Purpose of Standards and Practices in the past?

[tall_guy1]

This was something I was reminded of when I browsed some Toonzone forums from a few decades ago. It seems like Cartoon Network and TBS bleeped a line on Futurama when they got thecrights in 2003 saying "sweet Zombie Jesus" which was included in the Fox airing. Apparently the two companies (Fox and Turner) had differing Standards and Practices at the time. Turner loosened their Standards and Practices a few years later, and that and other things made it into their shows and movies. I remember each station would edit movies different too. What exactly was the purpose of Standards and practices?

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

To have standards. And practices.

 

[NoDakObserver]

When I hear "Standards and Practices", I think more of game shows and the rules they had to follow after the quiz show scandals to stay honest and transparent for the contestants and the audience. That's usually where the term would actually be mentioned on the air. Pretty sure Gene Rayburn on the 70s Match Game talked about it a few times.

 

[TexasTom]

Apparently, a major purpose of "Standards and Practices" (or "Broadcast Standards", depending on the network) was to keep programs from offending viewers by showing belly buttons or open-mouthed kissing -- both of those were big bugaboos for NBC back in the sixties.

On a more serious note, the goal of those departments was to ensure that programming aired on a network would not be offensive to the majority of their viewers and that programming would not run afoul of FCC regulations. But in "The Making of Star Trek", Gene Roddenberry and others involved in producing the show during its original run on NBC complained quite liberally about the way that the standards department nitpicked at their scripts.

 

[Weiserguy]

When I hear "Standards and Practices", I think more of game shows and the rules they had to follow after the quiz show scandals to stay honest and transparent for the contestants and the audience. That's usually where the term would actually be mentioned on the air. Pretty sure Gene Rayburn on the 70s Match Game talked about it a few times.

The Match Game's whole shtick was innuendo, tiptoeing up to the "line" without crossing it with a joke or comment that would offend those folks who get easily offended, and/or lacked a sense of humor. I imagine CBS's Standards and Practices rep kept pretty busy with Match Game. (Which back then was five days a week in daytime plus a primetime edition once a week.)

On a more serious note, the goal of those departments was to ensure that programming aired on a network would not be offensive to the majority of their viewers and that programming would not run afoul of FCC regulations. But in "The Making of Star Trek", Gene Roddenberry and others involved in producing the show during its original run on NBC complained quite liberally about the way that the standards department nitpicked at their scripts.

If you didn't live through that era, it's hard to imagine how tight-assed some areas of the country were. (Or looking at what's going on now, maybe it isn't.) Star Trek tried to push the envelope, such as when Kirk and Uhura had the first interracial kiss on a national network in 1967 or 68. Roddenberry had to frame it as the characters being forced to kiss under the domination of an alien force before NBC's S&P would approve it, and even then the less open-minded affiliates got their panties in a bunch over such an outrage. IIRC certain Southern affiliates refused to air the episode and substituted something else.

 

[CTListener]

The Match Game's whole shtick was innuendo, tiptoeing up to the "line" without crossing it with a joke or comment that would offend those folks who get easily offended, and/or lacked a sense of humor. I imagine CBS's Standards and Practices rep kept pretty busy with Match Game. (Which back then was five days a week in daytime plus a primetime edition once a week.)

NBC's S&P Division probably had more trouble with The Gong Show in its short (3 seasons, IIRC) run than CBS had with The Match Game in all of its seasons.

 

[michael hagerty]

Helps to have context:

Network Standards & Practices departments date back to network radio days, when many programs were broadcast live.

The purpose was multiple, yet simple:

• To protect the network against violations of FCC indecency rules,
• To protect the network against adverse reactions by sponsors (in those days, most often one advertiser sponsored each show---lose them and you might be off the air).
• To avoid offending any listener, thus delivering the largest possible audience for the sponsor's message.

Programs that were scripted had to submit those scripts to S&P prior to air---and to make any changes S&P felt were necessary.

Occasionally, S&P would make a ridiculous call (the rejected "W.C." joke that caused Jack Parr to walk The Tonight Show for a month was unlikely to offend a late-night audience in 1960).

As the sixties went on, though, more and more writers and performers felt that the times required a different approach---ending up in head-to-head battles with Standards and Practices (who widely became known as "network censors"):

Today, commercial time is bought differently. Unless there's a major boycott based on sponsor support of a show that offends a group of people, that's less of a concern than protecting the network from fines. And audience fragmentation has long since removed the priority of "something for everyone" programming.

 

[Megatron]

I say let the F-Bomb fly from 10PM to 6AM pretty much all the other swear words can be said at all other day parts, I don't consider them to be swear words in my opinion seems like from time to time the C-word isn't bleeped out other than the C-word & F-Bomb everything else you can say on TV as I said before. Nothing offends me.