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Local Independent Television Programming and Syndication
Broadcast network television is the major focus of this study. Every television series, made-for- television movie and theatrical film shown on broadcast television during the 1995-96 television season was monitored. There were no exceptions. Every series was examined at least four times and many were examined for the majority of the season or the entire season. Series were the only area in which we used any sampling and even here this was minimal. The number of hours examined and the minimal amount of sampling used place us in an excellent position to make a definitive analysis of the broadcast network season. None of that analysis is subject to problems of whether we sampled a typical week or an exceptional week.
From the beginning, we intended our analysis of local, syndicated and public television, as well as cable, home video and video games, to be supplemental to our broadcast network focus. Our goal was to offer a comparison to the broadcast networks to see if the content differed and, if so, in what ways. The supplemental programming was sampled in order to provide a snapshot of the content necessary for this comparison. Local stations, syndication and programming aired during the old Prime Time Access period were all examined for two randomly selected weeks. Eight cable networks and public television were also monitored for randomly selected two-week periods. The analysis of home video was based on the top ten rental titles each quarter during the past year. The top five video games of the year were also examined.
This sampling allows us to make informed and, we believe, intelligent judgments about this programming. But it does not allow us to make the definitive analysis we conducted in the broadcast network area.
It is all too common in the media world for broadcasters to claim that all the real problems in regard to sex and violence are in cable, or for cable programmers, in defense, to cite their higher level of First Amendment protection and pitch the bulk of the burden of reform back on broadcasters. Everyone easily faults the video game industry as one of the major sources of violence.
Our goal is not to place blame or responsibility for any of the media content problems on any particular medium. Each of these industries has different levels of protection and freedom. Some are easier for the government to regulate than others. Some are easier for parents to control than others. Using broadcast television as the base, we looked at other programming such as pay cable, not to judge whether that programming raises concerns for cable, but rather to see whether the violence in their programming would raise concerns if judged by the standards we applied to broadcast television. For example, we look at an HBO or Showtime program to decide whether ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC could appropriately air the same program. The violence contained in the program might be of no concern in the world of pay cable, but of great concern in the broadcast network world. We use this approach of asking whether concerns would be raised if broadcast television standards were applied for all programming, including cable, home video and video games.
Local and cable television does contain more programming raising concerns about violence than is found on the broadcast networks. This is primarily due to fact that theatrical films make up a larger portion of those channels' programming. Previous sections of this report show that this is where most of the violence is. Even when comparing the same films, they tend to be edited more thoroughly and raise fewer concerns on broadcast network television than on basic cable or local television. Of course, pay cable does not edit its films.
The status of the non-network television media can be summarized as follows:
Local television raises more concerns than broadcast network television, both in its theatrical and original programming. As mentioned above, local television runs more theatrical films than the networks and edits them somewhat less than the networks. This may be because local stations do not have the large practices and standards department found at the networks. Syndicated series also raise more concerns on a percentage basis than network series do. Syndicated series are mostly one-hour dramas, a format much more likely to contain violence than half-hour network comedies. Furthermore, these syndicated dramas also run in many different time periods throughout the country, including daytime when children may be in the audience. Even in a large city like Los Angeles with many television stations, prime time syndication is playing a smaller and smaller role each year. Of the three non-broadcast network stations in Los Angeles, two are now part-time affiliates of the emerging broadcast networks, UPN and WB. Whereas these two channels used to program all 14 nights (of our two-week sample) prime time with syndicated or local shows, now with UPN programming three nights and WB two, they program nine nights. This figure will continue to shrink. The situation is similar in New York and Chicago.
Public television is full of drama, films and documentaries, but practically no programming raises any issues of concern.
Cable television also runs more theatrical films than do the broadcast networks. Since pay cable channels do not edit their films, they contain more violence than is found on broadcast network television. Our job is not to evaluate whether running unedited scenes of violence on a pay service is a problem, but instead to compare the content of the two media. When pay cable airs original series with violence, that violence is likely to be much more graphic and raise considerably more concerns than the original programming of the networks. Also of note is the fact that pay cable runs fewer original shows than the broadcast networks do.
Basic cable also runs theatrical films raising concerns about violence. These films are less likely to be as edited as much as the same films shown on the broadcast networks. More graphic and gory scenes of action-film violence are found on basic cable. Basic cable has far fewer original series than the networks, but they are more likely to raise concerns.
Home video runs content mostly identical to that found in movie theaters. Over half of the videos examined would raise concerns if aired unedited on broadcast television. This area was also studied to provide a comparison with the content of broadcast television, not to make judgments about the environment of home video.
Video games represent a world that is different from other television programming. The games featuring deadly combat, such as Mortal Kombat III, raise considerable concerns about violence. Most games, however, display scenes of tame combat, such as characters chasing or bumping into each other.
This category includes all the programming that appears on broadcast television, except for public television, that is not controlled by the networks. Los Angeles is the second largest television market in the country after New York. No program can be successful unless it is sold in the Los Angeles market. Therefore, by monitoring local and syndicated programming in Los Angeles, it was ensured that we would examine all significant non-network programming that is produced. We examined two-week samples of prime time and Saturday morning programming of the following stations:
KTLA Channel 5. KTLA is affiliated with the WB network on Sunday and Wednesday nights. On those nights, we treated its schedule as network programming, which is discussed in the previous section.
KCAL Channel 9. This station runs news during all Monday through Friday prime time hours so its programming was examined on weekends only.
KCOP Channel 13. KCOP is affiliated with the UPN network on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. On those nights we treated its schedule as network programming, which is discussed in the previous section.
KCBS Channel 2, KNBC Channel 4, KABC Channel 7 and KTTV Channel 11. These are the network owned and operated stations. Their prime time and Saturday morning programming is the crux of broadcast network television and is examined in detail in the previous sections. Networks also program daytime, late night and sports schedules for their stations, but this programming is beyond the purview of our study. Other than when the network schedules programming, these stations act as local stations and buy their own programming in the syndication market. We looked at the syndicated programming that is scheduled before and during the former Prime Time Access period.
This sample allowed us to pick up original syndicated programs on the independent stations, such as the various versions of Star Trek, Baywatch and theatrical films. The programming on the network stations in the non-network time slots was comprised of game shows, entertainment and news magazine shows, and original syndication such as Lonesome Dove and Real Stories of the Highway Patrol. This section of the report focuses on programming that, if run on broadcast network television, would raise concerns about violence. We divided the content into original programs for syndication, theatrical motion pictures and children's television.
Fifteen years ago, syndication largely consisted of reruns of old network television series. As independent stations grew stronger in the 1980s they began forming ad hoc networks with other independent stations to produce their own original programming. The syndication market, which used to be every producer's second choice after the broadcast networks, soon developed new appeal. Game shows such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, and entertainment news and tabloid programs such as Entertainment Tonight and Hard Copy, became enormously successful in the world of syndication. Syndication now competes head-to-head with the networks in the area of original series, particularly dramas. Now the producers of a new Star Trek or Baywatch can sometimes make more money selling their program to local stations than to a network. Occasionally, syndicators even produce made-for-television movies and mini-series for independent stations.
Unlike the broadcast networks, those programming syndicated shows have no large departments of broadcast standards and practices deciding what gets made and ensuring that programs meet network standards. Every station makes decisions as to what is acceptable and whether anything should be cut, but they are forced to do this work with small staffs and even smaller budgets.
As compared to network programming, a much higher percentage of original syndicated programming raises concerns about the use of violence. Many of these syndicated shows are aired much earlier in the day than network shows, which raises the issue of a large audience of children. Although many of these shows should run an advisory, none do. The following programs would be classified as raising concerns if aired on the broadcast networks:
This is a syndicated version of the Larry McMurtry epic novel that became such a hit as a mini- series on CBS several years ago. Episodes of Lonesome Dove typically contain ten or more scenes of violence, several of which are graphic. In the Los Angeles market Lonesome Dove ran as early as 4:00 p.m. and as late as 10:00 p.m. On the four occasions the show was examined, it never used an advisory, although it was clearly in need of one.
The scenes of violence featured in the episodes we monitored included graphic shootings (showing the impact of the bullets), a man cutting open his hand, a disturbing scene of a hanging, and many other similar acts.
Hercules became a major hit in syndication this season and then spawned a spin-off described below. Last year's report identified Hercules as a series with concerns about violence and this continues to be the case. As might be expected in a series that is based on the adventures of a warrior, much of the violence is glorified. The program is about fighting and every episode features glamorized combat. Some fights are extended and gory. The violence features weapons such as fists, clubs, branding irons, swords, rocks and whips. This is a cartoon-like action/adventure show. The major reason it raises concerns is its glorified portrayal of combat.
A spin-off from the very successful Hercules, Xena occasionally appears on Hercules' show and he sometimes visits hers. In the two times Xena was monitored, it was considerably more violent than Hercules. One episode contained over 15 acts of violence. Like Hercules, Xena never shies away from a fight and combat is the central theme of the program. Xena, too, is a warrior well- trained in lethal fighting techniques. Both programs use music and some lighthearted comedy to make the action and violence seem more acceptable and less serious. Though much of the violence is not brutal or graphic, it is constant throughout the program. Each episode is full of threats, kicks, punches and martial arts fighting. In one program there is a scene in which a supernatural power comes out of a treasure box and burns a villain to a crisp. In other episodes, a man is impaled on an axe and a sword is shoved into the groin area of a man.
A science fiction, action program filled with special effects, Babylon 5 shares many common traits with the Star Trek syndicated series. Both times Babylon 5 was monitored it featured more violence than was necessary to advance the plot. While the action and violence is rarely gory, some of it features close-ups of blows to the head and other forms of combat. Some scenes are needlessly prolonged.
The Hitchhiker serves as the host for this anthology series about right and wrong and the cruel twists of fate that befall those who act immorally. In one episode of The Hitchhiker a woman seeks revenge against the plastic surgeon who makes a mistake, horribly disfiguring her face. At the end of the program she evens the score by slicing his face apart with the tool of his trade, a scalpel. The final scene was very graphic, disturbing and filled with tremendous amounts of blood. The clear message of the show is that it is all right to take the law into your own hands if your cause is just. This very brutal episode ran at 7:00 p.m. without any advisory.
Unlike the one-hour dramas just described above, Real Stories of the Highway Patrol is a 30- minute reality show. It uses re-creations to feature crimes from the case files of various state highway patrols. It is a cross between America's Most Wanted and Cops. The entire show is about criminals and the violent acts they commit.
As a show that uses re-creations, Real Stories raises the recurring issue of how graphically to illustrate the crime. Frequently the violence in the re-creation is excessive and seems more likely to sensationalize the crime than to offer any real understanding to the viewer or any assistance to law enforcement.
Several of the re-creations are horribly excessive, graphic and prolonged. One program was about a man who robbed a gas station convenience store. The attendant is shot twice at close range. The camera clearly shows the impact of the bullets into the man's chest. The scene is then repeated a second time in black and white.
It is not unusual to see eight or nine very brutal acts in this 30-minute show. Another significant issue in the program is the content of the opening credits. The credits change every few episodes and one night they showed a man in flames jumping out of a car window, an officer hitting a suspect in the face with the butt of a rifle, an officer aiming his rifle at someone, an officer tackling a suspect, a man throwing an object at a car, an officer holding a suspect at gunpoint, an officer slamming a suspect onto the hood of a patrol car, and several other violent acts. All of this takes place in the course of 18 seconds. Even nonviolent episodes open with such violent credits.
Graphic shootings and other forms of intense violence are a staple of this program that runs between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. without an advisory.
This syndicated program is an updated version of Kung Fu, which starred David Carradine. In this incarnation, Carradine works alongside his son Peter, a police detective. This new version seems to focus less on the spiritual message and more on fighting. In the show, both father and son are martial arts experts, and these talents are showcased often during each episode. Each of the shows monitored contained several scenes of violence, and many of these are prolonged fight scenes featuring karate-style punching and kicking. Unlike the previous incarnation, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues often features scenes that involve guns and other weapons. The show also continues to run opening credits which highlight a wide array of violent action: men brandishing handguns, men being kicked in the face and stomach, and even one man being kicked through a plate glass window (which is seen in slow motion).
A show about a loner who rides a motorcycle, Renegade compresses many scenes of mean- spirited violence into its one hour. Most of the time the violence is not very graphic. However, the program is about little other than violence. While most individual violent scenes are not excessive, the sheer quantity of scenes per episode is. Most of the scenes of violence feature confrontations between good and bad guys and are almost always settled with a large number of punches.
Note: Several syndicated magazine shows such as Hard Copy and American Journal did not raise any serious issues of violence. However, when they did cover a story involving violence, such as the case of a teenage boy attacking innocent citizens with a paint gun, they tended to show the not-very-intense scene more times than was necessary. And when Entertainment Tonight or Extra showed a clip from an upcoming film, it was often one of the more action- packed or violent moments. But, again, none of these clips were violent enough to raise concerns.
Made for syndication programs that raised no concerns about violence in the two-week sample were:
Of the nine theatrical films that were monitored on independent stations, six would have raised concerns if aired on the broadcast networks. This is a higher concentration of problematic films than was found on the networks. More action and high intensity films appear in syndication than on the networks. The films that did not raise concerns were Mayflower Madam, War of the Roses and Empire of the Sun--although the last could have used an advisory.
All of the films that did raise concerns were action dramas. Although many action films raised concerns when aired on the broadcast networks, these films ran with far less editing on local television. It is unclear whether this was due to the absence of a large practices and standards staff, or to the more conservative standards required to market a film nationally as opposed to selling it in local markets. Violent films running locally clearly contained more intense and graphic violence than those that raised concerns on the networks. The films that did raise serious issues were as follows:
A sequel to the first three Death Wish movies, Charles Bronson reprises his role as "good citizen" Paul Kersey, handing out his own special form of justice to those who violate society's rules. Although the violent criminals are all punished, the man who exceeds the limits of the law to punish them, played by Charles Bronson, is glorified. The violence early in the film is used to demonstrate the evil of the gang members. It is part of their character development, but, like everything else in this film, it is far too excessive and repeatedly covers the same ground. The film is little more than a barrage of violence saturating the screen. Whatever point it tries to make about the ambiguity of violence and the thin line between right and wrong is lost in a flurry of bullets and bloodshed. It is doubtful that fans of this movie are interested in the discussion about who is the true criminal. Instead, viewers' attention is completely dominated by the fighting and killing.
The local station did issue an advisory.
Tightrope is a Clint Eastwood film in which he plays a character similar to Dirty Harry investigating a killer who strangles young women. The film contains more than ten scenes of violence--one of which features a woman being strangled who fights back by stabbing her attacker with a pair of scissors--most of which are not overly graphic. What is of concern is the theme of this film which centers on horrible violence. Tightrope definitely could have used an advisory.
This film is about an adventurer, Allan Quatermain, who encounters many dangerous people and situations as he searches for his brother and a lost city of gold. This film is similar in sprit to the Indiana Jones films. Quartermain seems unable to solve any problem without resorting to violence. There are approximately 16 scenes of violence and the final scene lasts for over ten minutes. The story is filled with shootings, lion attacks, people getting hit in the face with rocks and many fist fights.
The film raises the issue of tonnage and features many different types of violence. There was no advisory.
Another of the Allan Quatermain films, this movie raises the same issues as above. This time Quatermain helps a woman search for her missing father and King Solomon's Mines. He encounters a wide variety of villains, including Nazis who are continually trying to kill him. The film contained over 30 scenes of violence, raising the serious issue of tonnage. Somewhere between 50 and 80 people are killed in the story. Not surprisingly, scenes in which Quatermain
resorts to violence are glorified and very exciting. As with the aforementioned film, all kinds of attacks and fighting are present in the story. This film also did not contain an advisory.
This movie is about the stress inherent in the life of a policeman. Michael Keaton is married, broke and caring for the three children of his partner killed in the line of duty. Out of desperation he robs a drug czar to get the money he needs to support his family. One Good Cop is a dark and ominous film. There are ten scenes of violence, including one in which a female cop kicks a drug dealer in the knee with her high heel. Many scenes involve characters with guns pointed at their heads, who are in some cases shot and killed. All of this violence, coupled with the criminal act on the part of the protagonist (a cop), raises concerns about the use of violence. These concerns were aggravated by the lack of an advisory.
Another sequel, this film stars Sylvester Stallone in his fifth outing as the famous prizefighter. This time Rocky, who faces potential brain damage if he fights again, has lost all of his money to a crooked accountant. He becomes the mentor to a young fighter named Tommy Gunn. It is expected that Rocky films will have a final fight scene and it is that scene that causes concerns in this film. The final fight scene, unlike in the earlier films, does not occur in the ring. Rocky must defend the honor of Gunn and accepts a challenge to fight in the street. The resulting scene is excessively graphic, brutal and lasts for six minutes. Everything about this street fight is glamorized and music adds to the excitement. It is a bloody, unrelenting and disturbing scene. No advisory was issued.
Facing overwhelming competition from the broadcast and cable networks for children's attention on Saturday morning, local stations in Los Angeles do little to compete. One of the stations runs infomercials on Saturday morning. Both UPN and WB run some children's programming, but UPN is the first ever to run this type of programming on a Sunday morning. The findings on WB's and UPN's children's programming can be found in the earlier section.
The only children's programming aired on a non-network channel was on KCAL, a station owned by Disney which must be sold now that Disney has acquired ABC's owned and operated stations, including KABC in Los Angeles. Two programs, Sing Me a Story and Bill Nye the Science Guy, are completely non-violent and raise no concerns. Falling into the slapstick category are Dennis the Menace (the animated version) and Gadget Boy and Heather. There are no programs in the tame combat violence area but one program, King Arthur and the Knights of Justice II, falls into the sinister combat classification. The program was driven by mean-spirited combat violence. One episode began with a two-minute fight scene. The acts of violence are glorified. One scene depicted an arrow fired into a villain's forehead.
In the 1920s, the young industry of broadcasting was regulated by the Department of Commerce and its secretary, Herbert Hoover. It was not at all clear how the new field of radio would be supported and who would pay for its programming. One option was to let the government own and control radio and underwrite the costs of programming. While this is the system used today in many countries around the world, it was unacceptable to most Americans because government control of radio would permit it to censor information it did not want citizens to hear.
A second alternative was to let those who were interested subscribe to radio programming and their fees would provide the economic foundation for radio. This funding mechanism was ultimately how pay cable became an important force in American life. A third alternative was to allow companies to buy radio time for a fee so they could sell their products. These monies would support broadcasting.
Advertising flourished and provided the economic structure for radio and then television. The goal of broadcasters was to attract the largest possible audience in order to be able to charge advertisers as much as possible for their messages. From the beginning, almost all broadcasting was designed to appeal to large audiences. Networks were created so that programming could reach the entire country. (Without a network, a signal could not reach beyond the local metropolitan area in which the station was based.)
