(Warning: This report contains censored examples of explicit language found on primetime TV shows that may offend some readers.)
Back in March, USA Today television writer Bill Keveney noticed a marked increase in children being cast in primetime TV shows, as the broadcast networks focused on featuring families in their programs.
Keveney quoted Grace Wu, casting chief at NBC, long the domain of workplace comedies like “The Office,” confirming the networks had realized shows with families instead of cubicles attract a broader audience.
“Having children on a show, particularly if it’s a comedy, usually suggests it’s something that isn’t going to be too provocative, that you could watch with your children because they’ll see people that they’ll identify with,” Wu said.
But if these programs suggested they weren’t “too provocative,” a newly released study reveals, the suggestion was a lie.
According to research by the Parents Television Council, a full 99 percent of the “family” episodes broadcast shortly before Keveney’s observation contained some form of “adult content.” More specifically, 33 percent of episodes from shows about families contained violence, 81 percent contained sexual content and 94 percent contained profanity.
PTC analysts examined every major broadcast network, identifying 20 different “family” shows from the fall 2013 season through Dec. 31, 2013, and found them anything but “family friendly.”
For example, the pilot episode of CBS sitcom “The Millers,” rated TV-PG, which ran from October 2013 through November 2014, included a storyline about a boy named Zachary, whose parents required him to wear a sign warning others he had a foul mouth.
When a reporter asked Zachary about the sign, he replied, “Shut up, ass [bleep]. Before I wrap your [bleep] a round your [bleep] and shove my [bleep] in your [bleep].”
Similarly, when “Family Ties” star Michael J. Fox returned to NBC for 2013’s “The Michael J. Fox Show,” PTC reports, a young actor playing the part of Graham walked on screen in the series’ eighth episode completely naked, with his privates pixilated for the viewing audience. When Graham’s father tells him he can’t walk around the house naked, the boy says it’s really OK since he saw his aunt naked earlier that day.
Even separating the TV-PG programs from those rated more strictly TV-14 didn’t help, the PTC found. The analysis discovered a higher percentage of episodes containing sex among TV-PG shows and a higher percentage of episodes containing foul language, although the TV-14 shows were far more frequently violent.
The PTC found family programs rated TV-PG, for example, contained the following language: bleeped s-words, bleeped f-words, b-tch, penis, son of a b-tch, d-ck, screw, vagina, slut, a–, sexual references, hell, douche, p-ss, slut, whore and more.
“Parents often assume that TV shows about families are ‘safe’ viewing choices,” commented PTC President Tim Winter, echoing the assumption Wu referenced, “but our study shows that families who watch TV shows about families will be barraged by sex and profanity – even on TV-PG-rated shows. This is unacceptable.”
Winter noted that NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt admitted in November broadcast television can’t afford to be as lurid or violent as cable programming.
“In the broadcast world, you need to appeal to many more millions of people,” Greenblatt said. “You just need to be more mindful of language and subject matter, and what certain characters do, because the entire country, in spite of the fact that we live in a very liberal business, does not want to see lots of sexuality. They do not want to hear language. They do not want to see serial killers running around being the centerpieces of shows. They don’t watch those kinds of shows. And it’s not just because they don’t have the [pay] services in their homes to watch them. They don’t seek them out.”
“This should be reason enough for the entertainment industry to remember families,” Winter commented, “and therefore create programming that the entire family can watch together without having adult content shoved in their faces.
“Families want shows that are ‘safe’ to watch together and they are under the false impression that broadcast TV shows about families will deliver,” Winter concluded. “It’s really a no-brainer. Families want to watch shows about families, but without the sex or profanity that’s all too common on current fare.”
Learn more about the PTC study by clicking here.
