Yep. They're ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-ack!
The self-appointed media nannies, the Parents Television Council, came out of hibernation earlier this week to do what they do best, whine and complain about how a network schedules programming. In this case, it was ABC's dopey idea of slotting It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown directly in front of their adult drama, Scandal, which, according to reports I've read, has been a target of the nannies before. President Tim Winter complained that, with the way the networks compress and/or edit closing credits these days, kids were subjected to less than a minute of a steamy scene on Scandal coming right out of the cartoon. A sensible parent would've already put the kiddo's to bed at the last commercial break. That's what my folks did when I was little. Anyway, Winter and his minions are griping just to remind us they're still around. Do us a favor, Tim. Go away, and take a box of Weasel ears with you.
And, then, there's A-Roid.
Alex Rodriguez was reinstated onto the Yankees' roster last week, after the World Series had ended. Like, do they really expect him to be ready to play next season? Give me a break. The reason A-Roid gets the Weasel ears, plus a tail and a snout, to boot, is the revelation that, yep, he did use PED's after all while playing for the Bombers, meaning he'd lied to Katie Couric and everyone else a few years ago. He also paid his equally weaselly cousin, Yuri Sucart, nearly a million dollars to keep his mouth shut. Sucart was really only looking for the money anyway, like any gold digging leech.
Let's face facts, people. Rodriguez is damaged goods, and the Steinbrenner brothers would be better served cutting bait and cutting A-Roid before next season, and see if anyone's stupid enough to take a chance on him. He's nearly 40. He's past his prime, assuming he really had one without the drugs. He has 1 ring (2009), and thinks he can help the Yankees get back in the playoffs? Nothing says pipe dream more than that, folks. Cooperstown won't be calling him anytime soon. Neither should the Bronx.
Once again I must disagree with you on this one. Winter doesn't deserve weasel ears. I think he has a valid point. Once upon a time, there was the family hour when adult and/or violent shows were bounced to a later time slot (usually 10 or 11 pm). Nowadays, there's more action (sexual and otherwise) going on at earlier hours and there are times when someone might not have enough time to divert a child's eyes from something immediately following something kid friendly. Of course it doesn't help if the kids have parents who treat the TV as a babysitter and let them watch heaven knows what! In fact, don't you find it odd that such an adult show (and steamy intro) IS airing so soon after a kid friendly one?
ReplyDeleteCable made things even more complicated when you factor in time zones. A show may air on the east coast at 10pm or later, but viewers west of the Mississippi can end up seeing them during prime time or even earlier! Even for diligent parents, it's getting harder to shield kids from things they are not ready for. At this point, it might be best for parents to just get rid of programming altogether and play the holiday specials in the DVD player or download them into a laptop.
It would be too easy to drop some Dunce Caps on the ABC programmers. Rightfully, Great Pumpkin should've aired at 8, and then you could plug in a bonus episode of, say, Modern Family, to blunt the controversy.
ReplyDeleteNo, my problem with Winter and the PTC is that all they do is complain about the way TV is programmed. Like, if they don't dig, they can fill their DVD players with classics from the time period they want to revisit---the 50's. I'm so tired of the lame sheep-bleating from the PTC, it's getting to the point where they're on the borderline of self-parody.