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While made-for-television movies were only introduced in the 1960s, theatrical films (films first released in movie theaters) have been an important and essential part of programming content since the 1950s. Most channels could not afford enough original content to fill a 24-hour schedule. Many went off the air around midnight but others filled their schedule with old motion pictures that had been sitting in studio vaults. Until television, motion picture studios had nothing to do with their films once they finished their run at the box office. Only a few films like Gone with the Wind or the Disney animation classics could be re-released every generation or so. Today, a studio can sell its films to cable, home video, airlines or television. But back in the 1950s television represented a real opportunity for studios to further distribute their products.
Theatrical films became an important part of television. They were high quality productions, the costs and risks of which had already been assumed by the studios. While a blockbuster film would be expensive to license on television, a network knew it was money well spent because the film had already proven itself with the audience. This was in direct contrast to expensive, unproven original television shows, the production costs of which were lost if they did not attract an audience. Theatrical films had already been made, represented substantially less risk and had an established reputation, making them popular with television programmers.
The situation began to change after the emergence of cable television in the 1970s. Until cable, a film would normally find its way to broadcast television about three years after it was released in theaters. The big films would go first to prime time network television, then to prime time local television and eventually late night or afternoon on the local stations.
Starting in the 1970s, cable inserted itself between the theaters and networks in the distribution process. HBO began as a pay-cable service in 1972, dedicated to running theatrical films shortly after they were seen in theaters. Rather than having to wait several years, the pay cable audience could see films only months after they opened in theaters. Furthermore, as a pay service supported in its entirety by subscribers, HBO ran its recent films uncut and uninterrupted. All the sex, violence and language of the original could be seen on the home screen, and there were no commercial breaks to distract the flow of the story.
Pay cable was moved down the distribution chain when home video became a significant force. Pay cable was forced to take theatrical films after they were available for rental or purchase, but still acquired and aired them before they appeared on broadcast television. Subsequently, pay-per- view pushed cable down another notch. Today, the broadcast networks only get a theatrical after it has been seen in the theaters and on airlines, pay-per-view, home video and pay cable. There are very few exceptions. Last May, NBC ran Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park less than two years after it was seen in theaters. NBC, by paying a substantial premium (allegedly $60 million), was able to bypass pay cable in the distribution sequence. Obviously, they cannot pay those prices for more than a handful of films.
The fact that broadcast television gets a theatrical film so late in the distribution process means that when a big film comes to television (e.g., Terminator 2, Lethal Weapon) a substantial portion of the potential audience already has seen the film one or more times in the theater, on home video or on cable. By the time George Lucas's blockbuster Star Wars was scheduled on broadcast television, it had been seen by so many people in so many different media, that its television ratings were unimpressive. This would have been unthinkable 10 years earlier.
Theatrical films represent a real challenge for the broadcast networks that run them. Almost all other programming in their entire schedule is created by them or others who must work with them and adhere to their standards. With all other programs except theatrical films, the networks decide whether they get made, who makes them, how they are made and edited and what they look like. The networks apply their own standards to language, sexual scenes and violence. Those who create programming for television know these standards which affect all their decisions.
Theatrical film is a completely different medium with vastly different standards and First Amendment freedoms. The Miracle decision of 1952 clearly established that motion pictures are a significant medium for the communication of ideas and are, therefore, protected by the First Amendment. Television, with its use of the scarce electromagnetic spectrum, is subject to governmental regulation. There is no Federal Communication Commission for the movie industry. The film rating system is completely independent of the government and is administered by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) under the direction of Jack Valenti. Film is not subject to the indecency regulations applied to broadcasting which currently are being challenged in the courts. With few exceptions, film is free to make whatever type of content it wants.
In contrast to theatrical film, broadcast television shapes its original programming to the unique world of commercial television. Theatrical films shown on television have to be retrofitted to adapt to the standards of the much stricter television world. The broadcast practices and standards of the television industry are irrelevant to the production of a motion picture. But when the motion picture is scheduled for television, those standards must be applied after the fact rather than during the production process.
Television networks buy popular films filled with sex, violence and language issues and then have to redesign them for television. As we have come to realize in our monitoring of theatrical films this season, changing them for broadcast without destroying their artistic integrity is a significant challenge.
While the earlier sections of this report have detailed the concerns raised by television series and made-for-television movies, we believe that significant improvement has occurred in these areas. Once again, this is the programming over which the networks have complete control. In response to political and public criticisms and pressures of the past few years, there have been important changes in this network-controlled programming. Whether these developments have occurred because of a change of philosophy or because of simple fear is not the concern of this report. We simply recognize that change has occurred.
A large majority of the violence on broadcast television that raises concerns can be found in theatrical films. Unlike the other areas, there has been no improvement here. Possibly owing to the large number of violent films coming out of Hollywood, television theatricals are as big a problem as they have ever been.
Over the course of the 1994-95 television season, we monitored 118 theatrical films on the broadcast networks. (We examined many more in syndication and on cable and home video, which will be compared and discussed in later sections.) Of the 118 films examined, 50 were found to raise concerns about their use of violence. Much of the violence in series and television movies was only of concern because of its time period or because it was somewhat excessive. Theatrical films on television is where the "real" violence occurs. The number of violent scenes and the highly graphic nature of the violence is unlike anything else on television. Some films, which contain several scenes of violence, can be judiciously edited to air easily on television without concern. Many films, however, have so many scenes of violence that they could not possibly be edited enough to run on broadcast television without raising concerns.
In the remainder of this section, we will examine several theatrical films aired on the broadcast networks this past season that raised considerable concerns about violence. Then we will list the rest of the theatrical films which raised concerns and, finally, we will examine issues arising from theatrical films.
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