Anti Family
As a child, I never remember my parents getting upset about what I watched on television. And believe me, young john_clarke watched tons and tons of television that was wholly without merit --- Benny Hill, Three Stooges, and Monty Python, which occasionally featured the naked woman.
Of course in 1980, you couldn't get cable in my neighborhood. So I didn't get to see the fledgling HBO run "The Warriors" at midnight which I would have stayed up to watch for sure. My parents would probably be more upset that I stayed up late than watched the comic violence of "The Riffs" and that dude clinking coke bottles together to taunt another gang member.
I naturally gravitate towards watching all the stuff the modern parent doesn't want their kids to see. If the show has nakedness and violence, I'm going to watch it. The cable programers love guys like me because I willing lay down $100 for their product every month. They know that if there was no nudity or violence, I'd just watch network. Kids, to my knowlege, never have enough money from throwing papers to pay a cable bill, so most programing isn't aimed at them. So why should the world revolve around kids?
Now the FCC and Congress is making noises about censoring cable television because broke no job having kids are exposed to too much nudity and violence. As a reaction, cable television companies are now offering up a "family package" where cable subscribers can opt for a family friendly lineup, whatever the hell that means. The family groups aren't satisifed because the proposed family packages include "ABC Family, which shows PG-13 movies, Cartoon Network, which has late-night adult-themed cartoons, and TBS, which shows edited reruns of the HBO hit "Sex and the City" according to an article on Salon. What? No ABC Family on the family package?
It seems to me that the Family Rights/Anti-Fun Coalition doesn't really care that some kid may catch a PG-13 Harry Potter movie on ABC Family. They want to make sure that nobody can watch that movie either, including john_clarke, the long suffering cable bill payer who just wants to see people curse and get naked on his television in peace.
Of course in 1980, you couldn't get cable in my neighborhood. So I didn't get to see the fledgling HBO run "The Warriors" at midnight which I would have stayed up to watch for sure. My parents would probably be more upset that I stayed up late than watched the comic violence of "The Riffs" and that dude clinking coke bottles together to taunt another gang member.
I naturally gravitate towards watching all the stuff the modern parent doesn't want their kids to see. If the show has nakedness and violence, I'm going to watch it. The cable programers love guys like me because I willing lay down $100 for their product every month. They know that if there was no nudity or violence, I'd just watch network. Kids, to my knowlege, never have enough money from throwing papers to pay a cable bill, so most programing isn't aimed at them. So why should the world revolve around kids?
Now the FCC and Congress is making noises about censoring cable television because broke no job having kids are exposed to too much nudity and violence. As a reaction, cable television companies are now offering up a "family package" where cable subscribers can opt for a family friendly lineup, whatever the hell that means. The family groups aren't satisifed because the proposed family packages include "ABC Family, which shows PG-13 movies, Cartoon Network, which has late-night adult-themed cartoons, and TBS, which shows edited reruns of the HBO hit "Sex and the City" according to an article on Salon. What? No ABC Family on the family package?
It seems to me that the Family Rights/Anti-Fun Coalition doesn't really care that some kid may catch a PG-13 Harry Potter movie on ABC Family. They want to make sure that nobody can watch that movie either, including john_clarke, the long suffering cable bill payer who just wants to see people curse and get naked on his television in peace.
posted by john clarke at 10:32 AM
2 Comments:
ABC Family cuts up the movies anyway. Last night on Willie Wonka they cut out the crazy boat ride.
See. Even movies you saw as a kid that were meant for kids aren't considered "family programming" anymore.
Face it. Life's just one big crazy boat ride. If you edit out the crazy stuff, it's not fun anymore.
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