Prime Time TV - Family Viewing

[dmargalotti]

A conversation I had the other day with a friend of mine prompted me to make this post. As a 45-year old father with children ranging in ages from pre-teen to young adults, it's kind of hard to find prime time television shows that are "safe" for the entire family to watch, especially on the major networks. There are suitable family safe shows on cable channels like Disney and Nickelodeon that I will watch with my children but they're geared more toward the kids (understandably so). While I enjoy shows such as Law & Order and CSI, there are a lot of times when I have to change channels if my children walk into the room because the content and subject matter is just too rough for the younger ones.

When I was a kid (I love saying that to my children), I remember my parents watching prime time adult shows such as Columbo, Medical Center, The Rockford Files, Perry Mason, Mannix, The Streets of San Francisco, Ironside, Barnaby Jones, Gun Smoke, Bonanza, Dragnet and so many other classic TV shows. While the programs were all geared toward an adult audience, they were safe enough to have on even when young children were in the room.

So what are the good prime time shows currently on TV that you watch (especially on the major networks) that are still safe for family viewing?

 

[kenrayc]

Good question very few network shows I can think of such as "The Ghost whisperer", some of the CBS comedies "How I Met Your Mother"and The Big Bang Theory" and game shows like Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader , Don't Forget the Lyrics and Password. Some of the CW shows are safe like Supernateral and Smallville.

 

[landtuna]

I wouldn't consider "How I Met Your Mother" good viewing for children. Too many sexual references and most of the story takes place in a bar.

"Big Bang Theory" would be mostly OK except that most of the humor wouldn't be understandable by kids. It does have references to sex as well.

Maybe you should limit their viewing to RTV.

 

[justthenumbers]

Once it comes back on...American Idol?

 

[bpatrick]

A conversation I had the other day with a friend of mine prompted me to make this post. As a 45-year old father with children ranging in ages from pre-teen to young adults, it's kind of hard to find prime time television shows that are "safe" for the entire family to watch, especially on the major networks. There are suitable family safe shows on cable channels like Disney and Nickelodeon that I will watch with my children but they're geared more toward the kids (understandably so). While I enjoy shows such as Law & Order and CSI, there are a lot of times when I have to change channels if my children walk into the room because the content and subject matter is just too rough for the younger ones.

When I was a kid (I love saying that to my children), I remember my parents watching prime time adult shows such as Columbo, Medical Center, The Rockford Files, Perry Mason, Mannix, The Streets of San Francisco, Ironside, Barnaby Jones, Gun Smoke, Bonanza, Dragnet and so many other classic TV shows. While the programs were all geared toward an adult audience, they were safe enough to have on even when young children were in the room.

So what are the good prime time shows currently on TV that you watch (especially on the major networks) that are still safe for family viewing?

Most of the shows you mentioned watching as a kid came on after 9 PM
(ET); "Perry Mason" usually aired early, as did "Gunsmoke" from 1967-75,
and in its case most of the episodes from '67 on were not very violent
but dealt more with Matt Dillon's interactions with various residents of
Dodge City. The only show on your list I might have a problem with if
I had kids would be my favorite show on that list: "Mannix." I was 12
when it started, 20 when it ended, and have no regrets about being
a fan (and still am, and I wish TV Land would put it back on). I'm
not sure I'd want a young child watching it because it was pretty violent.

And "Law & Order" is getting the 8 PM (ET)/7 PM (CT) slot on Fridays
this fall; mostly because Jay Leno is going to be on NBC five nights a
week at 10/9. I can't see "L&O" as an 8:00 show, but at least Dick Wolf
is going to get his wish: he's going to tie "Gunsmoke" (20 years), up to
now the longest-running drama series in TV history.

 

[FreddyE1977]

My big gripe is that even when you find family-friendly programs at family-friendly times of the day, you are always ducking commercials for Viagra, Extenze, etc. Those of you with young sons who like baseball know what I'm talking about.

 

[dmargalotti]

My big gripe is that even when you find family-friendly programs at family-friendly times of the day, you are always ducking commercials for Viagra, Extenze, etc. Those of you with young sons who like baseball know what I'm talking about.

