Nytimes gets it’s old media panties in a bunch.
Thursday’s episodes of “30 Rock” and “The Office,” the first new installments to be broadcast since the end of the writers’ strike, each included coy references to a vulgarity: in one case it was bleeped out; in the other it was winked at in an acronym. While not unprecedented, the occurrences in the back-to-back prime-time shows were jarring. They also raise questions about the placement of “30 Rock” as an anchor of what an NBC executive, Ben Silverman, has designated the “family hour.”
Look, asshat, you’re only being offended now because the acronym MILF has been around for over a decade. Google “Lemon Party” and see what perversity Ms. Fey has foisted onto an unknowing public.
But on a bigger level, 30 Rock isn’t only competing against it’s timeslot, it’s competing with everything. The family hour is a myth from the days of 3 channels. Please let’s get with the times.
Either the show passes Standards and Practices or it doesn’t. When the show is put out there it’s representing the network as a whole. Now that show can and will be viewed at any time in any number of circumstances.
And parents that want to place their precious little snowflakes in a hermetically sealed media and internet bubble, can and do so. Referring to someone as a MILF only offends those who know what it means and choose to be scandalized.
As soon as we can stop porn surfing before 8pm, let’s talk again about family hour.
7 Comments
April 14, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I don’t know dude.
I think there should be a family hour. It doesn’t have to be on NBC it could be on PAX but I do think that if someone promises a “Family Hour” it should be a family hour.
Save MILF for SNL or anything after Family Hour.
Bottom line, if a network says they are going to deliver something they should should stick to it.
April 14, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Whoa…wait. There are certain hours of the day regulated for surfing pr0n?
April 14, 2008 at 5:53 pm
To me there were at least as many veiled references to adult content in shows like Friends and Seinfeld from the previous NBC era as there are nowadays. Going back even further, Night Court was on at 9PM and that show had TONS of sex jokes.
30 Rock may have a little more “edge” but then again, primetime has to compete with the Internet, where there is no imposed morality created from arbitrary and ill-defined standards. The WB shows from the late 90′s and early 2000′s blew the notion of family hour out of the water with all the sexy storylines of teens and young adults with Dawson’s Creek, et al. Ironically they also had Seventh Heaven, too.
I do think that families should have a place to watch shows and feel ok about what they might come across, but is family hour really 8-9PM? Seems like most really young kids should be getting tucked in by that time.
April 14, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I think Friends was one of the least responsible shows on television ever. Promiscuous behavior in every episode and never a consequence to be had.
I love 30 Rock. That bit where Liz channels Cathy this week made me spew my drink because I was laughing so hard!
Also: asshat is a funny word.
April 15, 2008 at 5:13 am
There are times that are more appropriate to air certain content. I recently had contact with Cartoon Network because Enzyte commercials were airing in the middle of a Sunday morning Billy and Mandy Marathon (fault of the cable provider it turns out). I think if you tout something as family friendly, you should make it apply so a parent doesn’t have to be asked to explain MILF to someone who shouldn’t need to know. That being said, Kent is right about time being irrelevant anymore. 2 channels here run “2 1/2 Men” reruns here in the early evening and you can’t find a better example of thin sexual innuendo anywhere.
I really just want to know when MILF Island will actually air. Probably the only reality TV I’d like to see.
April 17, 2008 at 10:03 am
If you’re letting your young kids watch 30 Rock and My Name Is Earl, you’re either a very liberal parent or a very bad one. Either way, you shouldn’t be complaining to NBC.
November 20, 2008 at 2:45 am
hehe, when the kids get laptops in school, they’ll be surfing porn in maths class.