2 BROKE GIRLS AND THE 'FAMILY' HOUR

[justpassingthough]

Compared to my childhood (1950s and 60s), Americans are much less circumspect in what they say, and in their behaviors. Any child or teen living in an urban environment will hear words, and occasionally see things happen - that would never be shown on network or basic cable television.

I was born in 1981 and, therefore, grew up in the 80s and 90s. I always wondered if society had really changed that much or if people were just nostalgic for a more "simple" time. I don't think what was said or done in society is much different now than 20 years ago, but TV and other media has just become more comfortable at showing the grim and less perfect aspects of society, which in turn would be a better reflection of how things actually are.

Lest we forget, for all the prim and proper behavior of 1950s and 1960s television, our society was one of codified, legal discrimination towards people of color, women, etc and we were in a nuclear stalemate with another superpower. The world wasn't really all roses. Plus, murder, sexual assaults, crime in general, teen pregancies have all seen their rates plummet in the past 20 years, but turn on the TV now and you'd swear we lost all control over society.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Compared to my childhood (1950s and 60s), Americans are much less circumspect in what they say, and in their behaviors. Any child or teen living in an urban environment will hear words, and occasionally see things happen - that would never be shown on network or basic cable television.

I was born in 1981 and, therefore, grew up in the 80s and 90s. I always wondered if society had really changed that much or if people were just nostalgic for a more "simple" time. I don't think what was said or done in society is much different now than 20 years ago, but TV and other media has just become more comfortable at showing the grim and less perfect aspects of society, which in turn would be a better reflection of how things actually are.

Lest we forget, for all the prim and proper behavior of 1950s and 1960s television, our society was one of codified, legal discrimination towards people of color, women, etc and we were in a nuclear stalemate with another superpower. The world wasn't really all roses. Plus, murder, sexual assaults, crime in general, teen pregancies have all seen their rates plummet in the past 20 years, but turn on the TV now and you'd swear we lost all control over society.

Even as a fictional period-piece drama, Mad Men is probably more representative of how adults talked/behaved in the 1950s/60s than Leave It to Beaver or The Dick Van Dyke Show ever were.

What people mean when they individually refer to 'the good ol' days' varies widely, and it often serves to validate their biases against what they perceive about society today. And I think that sort of thinking definitely aids the protests of the Parent's Television Council and even the American Family Association too, though with them its seems so much more about 'We're making this statement that WE don't like that program' than 'Hey, we really think that nobody should have to suffer through this filth'.

It's certainly harder to make serious complaints about a lack of filth-free programming when so many more options are out there for entertainment.

 

[landtuna]

I was born in 1981 and, therefore, grew up in the 80s and 90s. I always wondered if society had really changed that much or if people were just nostalgic for a more "simple" time. I don't think what was said or done in society is much different now than 20 years ago, but TV and other media has just become more comfortable at showing the grim and less perfect aspects of society, which in turn would be a better reflection of how things actually are.

Maybe not 20 years ago but certainly you never heard or saw common behaviors of today in the 50's - in the media or on the street corners. Of course there were certain people who cussed in public but it wasn't part of the normal language of the day and it was an accident if heard on radio or TV.

Today it is common to see teen males walk around with their pants down to half-cheek. In the 50's it was common to see teen males with ducktail haircuts. Both were symbols of rebellion but one is vulgar and one is not.

Lest we forget, for all the prim and proper behavior of 1950s and 1960s television, our society was one of codified, legal discrimination towards people of color, women, etc and we were in a nuclear stalemate with another superpower. The world wasn't really all roses. Plus, murder, sexual assaults, crime in general, teen pregancies have all seen their rates plummet in the past 20 years, but turn on the TV now and you'd swear we lost all control over society.

It is, perhaps, the "fault" of the media that we now hear about all the perverse crimes and conditions today and it was likely self-limiting journalism that prevented those same kind of stories back in the 50's media. They all occurred then as well as now but certain types, such as shootings at public schools, certainly never occurred back then. Unfortunately, certain kinds of violence is relatively more common now than then - violence directed at young children seems epidemic now. Back in the 50's the only child crime I remember was the occasional kidnapping.

While the rates of these crimes might have been reduced over the years the violence doesn't seem to have. The world is still a tough and nasty place at times. The stories on TV have gotten more violent and that is largely a reflection of what we see and hear on the news and feature stories.

 

[mnradiofan]

I've always found it fascinating that we place a greater emphasis on language and subject matter being offensive than violence and murder.

Perhaps if we censored the stories about violence and murder to the 11PM news, and let language be what it may, we'd have many more school fights solved with words and cussing than school shootings and death. After all, the message we send to the youth of America every day is "hey, if nobody is paying attention to you, just go kill people, then everyone will be talking about you".