You're right Freddy. I often watch sports with my children...my daughters are actually big football fans. How embarrassing to hear the announcer say "erections lasting more than 4-hours...". Geez! Interesting to see that people could only name just a few shows on the networks that are safe for families to watch together. Why is that? I'm not interested in dictating content or promoting censorship. I like gritty adult shows too (I was a huge fan of NYPD Blue and I love Law & Order SVU). I just wish there were more shows that would be interesting for adults and yet still OK to watch if children are around. Maybe I'm just getting older...

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Numb3rs seems fairly family-friendly. I mean, they're adult themes, but the presentation isn't that adult (compared to CSI or Bones, for instance).

What are your opinions on House?

 

[LKellerIII]

Standards change, and TV (like movies, magazines, advertising, etc.) is much more explicit now. As a parent, that's something we have to deal with...but there's no getting around it. One poster on this thread mentioned Mannix as a "family friendly show from the past. Mannix was considered a very violent show in its day, and I'm sure many parents wouldn't let their kids watch it.

I don't want to tell others what to do, but when my kids have asked questions, I answer them. You can explain what Viagra is without endorsing either the product or premarital sex. Depictions of sexuality are all around us now - even if you never let your kids watch TV, you're going to have to explain a magazine ad, a billboard, or something else to them anyway.

I've accidentally pulled up sex websites on the internet by typing the wrong word into Google. I'm sure kids do it too - either accidentally, or on purpose because they're curious about something forbidden. So those websites require them to certify that they're 18 before they can see the hardcore stuff. I doubt that stops many kids.

These days, TV is the least of our problems.

 

[Markxxx]

I've often thought about this, as I don't have kids, but it must be hard to do. I mean I was 12 years old before I saw a naked woman, in my brother's Playboy. And she was just naked and not doing anything.

I guess the only answer is to start their education younger. The nice thing about the old day was they used to use a lot of innuendo and if you were young it simply flew over your head.

My favourite line from the Flintsones was Betty talking to Wilma, "Baseball is a lot like men, you never know if they're safe when they're out."

 

[mleach]

Standards change, and TV (like movies, magazines, advertising, etc.) is much more explicit now. As a parent, that's something we have to deal with...but there's no getting around it. One poster on this thread mentioned Mannix as a "family friendly show from the past. Mannix was considered a very violent show in its day, and I'm sure many parents wouldn't let their kids watch it.

I don't want to tell others what to do, but when my kids have asked questions, I answer them. You can explain what Viagra is without endorsing either the product or premarital sex. Depictions of sexuality are all around us now - even if you never let your kids watch TV, you're going to have to explain a magazine ad, a billboard, or something else to them anyway.

I've accidentally pulled up sex websites on the internet by typing the wrong word into Google. I'm sure kids do it too - either accidentally, or on purpose because they're curious about something forbidden. So those websites require them to certify that they're 18 before they can see the hardcore stuff. I doubt that stops many kids.

These days, TV is the least of our problems.

One of the main problems with many parents, heck adults for that matter in this day and age is that many of them would rather be their "best friend" than a parent or an authority figure. A great example of that is the current debate about kids being overweight, having bad teeth and how "Dr. Pepper" is the blame. Watching parents, local educators, dentists, doctors, etc...going on TV screaming about how soda pop is the reason BUT many of them simply refuse to blame those so-called popular energy drinks like Red Bull ( which has a ton of sugar in their own right, some way more than sodas ). Why? Because the kids LOVE Red Bull and products like them so the adults don't want to make the kids mad so they blame a product like Dr. Pepper which many kids don't even drink in the first place.

If a child has a question, of course the parents should answer them but it doesn't mean that much if the parent say "pass the buck" which sadly many parents do just that.

 

[imhomerjay]

It's becoming a society-wide problem, not just parents. The immediate reaction to seemingly everything among a portion of the population is to look for someone to blame (and sadly, usually sue) for whatever happens to them, without accepting (a) personal responsibility or (b) that sometimes bad things happen without someone being to blame.

