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has NBC gone too far during family hour?

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It was almost as if the NBC comedy writers had decided to test the limits of prime time taste just as the network unveiled a family-friendly philosophy of scheduling.

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”...
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3 responses // has NBC gone too far during family hour?

  • I think it is important that parents pay attention to the rating systems and decide for themselves what their children should watch. It shouldn't be the networks job to censor what goes out into the airwaves.
    However, until this article, I've never realized that television has gone from TGIF on ABC when they used to show "Family Matters", "Full House" and "Step by Step" to what it is today.

    Whatever happened to those wholesome shows where you sat down with your parents and siblings and had a good laugh over quirky characters, not vulgarities? Ha! I'm only 20 and I sound like a old coot complaining about when times were pure and sweet. But it is interesting to see the difference between TV then and how it is now.
    MornRail
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGFTDuGuvSE&feature=rela...
    Family hour as a child was Three's Company where Jack and Larry were always trying to get laid, subverting the authoritarian Misters Roper and Furley and drinking at the local bar each night. Full of innuendo, scandal and bras and panties.

    And I turned out tv.

    Morn is right, looks like there is a conservative still left (remaining) at the Times.
    chet_arthur
  • I remember that episode of Three's Company! I used to have a fat crush on John Ritter. But I digress.

    I'm not an avid TV watcher, but I don't associate NBC prime time with "family hour" (although apparently NBC exec Ben Silverman does). ER, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, CSI... those shows don't scream family time to me. 30 Rock and the Office shouldn't be criticized for vulgarity because they weren't created to be wholesome or kid-friendly. Just like ER and Law and Order weren't.

    Ben Silverman shouldn't have labeled NBC's new prime time as "family hour" because the shows simply don't fit that category. Not a smart move, Ben. 30 Rock and the Office are on prime time because they already have such a strong following... why mislead people just to try to attract another audience? Especially an audience of families? When the shows are rated TV-14? Sounds like NBC is just trying to get more viewers.

    ALSO, Ben, what the hell about 30 Rock being family friendly because Tina Fey is "about to become a cultural icon". BEN!!!?! Come on, that's idiotic. Then he relates her upcoming famousness to Jason Lee's "wide appeal". That's like saying it's all right for kids to watch Mall Rats or Dogma because Jason Lee was in it and he won a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award. NO.
    asbomberox

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