To meet the goal of capturing large audiences, broadcasters endeavored to create programming accessible and understandable to the largest possible audience. In practical terms, this meant no Shakespeare, ballet or opera, few documentaries, and much popular entertainment. Radio and then television were enormously successful in creating programming that millions of people have wanted to hear and see.
The problem with the system was the lack of an incentive to create educational or other programming less likely to appeal to large audiences. Economics created a network need to attract huge audiences and tended to give short shrift to programs that appealed to more specialized interests. While the needs of many people were met, the needs of some were not.
Public television was created to meet some of the needs not met by commercial broadcasting. It was not dependent on advertiser support or the need for enormous audiences. Public television was free to create high-quality programming regardless of whether it garnered high ratings. It was in the area of children's television that public television had its biggest impact. Programs such as Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Sesame Street became a regular part of children's lives.
Public television was always envisioned as an alternative to commercial television. While its ratings are small compared to the commercial networks, it fills an important void. Over the past few years PBS and its supporters have feared that Congress might cut funding for public television programming because of what some critics argue is its elite, liberal bias. Forced to contemplate operating without any governmental support, PBS has increasingly turned to the use of pledge drives to gain support from its audience and enhance the role of corporate underwriting. It now appears that governmental funding for PBS is secure, at least for the moment.
We examined public television because this monitoring project looks at the entire world of television. Public television provides an interesting opportunity to examine whether the absence of advertiser pressure or demand for high ratings produces programming less dependent on violent themes.
Practically nothing monitored on public television during the two-week sample even comes close to raising concerns about violence. Some shows contain elements or scenes of violence but they are usually so minimized or contextually appropriate that they are of little concern.
Programming on public television can be divided into four areas, three in prime time and one on Saturday mornings: documentaries and news, arts and entertainment, nature and science, and children's programs. All four types of programming were remarkably free of violence.
Documentaries comprised a much larger percentage of programming on PBS this year than last. Although many documentaries deal with stories that are likely to include some violent footage such as war, there were absolutely no issues of concern in any of the news or documentary programming.
A considerable number of documentaries were broadcast during the two-week sample. These shows usually involve actual film footage, some of which may include images of violence. A one-hour program, American Cinema examined the process of making movies through the eyes of directors and writers and used clips from some of their films. Although there are scenes of violence, such as clips from Raging Bull and Casablanca, all were contextually appropriate. A two-part story on Mexican-American history, Chicano portrayed nothing more intense than a protester being dragged by police during a demonstration. A Nova episode "Abducted by UFOs" featured clips from space invader movies that did not raise concerns. Another Nova on "Warriors of the Amazon" also raised no issues. The documentary The New Explorers contained historical footage of nuclear explosions. Hollywood 90028, a story of kids on the streets of Hollywood; Great Drives, Maria Conchita Alonso's automobile trip examining the sights on the way to Key West; and Things That Aren't Here Anymore contained no scenes of violence at all.
A two-part American Masters on the life of Edward R. Murrow used historical war footage from Murrow's days in London. An episode of Frontline, "Angel on Death Row," the real story of the killer from Dead Man Walking, raised no issues even though it contained an advisory. Three other documentaries, American Experience's "Spy in the Sky," Unfolding Story and Sailing the World Alone, also were free of any violence. The only program containing scenes of violence that were created specifically for that program was Roman City, a documentary on ancient Rome. The show contained a cartoon of a battle in ancient Rome, a drawing of a gladiator hitting his opponent with a trident and a re-enactment of an unsuccessful knife attack on Julius Caesar. The violence in all three images was minimal, appropriate to the story and raised no issues of concern about violence.
This category includes original productions, concerts and performer showcases. Acts of violence are rarely featured in these productions. When violence is part of a show it is usually contextually appropriate. Restraint is evident everywhere.
Only one program in the entire two weeks of PBS raised any issues whatsoever, Mystery on 2/29/96 featuring "Promised Land Part II." Part I ran immediately before the second part. One scene in Part II is surprisingly violent, especially for PBS. A criminal who is holding a teenage girl at gunpoint shoots a police officer and then is himself shot and killed. Before the shooting, the lead character unsuccessfully negotiates for several minutes without any weapon. The actual scene of violence is fairly minimal and uses restraint, but we do see blood splash and a character reacting in horror. What partially mitigates this intense scene is the focus on the emotional pain and consequences caused by the shooting. The violence was handled appropriately but no advisory was issued. Interestingly, a later installment of Mystery on 4/11/96 contained some fairly explicit sexual images and did contain an advisory.
An interesting issue regarding promotions was evident in Part I of the Mystery series on 2/29/96. The promotion immediately preceding the program contained a gunshot, yet that gunshot never appeared in the program.
Neither an episode of Great Performances nor the episodes we monitored of the Masterpiece Theatre series entitled "Bramwell"--about a female doctor running an infirmary during the nineteenth century--raised any issues. The only theatrical to appear during the monitoring period was John Boorman's Hope and Glory, his semi-autobiographical story of a little boy coming of age during the second World War in Britain. While containing some war violence and other scenes of action involving young children, they were all contextually appropriate and raised no issues of concern.
While there were acts of violence in some of these shows, they were never a central part of the story and never raised any important issues. Nature ran three documentaries, on lions, cats and chimpanzees, that contained nothing more graphic than an image of a cat with a lizard in its mouth, a lion hunting a zebra, and chimps fighting. None of the other nature or science shows raised any concerns about violence.
Children's programming on public television includes Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Barney and Friends, Puzzle Place, Story Time and Kate and Orbie. Several scenes in Sesame Street showed characters, usually the Muppets, arguing. In one scene two Muppets argue over a toy truck and one pulls it from the other. The show makes an important point about the need for sharing. During Puzzle Place a child cries when he is left out of preparing his grandmother's recipe. Although the child is angry, the focus of the program is on his hurt feelings and how the other children should be more sensitive. There were no issues of violence in any of the programs.
Cable television began in the 1940s with a very simple purpose: to bring television signals to those who could not receive them with rooftop antennas due to mountainous terrain. As broadcast television became an important part of American culture, people living in areas blocked by mountains or other geographic barriers were denied the opportunity to watch television. Cable television, wiring the signal into homes, offered these people a chance to become television households. It is ironic that cable, the medium that would become so important in shrinking the broadcast audience, began as a medium that increased the strength and penetration of broadcast television.
Cable also offered the hope of greater channel capacity. The number of over-the-air broadcasting channels had always been limited by the scarcity of the electromagnetic spectrum. Cable did not use the electromagnetic spectrum and, therefore, imposed no inherent limit on the number of channels. As the physical cable improved and eventually became fiber optic, there were few limits to the number of potential cable channels.
