By Ed Vitagliano | AFA Journal News Editor
As prime-time network television continues to degenerate in terms of objectionable content, viewers continue to abandon network TV. Are the two trends connected?

The number of viewers tuning in to see new network programs is down 12% from last year – a statistic that has network executives scurrying madly to find an explanation and come up with a tourniquet to stop the hemorrhaging.

The new fall television season not only failed to produce a bona fide breakout hit for any of the four major networks, but even older, successful series were losing fans. According to USA Today, NBC’s Friends – the number two show – lost 23% of its viewership, while number four ER (NBC) dropped 24%.

“Other top shows such as CBS’ Everybody Loves Raymond and ABC’s NYPD Blue also are down,” said USA Today’s Gary Levin.

Some point to television’s increasing competition from cable TV, the Internet, DVD rentals and video/computer games.

While the reality of viewer flight might be the result of a number of factors, it’s difficult to dismiss the growing offensiveness of many of today’s sitcoms, dramas and reality shows.

In a review of the new fall TV season, television critic Robert Bianco bemoaned the “sheer volume of randy behavior” by saying that, with sitcoms “the trouble isn’t the content of any one show; it’s the cumulative effect of so many shows covering the same topics. Yes, sex is part of life, but it’s not the only part.”

Such network commitment to sexed-up TV was demonstrated by Fox’s heavily-promoted Skin, a drama centered on, of all things, the porn industry.

“There’s too much emphasis on trying to be edgy,” Steve Sternberg of media-buying firm Magna Global USA told USA Today. “People don’t really want edgy – they want comfortable.”

That edginess encompasses more than just sex. Bianco also mentioned the increased use of gore in network dramas. “[T]he medium’s fascination with sex is only matched by its love affair with life’s other big subject, death,” he said, noting “the weekly lessons in increasingly gross anatomy on CSI, CSI: Miami, and Navy NCIS, to name a few.”

Profanity is also on the upswing. A recent study released by the Parents Television Council (PTC) recorded a dramatic increase in profanity on the networks during prime-time hours. Between 1998 and 2002, the PTC said in a press release, the amount of foul language jumped almost 95% in the first hour of prime-time – the so-called “Family Hour” – and more than 109% during the second hour.

“The entertainment industry has a responsibility to reduce this flood of vulgarity and the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] needs to get serious about enforcing broadcast decency laws and punishing broadcasters [that violate those laws] with fines and license revocations,” said PTC President Brent Bozell.

Sometimes networks pay the price for pushing crass instead of class, as was made quite evident after NBC hyped one of its new fall shows, Coupling. Billed as something of a Friends’ clone – except without as much friendship and way more sex talk – NBC seemed to revel in the show’s controversial nature.

NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker said that Coupling’s nonstop sex talk was meant to make the sitcom stand out. “I think that if there’s outrage over Coupling, so be it. That is good for us.”
When the viewers voted with their remote controls, however, the news wasn’t so good after all – the show was a huge flop. Canceled in early November, Zucker called Coupling “NBC’s biggest mistake of the season.”

In similar fashion, Skin was unceremoniously dumped by Fox due to a lack of viewer interest.

Sources: USA Today, 10/14/03, 11/3/03, 11/14/03; www.eonline.com, 9/22/03; www.parentstv.org, 11/6/03

PRIME-TIME NETWORK TV REVIEWS

Hallmark, Toys R Us on prime-time best, worst
AFA encourages readers to write to advertisers on the shows cited below. Note that all four advertisers appeared on the “One Bright Spot” this month. When you write, be sure to commend them for this sponsorship as well as your concerns about their sponsoring the sleazy shows.
One Bright Spot

• Andy Griffith Reunion: Back to Mayberry + • TVPG
CBS, 11/11 – The Andy Griffith Show debuted on October 3, 1960, ran for eight years, and filmed 249 episodes. It was good to see CBS present an hour of the stars’ favorite clips from a series that brought clean humor and positive moral values into America’s living rooms like few other prime-time shows have done.
Advertisers: Burlington, Hallmark, Pfizer, Toys R Us

• Becker P15 S • TVPG-L
CBS, 10/29 – The series hero – Dr. John Becker – and his girlfriend Chris plot to have illicit sex for the first time. The episode focuses on their sex drive and includes jokes about hookers and erectile dysfunction.
Advertiser: Pfizer

