Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 30, 1995 TAG: 9510300045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium
Instead of calling someone an illegitimate child, a female dog or a donkey, TV characters sling the more pungent words for those things as if auditioning for a pirate crew.
Two fresh examples from the annals of network television's brave blue world of loosening standards and forthright practices:
A cast member on NBC's ``Saturday Night Live,'' midway through a skit, gave voice to the least acceptable word for excrement. It was bleeped only for the West Coast version of the show, which airs on tape.
CBS' ``60 Minutes'' gave new meaning to the phrase ``boob tube.'' Its profile of ``Mary Poppins'' star Julie Andrews included the movie moment in which she, trying to shed her milquetoast image, bared her bosom.
In her home in Johnsburg, Ill., Edna Robel literally takes note of it all and grows increasingly discomfited.
``I'm not an old prude completely,'' said Robel, 70. ``I'm a retired teacher. I taught art. And I'm pretty liberal-minded as far as that goes. I'm tired of hearing, `It sucks.' I'm tired of hearing all those phrases.''
Of the Andrews breast scene, ``60 Minutes'' executive producer Don Hewitt said, ``I got more letters complaining that we were on the side of Dow Corning on the breast implant controversy than I did about the Julie Andrews thing.''
But elsewhere on the dial, raw language dots adult dramas. Flashes of nudity, from the veritable roll call for bare bottoms on ABC's ``NYPD Blue'' to side views of female breasts and lingering shots of naked torsos elsewhere, are de rigueur.
But what seems most troubling to television observers is the coarsening of what used to be the ``family hour,'' from 7 to 8 p.m. Where that hour once was thick with prim, moralistic comedies and gentle historical dramas, the relentless pursuit of the young adult audience has all but wiped out its innocence.
Situation comedies airing at that time, heirs to the format that gave us young marrieds Rob and Laura Petrie in separate beds on ``The Dick Van Dyke Show'' in the mid-1960s, now feature a character on CBS wishing for ``heels-over-head'' sex, and one on CBS' ``Bless this House'' talking about ``do[ing] it'' on a coffee table.
One television executive said, off the record, ``I watch with my 8-year-old and 4-year-old exactly what I used to with my mother: `Bewitched,' `I Love Lucy,' `I Dream of Jeannie.'''
Even Dick Wolf, the producer of one of television's most intelligent, acclaimed and occasionally envelope-pushing dramas, NBC's ``Law and Order,'' has taken note.
``Two weeks ago, my kids are watching `TGIF''' - a group of four ABC Friday night sitcoms regarded as one of the last gasps of the family viewing block - ``and there's [actor] Patrick Duffy saying, `Am I gonna get sex more than once a year here?''' Wolf said.
Who's minding the store?
At networks, scripts are first read by members of the standards and practices department, who negotiate with show producers over words and images that raise red flags.
Beyond the F-word and blasphemy, there are few clear guidelines. In describing what's off limits, network censors bring to mind the Supreme Court talking about pornography.
``We know it when we see it,'' said Roland McFarland, vice president of standards and practices for the upstart Fox network, which built its young audience partly by bragging that it didn't employ people like McFarland.
``We still look at television as being a guest in the home,'' McFarland said. ``We try to exercise as good manners as possible.
``You find the use of `ass,' a few more `damns' and `hells,''' he said. ``Still, we try to hold the line and limit the number in a half hour.''
by CNB