Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993 TAG: 9309090321
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAL THOMAS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's the strategy adopted by ABC with ``N.Y.P.D. Blue,'' television's first R-rated series, coming this fall. Network executives see themselves as ``pioneers.'' More like pied pipers, leading the unwary into the sewer.
Vulgar language and explicit sex scenes will be regular fare. Even some liberal reviewers not noted for wishing to put the brakes on anything are unsettled by this program. Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales writes of the show's star: ``Dennis Franz stands as an embittered, alcoholic cop on the courtroom steps having an argument with a stubborn female district attorney, who uses the phrase `ipso facto' in her remarks. Suddenly the cop grabs his crotch and shouts, `Hey, ipso facto this, you pissy little bitch!'''
``N.Y.P.D. Blue'' will rewrite network TV's lexicon by using in the pilot show words never before heard in prime time. In the sex scenes reportedly there are bare breasts and the backsides of the cop and a prostitute as they go at it in bed. What's next for network TV? You'll find it in the ``adult'' section of your local video store.
Rick Du Brow, TV critic for the Los Angeles Times, wrote of the ``corrosive effect on public taste'' such programs have and that they are a ``danger to national standards.'' It is hypocritical in the extreme for networks to put on such shows and then lament on their news programs the verbal and physical assaults on women and girls. Where do those neighborhood beasts who victimize women and girls get permission to talk and act the way they do? Certainly One source is the toxic waste dump that poses as television entertainment.
Proof that network executives and Hollywood producers who create this stuff live in their own little worlds - perhaps on other worlds - is research indicating the public is tuning out, not in. As recently as 1987, 18 weekly television series captured 30 percent of the national television audience, with the top-rated ``The Cosby Show'' getting 53 percent. In the 1991-92 season, only two weekly series averaged 30 percent - ``60 Minutes'' and ``Roseanne.'' Last season, three regular series attracted 30 percent or more of the audience - ``60 Minutes,'' ``Cheers'' and ``Home Improvement.''
``N.Y.P.D. Blue'' creator Steven Bochco and network executives argue they must do more explicit shows to compete with cable television. But a look at cable shows something they ignore. Basic cable - which, where I live, includes such services as ``American Movie Classics,'' ``The Family Channel'' and ``Nickelodeon'' - is growing in viewership, but the cable channels that show the fare ABC thinks means hot ratings are in decline. But, according to the Cable Television Advertising Bureau, premium channels like Playboy, HBO and Showtime that feature sex, violence and profanity lost 10 percent in average weekly viewing hours in a recent survey. Not coincidentally, basic cable increased its audience by 10 percent.A 1991 Gallup survey found that 62 percent of Americans don't believe television represents their values, yet Steven Bochco says his show is ``a little more reflective of today's society.'' Maybe in his closed society of Hollywood make-believe.
If the reviews and advance billing for ``N.Y.P.D. Blue'' are correct, the show represents a level of network irresponsibility unseen in the history of the medium. It makes sense that the sponsors who underwrite the destruction of what's left of moral values and openly promote vulgarity should not be subsidized by consumer patronage of their products.
Network executives can't absolve themselves of personal responsibility for contributing to the cultural rot by invoking the First Amendment any more than corporate polluters can escape prosecution by invoking the profit motive. Young children will watch this stuff no matter what parents do, and other viewers no doubt will be adversely affected by the portrayal of the abnormal as normal.
It is a tragedy that this once-great medium, which now rarely rises above the moral level of a landfill, increasingly plays only to the low and the base. It is why I no longer watch prime-time television, preferring the good stuff on basic cable. After some initial curiosity, I suspect ``N.Y.P.D. Blue'' will drive even more viewers away for good.
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB