Entertainment Programming For The American Broadcasting Company
DURING THIRTY YEARS OF TUMULtuous social and political change, I was chief censor of entertainment programming for the American Broadcasting Company. From 1960 to 1990, as one of three independent, competitive gatekeepers, my decisions shaped the texture and taste of television programs that eventually reached 90 million homes. In this retrospective of the battles, occasionally waged frame by frame, over program content, I trace the evolving, sometimes accelerating changes in our national life as reflected on the television screen.
What was once sexually daring is now prosaic, and yesterday's blood and gore is now tame, but even in today's freewheeling media environment, familiar issues, with which I once grappled, remain in play: Does violence on the screen, large or small, breed real-life violence? Should children be protected from the influence of the media? And if so, how? Which demands from special-interest groups are valid? What is the role of the censor in a free society?
The story begins in the late 1950s when scandals erupted over quiz shows and payola. When the public learned that those sweating contestants on such television game shows as Twenty-One and The $64,000 Challenge had received the answers in advance, an uproar ensued. The other deception primarily involved disc jockeys who accepted payment to play records instead of selections based on sales records or merit.
In the unhappy glare of public and government criticism, each of the networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, took direct control over entertainment programming and expanded their departments of standards and practices. From that point on, every script, every program, live, film, or tape, was to be scrutinized by an editor for taste, accuracy, violent portrayals, and sexual overtones. This far-reaching review did not apply to news, documentaries, or sports, where the traditional rules of journalism governed. Eventually, that strange mixture of fact...
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