• Ed P11 • TVPG
NBC, 10/29 – Series hero Ed lives with Carol, his sex partner, who teaches at the local high school. Ed becomes jealous when a former student offers Carol a job working on his magazine in New York City.
Advertisers: Pfizer, Toys R Us

• Everybody Loves Raymond AC P4 • TVPG-L
CBS, 11/3 – Peter, the obnoxious Christian brother-in-law of series regular Robert, mooches off Robert and his wife until Robert is ready to kick him out. When Peter returns to his parents’ home, he discovers they’ve turned his room into a prayer and Bible study room. Both of his parents are simple-minded, naive, pushy Christians. His mom whines with a smile, “I’m sorry, Peter, but we gave your room to Jesus.”

“Jesus doesn’t need a room!” Peter screams.

In a later scene, Robert’s father scowls as he wonders, “Why doesn’t that guy [Peter’s dad] just put a steeple on his roof!?”
Advertisers: Hallmark, Toys R Us

• The Handler P3 S • TV14-LS
CBS, 11/14 – In addition to the profanity, this episode includes a number of vulgar euphemisms for sex, bondage porn film clips and scenes on the set where porn films are being made.
Advertisers: Burlington, Pfizer

• It’s All Relative H P6 S • TVPG-DL
ABC, 11/5 – A male “couple” are among the main characters. Their daughter is dating the son of an Irish Catholic bigot. Frequent sexual double entendres fill the script as the two homosexual men run the bar for the Catholic man while he’s at a wake.
Advertiser: Hallmark

• Karen Sisco P16 S V • TVPG-LSV
ABC, 11/5 – The teaser for this episode occurs in a strip club. Karen Sisco, U. S. Marshal, is the heroine. Her father pressures her to quit having sex with a pro baseball player because his pitching slumps when he’s had sex with her. (She’s only known him two weeks.) The closing scene features Karen dropping her coat to stand naked (not fully revealed on screen) in her sex mate’s hotel room door.
Advertisers: Burlington, Pfizer, Toys R Us

• Still Standing P2 S • TVPG-D
CBS, 11/10 – Judy and Bill think their son, who is in honors classes, is a wimp because his girlfriend pushes him around. Bill likes Chad, the football player who visits the house, and gives Chad lessons on how to get high school girls in bed for sex. He’s quite proud of himself – until Chad asks Bill’s daughter to the prom, using one of Bill’s sure-to-get-sex lines. The parents routinely lie to and manipulate their kids in this “family” sitcom.
Advertisers: Hallmark, Pfizer, Toys R Us

• Two-and-a-Half Men H P7 S • TVPG-DL
CBS, 11/3 – Jokes about nudity, promiscuity, sexual arousal, lesbian sex and countless other sexual innuendoes fill this half-hour. Jake, 10, stares wide-eyed at Cindy, his Uncle Charlie’s sex partner. Jake’s mother, who recently divorced her husband, is struggling to figure out if she’s straight or lesbian.
Advertiser: Hallmark

• Without a Trace P5 S • TV14-DLSV
CBS, 11/6 – A high school sex scandal drives this episode, complete with teen orgies in which wild arrays of arms, legs and half-dressed bodies writhe on the screen. Simulated sex is included in the extremely graphic sex scenes.
Advertisers: Burlington Coat, Toys R Us

action index
Use this information to write or call advertisers cited in this issue’s TV reviews.

Burlington Coat Factory
Chrm. Monroe G. Milstein
1830 Route 130 North
Burlington, NJ 08016
Phone: 609-387-7800
www.coat.com
Products: Burlington Coat Factory

Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Chrm. Donald J. Hall
P. O. Box 419580
Kansas City, MO 64141
Phone: 816-274-5111
www.hallmark.com
Products: Crayola crayons,
Hallmark and Shoebox cards

Pfizer
Chrm. Henry A. McKinnell
235 E. 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
Phone: 212-573-2323
Toll Free: 1-800-438-1985
www.pfizer.com
Products: Actifed cold tablets,
Certs breath mints, Lubriderm lotion, Sudafed tablets, Trident chewing gum, Visine eye drops

Toys R Us, Inc.
Chrm. Richard L. Markee
461 From Road
Paramus, NJ 07652
Phone: 201-262-7800
www.toysrus.com
Products: Toys R Us