I'd rather have kids running around cussing than shooting, myself.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Compared to my childhood (1950s and 60s), Americans are much less circumspect in what they say, and in their behaviors. Any child or teen living in an urban environment will hear words, and occasionally see things happen - that would never be shown on network or basic cable television.

I was born in 1981 and, therefore, grew up in the 80s and 90s. I always wondered if society had really changed that much or if people were just nostalgic for a more "simple" time. I don't think what was said or done in society is much different now than 20 years ago, but TV and other media has just become more comfortable at showing the grim and less perfect aspects of society, which in turn would be a better reflection of how things actually are.

Lest we forget, for all the prim and proper behavior of 1950s and 1960s television, our society was one of codified, legal discrimination towards people of color, women, etc and we were in a nuclear stalemate with another superpower. The world wasn't really all roses. Plus, murder, sexual assaults, crime in general, teen pregancies have all seen their rates plummet in the past 20 years, but turn on the TV now and you'd swear we lost all control over society.

I was reading in Advertising Age magazine--on paper at a library--how this is why "Mad Men" was a good idea. it shows society as it really was.

 

[Markxxx]

Leave It To Beaver gets a horrible rap. It covered issues like alcoholism, smoking, older/younger relationships, moving out of your parents house, car accidents, teen age partying, vandalism and so forth.

People just don't seem to remember all that, because the Cleavers coped with it. I loved how Beaver and Wally tell their parents they were wrong to try to shield them from the alcoholic handyman, because a guy has to hear about the bad stuff in life, and since they do, it's better they hear it from their parents.

The family hour was a joke simply because of the time shifts. I mean how can you say something in the Central Time Zone at 8pm is OK for an adult but the people on the East Coast have to wait till 9pm. It's not logical

 

[bpatrick]

In the past decade ABC executives say they've been stricter about
what goes out at 8 (ET) than the other networks; hard to say, but
think about this: "Friends" (NBC) aired at 8 and attracted more 11-17-
year-olds than most shows considered "family-friendly" during its run,
for example, "Sabrina The Teenage Witch."

The time-zone issue was one reason the family hour was formally outlawed;
another is that Norman Lear, who probably worked harder than anyone to get
the rule outlawed, considered it a form of censorship (but then again, some of
his shows, like "All In The Family" and "Maude" were forced out of the 8 PM slot
and moved to 9 (ET)--which is still 8 in the Central Time Zone, so we're back to
square one on why the family hour was abolished). The only way, I think, to have
avoided the issue altogether would have been to put the whole country on a clock-
time schedule, with primetime starting at 8 in all time zones. The problem, though,
was viewing habits: people on Central Time were used to network news at 5:30 and
Johnny Carson at 10:30, and apparently the networks not only realized this but also
considered the added expense of additional feeds (but isn't Canada on a clock-time
schedule, with Newfoundland going along with Atlantic Time except that everything's
a half-hour later, as in "such-and-such tonight at 9 (9:30 in Newfoundland)"?).

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Monday Night Football begins during the West Coast's evening Rush hour

 

[bpatrick]

That's so the whole country can see the games live; besides,
MNF is on ESPN. I do recall that when ABC had MNF, its Seattle
and Portland affiliates (KOMO and KATU, both owned by Fisher
Broadcasting) would delay the games an hour, to 7 PM (PT).
People coming home from work would listen to the games on their
local CBS radio affiliate, where the games came on at 6, and it
proved to be a headache for those people when they got home,
turned on ABC, and saw what they'd heard an hour earlier. Eventually,
the two ABC stations went along with the rest of the network and aired
the games starting at 6 (PT).

 

[vchimpanzee]

I had four episodes on my TiVo that I hadn't watched, so I got caught up in a couple of nights. It was really late when I finished the third one so it wasn't a true marathon.

The offending episode was one of them and I do agree that dialogue was unsuitable coming from a couple of 13-year-old boys.

The girls can get away with anything but I find Oleg offensive.

I'm sorry to see Sophie becoming a regular. I don't like her.

 

[DToTheJ]

I thought the "Family Hour" disappeared 8 years ago when CBS aired "Two and a Half Men" at 8 in my market...

And let's not forget that many other stations now air reruns of that show in the "prime access" hour. When it rains, it pours...

Also, "[Bleep] My Dad Says."

 

[firepoint525]

Also, "[Bleep] My Dad Says."

You miss that show, don't you?

 

[vchimpanzee]

Anyone notice there's a black man in the kitchen who never has any lines and never even attends the staff meetings?

I guess it's good to know they don't depend on Oleg to clean up.