 

[quadraphonic]

Man I feel like I'm an oldster typing this, but stick to RTN or Nick outside of national OTA, AND BE VIGILANT.

Seriously, there's no real "family friendly" prime time programming anymore. At least not on the networks. If it's not straight-out gore crime shows, it's sexual jokes with no innuendo or veiling to them, or wisecracks that are just putdowns wrapped up with a laugh track. Besides the oversexualization of everything, an automatic laugh every 7 seconds DOES NOT help them learn what's "funny." Even for shows that have relatively tame senses of humor or vulgarity, there's always some extreme part that just makes the show too unreal for them to be exposed to or learn enough from that the trouble does not outweigh the benefits [a forced laugh every 7 seconds sounds like a great idea, until it's forced so hard].

Sure, they will learn those "base," "crude," "juvenile" things, and they are aware they exist because they're observant in the world and that's how far too many people act in public.

But what's my [or any real parent's] incentive to let them sit and stew in it when they don't have to? We've told them those things happen and even some people live the way they see people living on tv [where they never watch tv, curiously]. So they can recognize something [depending on their age and development] as "sex joke" or "putdown" or "antisocial behavior" or "crass" or "crude" or "juvenile" or "base" when they see it happen in "the real world." They don't have to witness each of those 40 times a night to be able to spot it when it goes down. I don't have to see 1000 sick people to know I have a cold, ya know?

All our kids (4 10 and under) are in bed by 8:30, 8 when it's not light until 9, so prime time's in the East is not much of an issue. So when they are up after 8, we flip between the "old people channels" [they call them that] like HGTV or Food Network or FLN [but never QVC or some old person shopping channel ] most of the time.

But like has been said, it's still an issue when we're watching "Gunsmoke" or "Bonanza" at 4pm, *both of which they like* then the first commercial in a break is inevitably for The Cougar or High School Reunion or some such nonsense. Or if we try and sit and watch something on SciFi with them between 4 and 7, and it's male enhancement or KY jelly spots.

Trust me, this is coming from someone who has tried to fit "King of Queens" or "Seinfeld" or "Two and a Half Men" or a hundred other recent syndicated shows [before primetime hours} into the rotation, too, but keeps falling back to "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy," or watching Nick for "Andy Griffith" or "Green Acres" or "Beverly Hillbillies" and trying to hit the MUTE button quick when it's a commercial break.

I just can't make them fit, so I'm not just some prude who wants to shelter the kids from all bad exposures. They hear stories about 5th grade kids at school watching "Family Guy" and "South Park" [comes on only after 10 that I've seen around here--which probably explains why that kid is a failing mess, but I digress... and I didn't want to stray too far from "prime time programs worth a family viewing" ]

I guess the point is to be EVER VIGILANT and warn them about what's coming in "the real world", and knowing that society will fail our children because it only cares for our children as much as an inanimate, faceless, formless entity that shifts with its own flotsam and jetsam can. So we can't also fail our children by not being vigilant.

 

[kenrayc]

As far as Sitcoms of today there are none that are family oriented any more ,the just recent canceled shows, Everybody Hates Chris and even According to Jim were family oriented. There's no sitcoms like Step by Step, Cosby, Family Matters, Family Ties, Growing Pains, Mr. Belvedere, Who's the Boss, Fresh Prince, Home Improvement, The Hogans, and even Roseanne any more. Even Night Court, Wings, Frasier, and Cheers were safe for family viewing.

 

[quadraphonic]

I don't know kenrayc, that last bunch there might be "safe" for older kids, teens.
But for "family?"
Frasier had A LOT of "lady friends." Roz was a horndog. Niles was always lusting after Daphne. They all valued superficial vanity, and for being psychologists, they knew NOTHING about their own family's thinking, especially about Marty. Not that deep.
"Cheers" was set in a bar. Sam was a horndog. The others woulda been, but were limited chances. Norm, married, avoided his wife Vera. Most of the humor, if it wasn't "romantic" between Sam and Diane/Rebecca, came from cracks on each other. Norm and Cliff and some other supporting casters were dysfunctional away from a stool, barely there on it.
"Wings" I used to dig pre-kids, but I tried to watch it on USA recently while the kids got ready for school, and saw A LOT of sex jokes and trading in girl/boyfriends like they were disposables that I didn't notice pre-kids. Oh yeah, Roy was a horndog. Brian, a horndog. Joe, not far behind, sometimes limited to Helen, but usually whoever the story was about.
"Night Court" was the same way when it came on USA too. Dan was always about some sex, every episode, so "horndog." The others were ALWAYS toying with the idea, but never got around to it [Kenneth on "30 Rock"'s efforts joining them together came too late to include].
"Who's The Boss" I also had to avoid with the kids too since the old lady [on the show] was always a horndog talking about sex, and not in an educational or even informative sense [except that old, unmarried people should do it].
"According to Jim" Jim was about a family, but not really FOR family. Jim was a bumbling father who would cheat and lie to his wife until he got caught, THEN they would wrap it up with some moralist-sounding lines. And they spent half the episodes cracking on each other.

A lot of what kids pick up on is not glaring to the naked eye and is there right below the surface, and kids pick up on those things, like why Frasier has a new girlfriend and is coming out of the bedroom with her every episode, stuff like that. I don't think they need to be barraged by people cracking on each other either, because they start the habit, and it's Thunderdome!

 

[MikefromDelaware]

Unfortunately, as several have said, there are no real family friendly shows on TV now. Even the so called ABC Family Channel isn't for family, but is geared towards college aged adults.

Hollywood's standard is far more permisculous than most people would want their kids to be viewing. Some suggestions to get around this that I used when my kids were young:

Check out the family friendly movies and TV shows from your local library. Buy TV shows and movies for your family from Borders, etc. Turn off the TV and play board games, etc with your kids. Read to your kids. All sit together in living room or den and everyone has a book to read silently for a 1/2 hour to an hour. Find children stories on audio books and listen to them together and then discuss the story (to make sure they are following it OK as today's kids are not used to hearing a novel in an audio presentation like listening to the radio. If you can find some old time radio shows, listen to some of those with your kids (the Lone Ranger, Superman, some of the westerns, etc). See if they can picture what the characters look like, etc. It gets them using their imaginations. Take them to parks and let them run and have fun being kids. Go to museums, etc, minor league ball games (far more inexpensive than a major league game), etc. You get the idea. It's more work and effort, but it's worth it.

Bottomline is, you as the parents have to set the standard of what's allowed to be brought into your home. A family is not a democracy, it is a benevolent dictatorship. The parents are in charge. You get to decide what the kids get to watch. There will be pressure from your kids friends as their families allow them to watch whatever they want. You don't have to allow Hollywood or society to dictate to you what shows get fed to your kids. You decide, be consistant, and find other things to watch and do together as a family so the kids actually get more real time with you than they'd get watching so much TV and they eventually make come to prefer doing stuff with you than watching TV. You as the parent control what gets fed into your kids mind and body each day. Be a parent and use that authority for your kids betterment.

 

[vchimpanzee]

some of the CBS comedies "How I Met Your Mother"and The Big Bang Theory"

Not family friendly. Actually, I only watch "Big Bang Theory" but I've heard things about the other show. "Big Bang Theory" could be cleaner but they sometimes have a TV-14 rating.

Some of the CW shows are safe like Supernateral and Smallville.

I don't think so.

 

[cspotrun]

Unfortunately, as several have said, there are no real family friendly shows on TV now. Even the so called ABC Family Channel isn't for family, but is geared towards college aged adults.

Hollywood's standard is far more permisculous than most people would want their kids to be viewing. Some suggestions to get around this that I used when my kids were young:

Check out the family friendly movies and TV shows from your local library. Buy TV shows and movies for your family from Borders, etc. Turn off the TV and play board games, etc with your kids. Read to your kids. All sit together in living room or den and everyone has a book to read silently for a 1/2 hour to an hour. Find children stories on audio books and listen to them together and then discuss the story (to make sure they are following it OK as today's kids are not used to hearing a novel in an audio presentation like listening to the radio. If you can find some old time radio shows, listen to some of those with your kids (the Lone Ranger, Superman, some of the westerns, etc). See if they can picture what the characters look like, etc. It gets them using their imaginations. Take them to parks and let them run and have fun being kids. Go to museums, etc, minor league ball games (far more inexpensive than a major league game), etc. You get the idea. It's more work and effort, but it's worth it.

Bottomline is, you as the parents have to set the standard of what's allowed to be brought into your home. A family is not a democracy, it is a benevolent dictatorship. The parents are in charge. You get to decide what the kids get to watch. There will be pressure from your kids friends as their families allow them to watch whatever they want. You don't have to allow Hollywood or society to dictate to you what shows get fed to your kids. You decide, be consistant, and find other things to watch and do together as a family so the kids actually get more real time with you than they'd get watching so much TV and they eventually make come to prefer doing stuff with you than watching TV. You as the parent control what gets fed into your kids mind and body each day. Be a parent and use that authority for your kids betterment.

If you let TV become your babysitter you are in trouble... step up to the plate people, it's time for PARENTING! don't blame TV.

 

[dmargalotti]

If you let TV become your babysitter you are in trouble... step up to the plate people, it's time for PARENTING! don't blame TV.

It's interesting that a lot of people have responded with a similar take. However while I appreciate all the advice, I was not looking for ways to protect my children. I do parent...I know what's appropriate...and I am actively involved in my children's TV viewing choices. My question is: why can't we have adult shows today that handle major subject matter in a way that is still safe for family viewing? I watched on old Alfred Hitchcock show on Hulu last week that dealt with murder, adultery, and Capital Punishment. But they didn't need to "show" any of it. Only passing references were made so it was still compelling, adult entertainment but not something I would have needed to turn off if my children were in the room. Have we as a society become so addicted to over-the-top, graphic in nature shows that there is no audience for a quality adult drama like the ones I remember my parents watching when I was young? Shows that were based on characters and plot and story lines...that didn't need to resort to high-tech effects and graphic depictions of violence, blood, gore, etc?

 

[LKellerIII]

If you let TV become your babysitter you are in trouble... step up to the plate people, it's time for PARENTING! don't blame TV.

It's interesting that a lot of people have responded with a similar take. However while I appreciate all the advice, I was not looking for ways to protect my children. I do parent...I know what's appropriate...and I am actively involved in my children's TV viewing choices. My question is: why can't we have adult shows today that handle major subject matter in a way that is still safe for family viewing? I watched on old Alfred Hitchcock show on Hulu last week that dealt with murder, adultery, and Capital Punishment. But they didn't need to "show" any of it. Only passing references were made so it was still compelling, adult entertainment but not something I would have needed to turn off if my children were in the room. Have we as a society become so addicted to over-the-top, graphic in nature shows that there is no audience for a quality adult drama like the ones I remember my parents watching when I was young? Shows that were based on characters and plot and story lines...that didn't need to resort to high-tech effects and graphic depictions of violence, blood, gore, etc?

You've got a point. As a kid, I was a big fan of theatrical horror films in the 1960. It's notable that the most explicit theatrical horror films of that era were much less graphic than any episode of CSI: Wherever. I grew up with westerns and detective shows on TV, and there was a lot of fist-fighting and killing, though it was much less graphic. A villain would be shot by the hero on 77 Sunset Strip, and he'd grab his chest and slowly crumple to the ground, but there wasn't even a bullet hole in his shirt, or any fake blood. Ridiculous, really.

I have to wonder, though - was all that clean and sanitary killing "better" for children than seeing the modern graphic stuff? Maybe a more realistic portrayl of violence is a good thing, and makes violence seem more repugnant. Or maybe it de-sensitizes people toward violence. (?) I'm not a psychologist, and I don't play one on televsion. Maybe Dr. Phil can give us his analysis :