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Fox Hit With Indecency Charges Over "American Dad" Episode

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

The FCC has received an unprecedented 100,000 indecency complaints over an episode of "American Dad," originally aired January 3 on Fox. The FCC sent a letter of indecency to the network a few weeks later, as well as a follow-up letter two months afterward; to this day, Fox has yet to respond to neither inquiry. The FCC is contemplating a fine.

Full story:
http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/24745.html

Here's my question... what the hell was this episode about, anyway?
 
...and how many complaints were mass e-mails from the American Family Association and the Parents Television Council?
 
DToTheJ said:
Here's my question... what the hell was this episode about, anyway?
Click to expand...

Although I always caution on the use of Wikipedia, they actually have a pretty accurate description of this episode here.
 
azumanga said:
...how many complaints were mass e-mails from the American Family Association and the Parents Television Council?
Click to expand...

Per the above link from Wikipedia:

The Parents Television Council, a frequent critic of Seth MacFarlane-produced programs (Family Guy being the most frequent target) urged viewers to file indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission regarding the scene where Stan ["m" word, past tense] a horse, and Stan getting sprayed in his face.

Bull's eye - or should I say, horse's?
 
MarcB said:
If the "m" part in fact really happened, then I agree with it, but bleeping the "f" word is not a valid complaint. Nice try.
Click to expand...

Yes, Stan "m'd" a horse because Roger told him that it was necessary. They didn't show it, but it was clear what was happening and it was equally obvious that the results ended up all over Stan's face. It was pretty nasty. We watched it and I recall the episode.

But, that was not nearly as nasty as the FG episode where Stewie and Brian were locked in a bank vault. That one was just gross and was sooooo bad that even hard core fans like us ended up switching the channel (to Steven Hawking's show, IIRC). That episode was unnecessarily disgusting without being the least bit funny.
 
BRNout said:
Yes, Stan "m'd" a horse because Roger told him that it was necessary. They didn't show it, but it was clear what was happening and it was equally obvious that the results ended up all over Stan's face. It was pretty nasty. We watched it and I recall the episode.
Click to expand...

Hahahaha. That's freaking hilarious! I never liked that show before, but I think I like it now. It sounds to amusing to not like it.
 
BRNout said:
MarcB said:
If the "m" part in fact really happened, then I agree with it, but bleeping the "f" word is not a valid complaint. Nice try.
Click to expand...

Yes, Stan "m'd" a horse because Roger told him that it was necessary. They didn't show it, but it was clear what was happening and it was equally obvious that the results ended up all over Stan's face. It was pretty nasty. We watched it and I recall the episode.

But, that was not nearly as nasty as the FG episode where Stewie and Brian were locked in a bank vault. That one was just gross and was sooooo bad that even hard core fans like us ended up switching the channel (to Steven Hawking's show, IIRC). That episode was unnecessarily disgusting without being the least bit funny.
Click to expand...

I was also thinking of that Family Guy episode in the bank vault - it was totally crude and gratuitous...which is the point of most of MacFarlane's shows. It's amusing to me what comes to the attention of the PTC and the other "decency" advocates, and how much they manage to miss. They obviously don't monitor the airwaves in any real sense.

But you hit on what people should be doing when they're offended, change the channel.
 
Lkeller said:
But you hit on what people should be doing when they're offended, change the channel.
Click to expand...

Exactly! The American Dad episode in question wasn't much worse than any of the others and was somewhat amusing.

That bank vault episode was off-the-chart bad in every way and we stuck with it for longer than we should have. Worst episode ever! [with apologies to Comic Book Guy]

We turned it off, which is all anyone needs to do. There's a lot of really horrible crap out there and it can't all be policed by the FCC. We just don't watch it.

Also, you are right about the PTC and what you said about them can be applied to other similar groups. They miss a lot of content that's much worse than this was. And more offensive in a number of ways.

One of my favorite questions when it comes to inconsistency is this: Why is poking fun at Jesus Christ fair game on commercial TV, yet making any reference to Muhammad is forbidden? If it's okay to ridicule one religion, then all should be ridiculed equally. That way, we can all learn (involuntarily) to be tolerant of the views of others.....
 
IMHO, the nastiest "FG" I have seen thus far was the recent "Ida" episode. Without spoiling it, I will only say that in the episode is a scene in which Brian vomits continuously for about 49 seconds straight. (There, that ought to hold everyone in suspense...)

I think I must have missed the "bank vault" show. Probably one of those weeks where it was a Sunday and I only realized after the fact, "oh snap, I missed a new episode, oh well..."
 