Although cable possessed the promise of great channel capacity, it was a promise that was unrealized until the 1970s. This all changed with the advent of Home Box Office (HBO), which was introduced to cable systems in 1972 as a channel offering uncut, uninterrupted movies available long before they would appear on broadcast television. HBO demonstrated that there was a large potential audience for this programming. In 1975, HBO gambled on a new and revolutionary technology and put its signal on a satellite 22,300 miles above the Earth. This radically new distribution system allowed HBO to reach a national audience.
Satellite distribution was the spark that introduced a whole new host of players with original programming to cable. HBO soon faced competition in presenting recent theatrical films from another movie channel, Showtime. With so many available channels, cable networks were able to offer very specialized programming to more narrowly focused audiences. By the late 1980s, there were channels programmed exclusively for news, music, religion, shopping, governmental affairs, sports, weather and different ethnic groups.
Individual cable channels knew they could never compete head-to-head with broadcast television. Cable as a whole competes with broadcast, but even the single most successful cable channel could not gather more than a fraction of the network audience. Broadcast television was, and still is, the medium that can appeal to everyone at the same time. It is still the only delivery system that can offer the whole nation at once to advertisers. The largest cable channels are still not available in millions of homes, whereas broadcasting is available in more than 99% of American households.
Cable challenges broadcast by offering content not available over the air. The first way it does this, as discussed, is through more specialized programming. But it can also offer programming that the networks, trying to appeal to everyone, cannot offer. Many critics today are shocked at the "semi-nudity" on NYPD Blue, but cable has been offering full nudity for years. Words
routinely used in movies and stand-up comedy on cable cannot even be considered on broadcast networks. Films like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street, which have never appeared on network television, are regularly shown on cable. If cable did nothing more than replicate broadcast television, it would not exist. Cable must offer different programming and it does.
This project examined programming on eight cable networks for purposes of comparison to programming on the broadcast networks. The goal was not to determine that the programming does or does not raise concerns in its native cable environment, but whether the programming would raise concerns if it aired on broadcast television. A determination about the appropriateness of programming on cable itself would have to consider the greater freedom from regulation, the smaller audiences, the pay cable universe and other contextual factors.
There are currently over 70 cable networks. Many of them have no relevance to a study about media violence, especially channels such as C-SPAN, the Home Shopping Network, the Weather Channel and the Nashville Network. Our study concentrated on eight cable networks that most resemble broadcast networks, appeal to children or teenagers, or create significant amounts of original dramatic programming. This project examined media violence, and, therefore, issues surrounding sexuality, nudity and language did not enter into the report's conclusions. The eight cable networks examined over a two-week period are as follows:
HBO and Showtime. Like the broadcast networks, both run many theatrical films as well as original made-for-television movies and series. Both are leaders in pay cable.
The Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and MTV (Music Television). All three appeal to young audiences, especially Disney and Nickelodeon. Disney is a pay cable channel (although it is in a transition to basic cable), while the other two are advertiser supported. All run some original programming.
USA and TBS. These are the two cable channels closest in format to a broadcast network. They run a mix of theatrical films, television movies, sports and more.
TNT (Turner Network Television). TNT runs theatrical films as well as some original television movies and mini-series.
All of the monitored cable networks except TNT run children's programming on Saturday morning. TNT runs programs with an Old West theme.
Late in the summer of 1996 the Federal Trade Commission approved the merger of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System. Now, of the eight major cable stations examined in this report, three are owned by the newly enlarged Time Warner.
Anyone who looks at the majority of these channels can see that they run much more explicit programming than is seen on the networks. They have more freedom and work within a completely different business and regulatory structure. The intent of this section of the report is to examine ways in which cable and broadcast differ in content and to see whether that content would raise concerns if broadcast on the television networks. This is, we believe, the best way to compare the content of cable with that of broadcast television.
Founded as a movie channel by Time Inc. (now Time Warner) in the 1970s, HBO is the largest pay cable channel in the country. In the beginning, HBO ran almost nothing but recent theatrical films. As other pay movie channels emerged, such as Showtime, The Movie Channel and Cinemax (created by Time Inc. as a companion channel to HBO), HBO began diversifying into other types of programming. Original television series such as Dream On, Tales from the Crypt and The Larry Sanders Show became an important part of HBO programming. Sports, especially boxing, also became a regular part of the menu. HBO offered a forum to stand-up comedians in which they could showcase their talents without having to curtail their language or subject matter. However, it has been in the area of television movies where HBO has especially excelled. HBO has been able to successfully tackle serious and historical subjects in such television movies as The Tuskeegee Airmen, Rasputin, Indictment: The McMartin Trial and even the semi-serious The Late Shift.
Theatrical films are still the main staple of HBO's programming. Seventeen films were monitored in the two-week sample and, of these, 11 would raise concerns about violence if run on broadcast television. These 11 are as follows:
This was monitored on home video last season and, as a film on pay cable, is unchanged. A remake of the Sam Peckinpah classic about a husband and wife on the run from both cops and criminals, it is extremely graphic and violent. In one scene a man's hand is pierced by the long spike of a message holder, and there are numerous scenes of shotgun blasts and falls from buildings. Violence, particularly toward the end of the film, is unrelenting. The film is about nothing but violence and would not likely appear on broadcast television without significant editing.
This is a comedy-action buddy film starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. Nolte plays a renegade cop while Murphy plays the convict with whom he teams up to track down a deadly villain and a lot of money. Glorified and frequently very brutal, this film features a shootout in a motel involving prostitutes. This scene stands out as one of the more disturbing and intense gun battles on screen, largely because so many innocent people are killed. 48 Hours would need to be edited (and has been) before it appeared on the networks.
A slapstick take-off of The Silence of the Lambs and Psycho, all of the violence is hyperbolic and meant to be taken as a joke. The violence involves actions such as slamming a door on someone's hands or hitting someone with a bowling ball, all shown with comic effect and without consequences. This film could likely appear on broadcast television with minimal editing.
This movie is a live action adaptation of a popular Japanese animated film about two futuristic warriors who fight over land and a woman. The violence is extremely graphic. The story contains one bloody scene after another, including long martial arts fights, people being burned alive, exploding heads and blood-spurting bodies, in addition to the more conventional violence of shooting and stabbing. This is the archetype of the film that might be impossible to edit for network television.
