina.