March 8, 1978

PTA Battles TV Trash

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"

We have come a long way towards realism since Rhett Butler wrote off Scarlet O'Hara with that retort in the movie "Gone With The Wind."

It is hard to comprehend today the furor caused by Actor Clark Gable's mild expletive.  The movie was banned in Boston, denounced by the press, and brought threats of legal action by Congress.

Yet, the moral barrier was broken, and each year the explicit language got bluer.  Today, pornographic movies and magazines have reached the level of old fashioned stag shows and French post cards.

Hand in hand has gone the sadistic violence that revels in blood, gore and torture.

We tolerated the degradation of entertainment because it was "freedom of expression".  Those of us who considered it trash could retreat to our living rooms.

But television pursued us into our homes and put sex and violence with in easy reach of our children.  Steadily, the filth and mayhem wore down our defenses.  Today sex is perverted, and violence attended with suffering.

The National PTA got fed up two years ago and launched a campaign against violence in the mass entertainment media, promising a follow up on sex when, and if, the tide is ever turned on their first objective.

After two years of intent observation by panels of PTA reviewers throughout the nation, the six-million-member organization has published its findings.  A TV Program Review Guide attempts to alert parents to the ten worst and ten best television programs.

• The ten most violent TV programs are Kojak, Charlie's Angels, Police Woman, Rockford Files, Six Million Dollar Man, Bionic Woman, Starsky and Hutch, Man from Atlantis, NBC Movies and CBS Movies.

• The ten rated poorest in overall quality are Soap, Redd Foxx Show, Maude, NBC Movies, Man from Atlantis, Kojak, Three's Company, CBS Movies, Welcome Back Kotter and Busting Loose.

• The ten best shows are Little House On The Prairie, Eight is Enough, Fitzpatricks, Rafferty, Waltons, Grizzly Adams, Donny and Marie, Mulligan's Stew, World of Disney, and 60 Minutes.

None of the networks got good marks over all for their programming.  Few shows met the PTA criteria of "positive contribution to the quality of life in America, lack of offensive content and high program quality."

On the whole I concur with the PTA picks except I would add All In the Family, and One Day At a Time in the trash category; and would put Andy Griffith and Bob Newhart on some list of good entertainment.

Does violence on television encourage aggressive behavior by children?

Parents have long felt so.  The fast buck hustlers pooh-pooh the obvious and assert their offerings merely reflect life.

The anything-goes philosophy finally is wearing thin.  The British, traditionally more reticent than Americans, long ago complained loudly about the watered-down version of violence on BBC.  Consequently the government-owned network conducts a continuing study of programming.

Dr.  William Belson, an English psychological researcher, heads a team of reviewers who have compared the behavior and TV viewing habits of 1,565 school boys, aged 13 to 16, over a 13-year period.

Their conclusion: "Those who watch violent television programs are significantly more aggressive following exposure than before."

American networks are giving the study nervous attention because it includes U.S. imports such as Starsky and Hutch, Cannon, and Rockford Files.  An 11-year-old murderer here recently claimed acquittal on the basis he was "intoxicated" by TV violence.  The jury didn't buy it - this time - but the novel defense made the country stop and think.

Canada is searching for ways to prevent American-made television programs, broadcast from border cities, from reaching their citizens.  We have reached some kind of nadir when our next door neighbor seeks to jam our broadcasts because of their degrading content.

The networks contend they only provide what the public wants.  Maybe so.  But where is it carved in granite that we have to cater to the lowest denominator of society?

Violence and sex are cop-outs for creative thought.  It takes a writer with something useful or interesting to say, and a producer with an understanding of the better side of human nature, to entertain without pandering.

My hat is off to the PTA.  It correctly expresses the revulsion of most Americans to the tasteless junk jammed into the boob tube each night.

There are only four television channels, and they are loaned to broadcasters with the express understanding they will use them for benefit of the public.  There is growing belief that the networks have not fulfilled their obligation.

We may reach the point, frankly, where we no longer give a damn about what happens to broadcasters.

Author: Lindsey Williams