Did NBC go too far with MILF, and what is the family hour anyway?
Edward Wyatt’s New York TImes piece questioned whether NBC crossed the line by broadcasting racy material in the “family hour.” On both 30 Rock and The Office, the writers let loose, basically presenting what you might call adult rated moments in what NBC asserts is family time. All I have to say to that is, “What? There’s a family hour? Since when?” Apparently, I wasn’t the only one caught off guard by the raunchiness of the family hour. The Parents Television Council just today rescinded their praise for NBC’s claim that programs in the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time period would target families. PTC is calling NBC’s pledge “hypocritical.”
Seriously, when you think about the kind of things discussed in many TV programs that air between 8-10 o’clock, the family hour as we knew it in the ’70s, ’80s and even the ’90s is an antiquated notion at best. The Standards & Practices police, the censors, are asleep at the button if you ask me. What doesn’t get by? The two items cited in the Times were the following: the TV show causing a stir within 30 Rock was called MILF Island, a reality TV show in which 50 eighth grade boys are stranded on an island with 20 “holy hot mamas” with whom they’d like to have sex; on The Office, in the midst of a screaming fight, Jan yelled at Michael that they should go ahead and have a “fu*kin’ kid.” The expletive was blipped out and Jan’s mouth was digitally blurred.
Now, were the two shows funny? Absolutely. I was laughing out loud. I loved them. But some part of me did wonder, “Has TV gone too far?” This isn’t the first time I felt this way. I remember when How I Met Your Mother concocted a whole episode about “the tricycle” — Ted’s opportunity to have sex with two women at the same time. My jaw dropped on that one. It was broadcast at eight o’clock at night. Would a kid even be able to comprehend what Ted and Barney and Marshall and Robin and Lily were talking about? If a parent was watching the show with a kid in the room, would they send him or her out? Of course, if a parent knew what was going on, wouldn’t he or she heed the TV-14 warning? (I don’t think so; that’s just like the warning on the DVDs about pirating the content!)
There’s a lot at issue here; not just the concept of family hour viewing. It’s not just the time of night. Are families watching TV together anymore? Probably not. When I was a kid, there was only one color TV in our house. If I wanted to watch the color set, I had to watch what my parents were watching. Today, everybody has a television set. Kids nowadays are able to watch television online, on a cellphone, in their bedrooms. Are mom and dad even aware of an eight-year-olds viewing habits?
I don’t think the networks are able to control or adhere to a family hour anymore, not with time-shifting and alternate technologies. But standards are something to consider. I don’t want to sound like an old-fart — although I probably do — but shouldn’t there be some things are are deemed adult fare?
NBC defended the criticism over shows like My Name Is Earl (in which they are all criminals), 30 Rock and The Office, saying they have a tradition of adult, edgy, sophisticated comedies on Thursday nights. It’s true that Seinfeld often skated close to the edge of good taste, with masturbation contests, nipples in Christmas cards, et. al. And Friends’ Joey and Chandler were overjoyed when they discovered they were getting free porn on their TV. Porn was labeled as something really great by Friends, making you wonder what kids learned when they heard that. What would a kid make of Christine’s bizarre, incestuous dream involving her brother Matthew on a recent episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine or her and Barb’s discussing lesbianism?
Censorship is not the answer. Creating an arbitrary family hour like they’ve done in the past is not the answer either. However, writers and producers need to realize that their audience is not adults only. Tina Fey should know that writing for the eight o’clock time period is not the same as writing for Saturday Night Live. Same with Carter Bays and Craig Thomas. How I Met Your Mother isn’t David Letterman. Of course, what about the Fox animation block on Sunday night? Those shows are wickedly funny, and Family Guy and American Dad are outrageous.
On the other hand, there are eight o’clock shows that are family fare. NCIS, Chuck, Ghost Whisperer, Ugly Betty for instance. Families can watch The Amazing Race, Survivor, Dancing with the Stars and American Idol together. And sitcoms like Everybody Hates Chris, The Bill Engvall Show and Tyler Perry’s House of Payne are meant to be watched by families. I interviewed Ali LeRoi, co-creator of Everybody Hates Chris, for TV Week recently, and he told me, “When I was growing up, we all watched The Andy Griffith Show, it was a family show. It was easy to understand and I don’t think the enjoyment of shows like that will ever go away. I do think at times, young hip executives get into an office and think they need to reinvent the wheel and they really don’t.”
Families who are really concerned do have options: the Disney Channel offers Hannah Montana, and does really well. So does ABC Family with reruns of Seventh Heaven and Gilmore Girls. And nobody is stopping any parent from popping in a DVD that they deem more acceptable.
I don’t want the networks to be watchdogs and wardens, but I do want these writers to think twice about what’s appropriate. They can’t control where the network chooses to show their programs, but more often than not, they have a good idea. Knowing that, what about being funny without resorting to vulgarities. I’m as guilty as anyone; I laugh at the jokes. But I also feel bad after the fact and wonder when television lost its conscience.