In your recent comments about ...
Question: In your recent comments about the Parents Television Council, you made reference to people who wish that all TV looked like Nick at Nite. I understood your point. But it is interesting to note that Nick at Nite does show episodes of
All in the Family and
Good Times, two series that caused an uproar with groups like the PTC in the '70s, and has in the past run episodes of
Maude, another controversial show. In fact, I was watching
All in the Family the other night and thought that there was no way a show like that could make it to network TV today. As far as the PTC goes, it's pretty simple: If you don't like it, don't watch it. There is plenty of technology available to parents for blocking channels. For that matter, there is no law saying that one must own a TV. If it offends thee, pluck it out, as someone once said. Don't subject the rest of us to a worldview that sees
Petticoat Junction as the zenith of American television.
Answer: Not that there's anything wrong with Hooterville. Just (in the view of the puritanical PTC) hooters, I suppose. You make an excellent point.
Norman Lear (a great foe of the PTC) has often said it would be impossible to put Archie Bunker in prime time these days, with all the politically correct watchdogs (including the insipid FCC), milquetoast executives and squeamish advertisers conspiring to make network TV as irrelevant as possible. Dramas, airing later at night, seem to have a bit more leeway. But the chilling effect of the current "fine first, think later" climate has been especially devastating where cutting-edge comedy is concerned.