This film is about a female martial arts star out to exact vengeance on the woman who killed her husband. Filled with glorified, exciting violence, the film raises serious concerns. Violence fills the story from beginning to end. Emphasis is placed on violence such as kicks to the head and bullets piercing a body. The scenes of violence are prolonged and seem never-ending. This is another film that probably would be impossible to sufficiently edit for broadcast.
A psychiatrist investigating the violent deaths of a mother and father has only their traumatized son to help provide him with clues to what happened. Flashbacks to the murders are well handled, but the final scene, where the psychiatrist is attacked repeatedly and left for dead in an icy lake, would likely be edited before appearing on network television.
This is another of the pay cable movies that appeared in last year's report on home video. Oliver Stone, the film's director, argues that the film is really a satire of the way in which the media glorify violent criminals. Whether to shock the audience and/or to make Stone's point, the film is filled with horrific, grisly violence. There are many prolonged, detailed scenes of violence featuring a wide array of weapons. In the end, the criminals go unpunished and are definitely glorified. This is a film unlikely ever to appear anywhere but on pay cable.
A bizarre animal, preserved in a jar, wreaks havoc on anyone who brings it into his or her home. Most of the film is simply eerie and much of the violence involves tame martial arts fighting. It is the final scene that raises serious concerns, however, as the body count begins to rise. Several people die of graphic gunshot wounds, and a husband, under the influence of the "jar," attempts to strangle his wife until she throws the jar in the fire.
This is a science fiction adventure about a pilot who crashes on an unknown planet and discovers a friendly alien. Some of the space battles near the end are prolonged and graphic and would likely be edited for network broadcast.
A Harvard professor looks into the case of a man who says he was wrongly accused of rape and murder. The end of the film contains a scene in which the wife and daughter of the professor have been kidnapped. A brutal fight scene ensues. Just Cause would likely receive some editing before it appeared, as it probably will, on broadcast television.
A stylized story about two vampires whose egos and personal battles clash through several centuries. The film features many gruesome close-up scenes of people being attacked and drained of their blood. There are scenes of two "good" vampires being very painfully scorched in the sun and one "bad" vampire being burned alive. The film would likely receive substantial editing before being shown on the commercial networks.
This documentary chronicles the film portrayal of homosexuals and their culture from the inception of the medium to the current time. Not surprisingly, the documentary utilizes numerous film clips, which in most cases are well handled. However, a clip from the 1980 theatrical Cruising crossed the line. The scene shows a man plunging a knife into the back of another. The victim writhes in pain as blood pours over his shoulders. While the scene illustrates the movement of homosexual characters in the early 1980s from "victims to victimizers," the scene is far too intense and graphic for broadcast standards.
With regard to violence, the following films would be able to air on broadcast television as they appeared on HBO without raising any concerns:
Only one original HBO television movie aired during the two-week sample period. Soldier Boyz, an action/adventure story about a special troop in Vietnam, featured all the violence one would expect in a war genre film. Shootings, explosions and a high body count make this a film that would require editing before airing on network television.
HBO's original series contain elements that cannot be included in the broadcast networks' programming. The Larry Sanders Show, The Dennis Miller Show and Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam all contain language that is not heard on commercial television. Dream On also contains scenes with nudity. However, none of them raise any issues of concern with regard to violence. Tracey Ullman's show, Tracey Takes On..., contains only slapstick and minor scenes of violence.
Several specials, including the comedy special Paula Poundstone Goes to Harvard, a promotional segment First Look: The Juror and an ice skating special Ice Princess, were shown during the two-week sample period. None raised any concerns in regard to violence.
Early morning programming consisted of animated fairy tales like the popular Happily Ever After and Neverending Story. The little violence these shows contain is tame and minor and raises no concerns.
Three theatrical films aired on Saturday morning during our sample period. Two of these, Soul of the Game and Major League II, presented no concerns about violence. The third, Philadelphia Experiment II, was extremely violent. A science fiction fantasy about a time machine that helps create an alternate fascist future for the United States, this is a graphically violent and gory film. This movie would not appear on a broadcast network in the evening without substantial editing and therefore seems very out of place at 10:45 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
Showtime, like HBO, runs uncut theatrical films. While Showtime does create some original programming, it contains less than HBO and relies more on films.
Showtime ran 20 theatrical films during the prime time hours of the two-week sample. Of these 20, 16 would raise concerns on broadcast television if they were not edited. These films are as follows:
A strange thriller about a man whose wife is not who he thinks she is, this is an intense, though not excessively violent film. However, several sequences, particularly a climactic strangulation scene, would probably be edited somewhat before airing on broadcast television.
This is a science fiction fantasy in the spirit of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers about octopus-like creatures who attach themselves to the backs of humans and control their actions. In the second half of the film there are seemingly endless gun battles and fist fights between human slaves and regular humans. The action and violence are nonstop. This film would probably be substantially edited before it appeared on broadcast television.
Much of the violence in this film about a love triangle and a pile of cash is surprisingly well handled, until the final shootout, where the villain is ultimately dispatched by being smashed in the head with a shovel. This intense scene would likely be edited for broadcast.
A drama about a new principal in an extremely violent inner-city high school, The Principal features a continuous stream of fights, chases and beatings from beginning to end. While no single scene is especially graphic or intense and the hero does not kill the leader of the student gang, this film would undergo significant editing before appearing on commercial television.
A thriller about a freelance spy agency, this movie contains two distinctively violent sequences. In one, a man is ambushed by two of his employees and killed. In another, these same two employees shoot each other. These two sequences are graphic and intense and would probably be edited.
This Western is about a bounty hunter who becomes the owner of a saloon where his prostitute girlfriend works. The trouble begins when a sinister killer rides into town. Typical western violence and shootings are seen throughout Hard Bounty. Rapes and strangulations of prostitutes also appear in the film. This film would probably need editing before being shown on broadcast television.
A woman whose abusive, cocaine-snorting husband commits suicide when he is passed over for promotion decides to take revenge on the man who does get the job. Most of the violence is implied until the final scene. The "scorned" widow ties the man's wife to a bed and begins to torture her with a knife. The man bursts in and although he pushes her out a window, she is not killed. Though not overly graphic, the film would probably be edited somewhat for network television.
A psychiatrist (Bruce Willis) takes over the support group of a murdered colleague in an effort to help find out who killed him. Several of the killings would require editing before this film could air on broadcast television, particularly the climax in which the murderer is shot in the head with a nail gun.