Family Guy and American Dad have some good moments. Part of the problem is the writers apparently don't have the talent and/or intelligence to be able to fill an episode so they run a lot of filler...A Conway Twitty video for no apparent reason, 49 seconds of Brian vomiting, 30 seconds of Stewie holding his leg and saying ouch. I agree about the bank vault episode...it was terrible.
 
BRNout said:
DToTheJ said:
Here's my question... what the hell was this episode about, anyway?
Click to expand...

Although I always caution on the use of Wikipedia, they actually have a pretty accurate description of this episode here.
Click to expand...

wow...there are people who actually spend their days writing synopsis of cartoon scripts for Wikipedia!
 
There are a couple of The Cleveland Show episodes that were kind of crude and raunchy, the one episode where Cleveland's aunt/uncle transsexual came to visit and started hitting on not just the women but the men as well and plenty of swear words to go around and the episode where Cleveland Jr. stays on the toilet for nearly the entire episode. Where is the FCC when something like that is going on? Why pick on certain shows when plenty of other shows (Family Guy, Cleveland Show) show the exact same thing and they get only a slap on the wrist for it or nothing at all comes from it?
 
Unfortunately the trend of bathroom humour is becoming more common. I am not a fan of it, and even in shows like "Big Bang Theory" you're starting to see more and more references to bathroom jokes.

I wouldn't mind so much but as another poster said, it's just filler and an easy way to get a laugh from a six year old or six year old mind :)
 
Mark said:
Unfortunately the trend of bathroom humour is becoming more common. I am not a fan of it, and even in shows like "Big Bang Theory" you're starting to see more and more references to bathroom jokes.

I wouldn't mind so much but as another poster said, it's just filler and an easy way to get a laugh from a six year old or six year old mind :)
Click to expand...

Exactly right! Another trend that I see on comedy shows is a ton of "gay" or "lesbian" jokes. Crude stuff. It's as if every other skit on SNL has this feature lately. To me, it simply shows a lack of imagination on the part of the writers. And no, I am not prudish in the least. In fact, I get a good laugh out of crude humor when it's good. But geez, mix it up a bit!

There are tons of ways to be funny. Sure, bathroom/fart humor and some of the 'unexpected gay' jokes are funny or surprising when used once in a while. But when that's all the writers seem to have in their respective "war chests", that tells me that they are out of ideas. And it ceases to be funny after a while. It just gets boring.
 
Braves2005 said:
There are a couple of The Cleveland Show episodes that were kind of crude and raunchy... the episode where Cleveland Jr. stays on the toilet for nearly the entire episode...
Click to expand...

I'm surprised the state of Louisiana didn't launch a boycott against the show after that one joke referring to them toward the end of the episode...
 
BRNout said:
Lkeller said:
But you hit on what people should be doing when they're offended, change the channel.
Click to expand...

Exactly! The American Dad episode in question wasn't much worse than any of the others and was somewhat amusing.

That bank vault episode was off-the-chart bad in every way and we stuck with it for longer than we should have. Worst episode ever! [with apologies to Comic Book Guy]

We turned it off, which is all anyone needs to do. There's a lot of really horrible crap out there and it can't all be policed by the FCC. We just don't watch it.

Also, you are right about the PTC and what you said about them can be applied to other similar groups. They miss a lot of content that's much worse than this was. And more offensive in a number of ways.

One of my favorite questions when it comes to inconsistency is this: Why is poking fun at Jesus Christ fair game on commercial TV, yet making any reference to Muhammad is forbidden? If it's okay to ridicule one religion, then all should be ridiculed equally. That way, we can all learn (involuntarily) to be tolerant of the views of others.....
Click to expand...

The obvious reason is: nobody wants to die, and no network wants to be targeted by terrorists. Let's face it, a threat of imminent violence is a much bigger threat than being told by James Dobson that you're going to burn in hell someday.
 
The so-called "bank vault" episode of Family Guy was the worst episode I've ever seen. It was sooooooooo boring! As for the American Dad episode, I didn't see it, but with the reference to the horse, I may think twice about that, too.
 
ricksegers said:
Family Guy and American Dad have some good moments. Part of the problem is the writers apparently don't have the talent and/or intelligence to be able to fill an episode so they run a lot of filler...A Conway Twitty video for no apparent reason, 49 seconds of Brian vomiting, 30 seconds of Stewie holding his leg and saying ouch. I agree about the bank vault episode...it was terrible.
Click to expand...

But that is what makes the show funny. Something going on for way to long is a joke in itself.
 
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