A sky diving instructor investigating the death of one of his students stumbles onto a police investigation of some hard core criminals. Typical big-budget action violence abounds, and a gruesome electrocution and impalement of one criminal occurs at the end. This film would need significant editing to air on network television.
A career hitman develops a conscience on his final job and flees with his sympathetic target. Certain scenes of violence are well handled and intimate; others, in particular the intense gun battles at the beginning and end of the film, are purely gratuitous and overly graphic. This film would be difficult to edit sufficiently for broadcast television.
A mysterious female gunslinger comes into town in the Old West, and all hell breaks loose when the town's evil sheriff sponsors a shooting contest. The movie features typical Wild West violence, highly glorified by director Sam Raimi's constant camera movements. This film would require some editing before airing on broadcast television.
This is an epic family saga of love and honor in the early part of the twentieth century. Most of the violence is contextually appropriate and central to the plot, but because of certain scenes--such as a World War I battle that proves fatal to one brother--it would probably require editing before airing on broadcast television
A graphic story of a serial killer and his unwitting travel companions in the style of Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia contains many scenes of grisly and graphic violence. This is a film that probably could not be sufficiently edited for broadcast television.
A team of highly trained Navy S.E.A.L.s attempts to rescue hostages in the Middle East. This film contains standard combat violence that is not particularly graphic. It is a prime example of highly glorified violence--since, after all, these men are doing their killing in the name of God and country. This film also has a problem with tonnage. Navy SEALs would require editing before airing on network television.
Mostly slapstick and tame, this tale about a charismatic robot and the trouble he gets into, would, because of more extensive violence in a few scenes, require only minimal editing before airing on broadcast television.
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a man whose memory has been replaced and who has to travel to Mars to regain his past. An extremely violent science fiction fantasy with Schwarzenegger's style of glorified violence, this film would require extensive editing before being aired on broadcast television.
These films could air on network television without raising any concerns about violence:
Showtime ran three made-for-television movies during the prime time hours of the two-week sample. Two of these films could not be broadcast as is without raising concerns.
A man must defend his family when a gang of murderous youths trap them in their far-off, mostly empty housing complex. This film is designed to show as much violence as possible, and it delivers from beginning to end. Every shooting and killing is extreme and unnecessarily disturbing. One scene in which a criminal is shot through the chest, splattering blood on his girlfriend's face, is especially gruesome. It would be almost impossible to edit this television movie for broadcast television.
A woman accused of murdering her husband tells the story of how their marriage crumbled. In one scene Mary McDonnell shoots her husband out of mercy as he is burning to death in the car with which he was trying to kill her. This climactic scene is very intense, though not as graphic as it could be. Still, this television movie would have to be edited before it was comparable to those shown on broadcast television.
An extremely dark comedy about an unhappy, married woman dishing back abuse to her wheelchair-bound husband, this film is intense and upsetting due to its subject matter. However, the violence is rarely gratuitous. It could probably air on broadcast television with few if any changes.
One original production was monitored. The Outer Limits, based on the old series, is an anthology of ironic and disturbing science fiction tales. It contained several violent scenes in the four episodes monitored, but they were well handled within the context of the story.
In addition, two profile pieces on stars Lawrence Fishburne and Sharon Stone, which ran as a companion to films in which these actors starred, contained minimal violence in the form of clips from their films. Comedian Brett Butler appeared in a half-hour comedy special which did not contain any violence.
Saturday morning programming consisted largely of animated shows for children, such as Richard Scarry, Owl TV and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. These were completely free of any concerns about violence.
The Disney name is famous around the world for family entertainment and The Disney Channel offers an opportunity to view this kind of programming around the clock. Programming of The Disney Channel is far more diverse than non-subscribers might realize. Ever present is Disney's animation, which comes in half-hour and one-hour episodes as well as in theatrical films both classic and new. Television movies and theatrical films appealing to an older audience are shown in the prime time hours. Concerts, such as the one by Dwight Yoakum which aired during the two-week sample period, also play an important role in attracting adults to the channel. Also broadcast later at night are information shows ranging from documentaries to science programs.
Almost all of the programming we viewed was consistent with Disney's commitment to wholesome family programming and raised no concerns. Most of the programming is free of any violent content. With only one exception in our two-week sample, the little violence that did occur in the programming is relevant to the context of the show. It rarely raises even minor concerns and only then because it is aired on The Disney Channel.
The following programs aired in prime time contained either no violence or violence that was minor and contextually appropriate: The American Legacy series, including Thomas Jefferson, The Pursuit of Liberty and George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin; Remembering Marilyn; Cary Grant: A Celebration; Jimmy Stewart; Inside Out; The American Teacher; The Best of Disney; The Best of Abbott and Costello; Tom Petty: Going Home; The Making of the Hunchback of Notre Dame; Rotten Ralph; Avonlea; Dwight Live; Rudolph and Frosty: Christmas in July; Mousterpiece Theater: Hawaiian Holiday and The Swamp Fox: Birth of the Swamp Fox.
Disney airs some made-for-cable movies, some made-for-television movies, and many theatrical films. The vast majority of these are family friendly, with at most minimal violence that is contextually appropriate. Our sample included the following such non-problematic movies: Goodbye Miss 4th of July, Golden Will: The Silken Laumann Story, The Sword in the Stone, Rescuers Down Under, A Far Off Place, Felix the Cat, Misty, King of the Wind, A Cry in the Wild, The Adventures of Huck Finn, The Diary of Anne Frank, Pillowtalk, The Muppets Take Manhattan and Angels in the Outfield.
Our sample included a number of historically based movies that had a fair amount of violence, some of which was rather intense. Davy Crockett (19 scenes of violence) and Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (16 scenes of violence) both deal with Davy and his friends' adventures on the American frontier in the early nineteenth century. One would expect a fair amount of violence in such historical adventure tales, and here such violence is shown as being part of the rough and tumble life on the frontier. In Davy Crockett conflict with Indians and Mexican soldiers is central to the tale and necessarily involves scenes of violence. The violence included here is not graphic, gratuitous or glorified. It is, however, somewhat antiseptic. In Davy Crockett the viewer does not see the blood and gore that would actually result from gunshots and tomahawk blows. Davy Crockett and the River Pirates, a more lighthearted adventure, also adds a comedic element to its violence. One could criticize Disney for erring on the side of the antiseptic as opposed to the realistically graphic and brutal, but it is probably the most appropriate route given the family audience Disney is pursuing. It is necessary to show the violence because it is very relevant to plot and character development. At the same time it is probably best not to scare the kids with too much viciousness, blood and gore.
Two other historically based movies, The Guns of Navarone and Nightjohn, contained advisories suggesting parental discretion because they might be inappropriate for children. The advisories were probably included because some of the violence in these movies is more intense and graphic than that found in the Crockett movies. But all of the violence is strongly tied to plot and character development and did not raise concerns. Nightjohn contains a particularly intense scene in which a slave's finger is chopped off with an axe. This pivotal scene, in which we do not actually see the finger being cut, provides an excellent example of how intense, contextually appropriate violence can be shown without having to resort to gore and graphicness.
One movie in the sample, D2: The Mighty Ducks, does raise some issues of concern in regard to violence. This movie contains 25 scenes of violence. Most of the violence is hockey violence, including pushing, tripping, falling, checking and running into the glass and goal posts. Some of the checking is very vigorous, and some of it is done with a sense of malevolence. The movie goes beyond showing that violence is merely part of the game. The violence is also often depicted as being "cool" and fun. The movie's finale is filled with glorified violence. Here the Ducks take on the team from Iceland which is coached by "The Dentist," so called for having removed so many of his opponents' teeth during his short and notorious NHL career. Two of the Ducks have come to be known as the "Bash Brothers," so called for obvious reasons. In the finale they put on "bad boy" headgear while yelling "party!" They smash one opponent into the glass and clothesline another to exciting background music. They bash their heads together at their success. Another Duck gets into a fight with an Icelander. The crowd applauds after he punches the opponent, and he is dubbed the third "Bash Brother" for his efforts. The Icelanders are violent, too. One who gets penalty time for hitting a Duck with his stick quips that it is "well worth it." The third "Bash Brother" repeats this line when he is thrown into the penalty box. Another Icelander maliciously downs a girl Duck. A boy Duck sticks up for her by stating that where he comes from ladies are treated with respect. To this the girl replies, "I'm no lady, I'm a Duck," and pushes the Icelander down on the ice. After all this violence the Ducks' coach gives a speech before the last period on how the Ducks are not goons or bullies and should not sink to their opponents' level. They go out and win, although not without some very rough, though no longer malevolent or glorified, play. The evil Icelander coach is discredited by his own players, and then even he, "The Dentist," shakes the hand of the Ducks' coach and congratulates him at the end. Both coaches' late recognition of sportsmanship does not compensate for the amount and tone of the violence. This film appeals to children and was not preceded by an advisory.
The Saturday morning programming consisted of the following series: Pooh Corner, Mother Goose Stories, The Little Mermaid, Duck Tales, Chip ?n Dale Rescue Rangers, and The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. None of these shows had violence that raised concern. Pooh Corner, Mother Goose Stories and The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show contained no violence. The other shows contained only minor tame combat violence and lighthearted slapstick.
Unlike almost any other source of programming examined for this report, The Disney Channel is, for the most part, remarkably free of violence. Because little programming even contains violence, it is unnecessary in most instances to examine if the violence raises concerns within its context.
Nickelodeon also makes a promise that its channel is violence-free and suitable for the entire family. It too generally delivers on that promise. Some of Nickelodeon's animation and children's programming have a slightly harder edge than Disney's. This is probably due to its efforts to appeal to somewhat older audiences and to an attempt to be more cutting-edge. Nickelodeon rarely raised any concerns about violence.
Weekday prime time is filled with old network situation comedies. Most of these shows featured in Nick at Nite are from the 1960s and 1970s and never raise any violence issues. Shows such as I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda and Taxi rarely feature any violent scenes. Although there is occasionally a scene of physical comedy or slapstick (particularly on Lucy), it is always appropriate within the context of the show and of no concern. Recently Nickelodeon has spun off the Nick at Nite concept of classic television programs into an entire cable channel, TV Land.
The prime time Nickelodeon show that does occasionally raise concerns is Ren and Stimpy. Containing some of the irreverent spirit of The Simpsons (it has even been featured on The Simpsons), Ren and Stimpy is full of crude and sometimes graphically violent scenes. The issue here, as with The Disney Channel, is the context of the channel as a whole, which promises a consistent level of family entertainment.
Irreverent in spirit and undeniably weird, Ren and Stimpy features a dog and cat who live together. They live normal lives, but do disgusting things and have disgusting mishaps. Like in most cartoons, no permanent harm or damage ever really occurs. One episode of Ren and Stimpy contained punches, hands being bitten and smashed, and someone getting hit in the head with a dart. Clearly this is slapstick and unrealistic violence but it is also highly graphic and unpleasant.
Nickelodeon's Saturday morning programming also is largely free of violence. The violence in those shows that do have some violent scenes is all minor and completely acceptable within the context of the show and time period. While some animated shows like Tiny Toon Adventures, Rugrats and Doug sometimes contained slapstick violence and the occasional skirmish and fighting, on the whole there was little in these shows to raise concerns.
MTV is one of the most controversial channels on television. Decried by critics, adored by fans, MTV almost single-handedly created the demand for music videos. Music was the mainstay of MTV for most of the 1980s. The channel also was a pioneer in the use of computer graphics, which are featured in its on-air logos and promotions. In the 1990s MTV has moved away from just featuring music and has created original real-life dramas, animation, news, documentaries and even sports programming.
Although MTV appeals to youth, its intended audience is much older than that of Nickelodeon or Disney. MTV was created to be controversial and, not surprisingly, it is. The issues in videos that earned the wrath of early critics, such as sexual themes and images of women as objects, are less in evidence in the 1990s. An analysis of MTV's programming must take into account the context of the entire channel and what MTV's brand name (like Disney's) means to the viewers. Perhaps responding to criticism that MTV has drifted away from its original intent to show music, MTV recently announced plans to create a spin-off station (to be known as M2). Over the years, MTV has consistently served as a whipping boy for people wishing to attack moral depravity in popular culture. But actually MTV demonstrates some civic responsibility by airing some public affairs and news programs.
During this past season, MTV aired two different game shows: Singled Out and Sandblast. In Sandblast people have to compete in two-person teams on a beach and perform interesting physical challenges in order to win. While there is plenty of action, there is no real violence. Singled Out, a 90's version of The Dating Game in which young men and women are paired up through a process of elimination, is completely violence-free.
MTV Sports, while concentrating on "extreme" sports (non-conventional, high-danger sports), is not violent. It does, however, occasionally depict people performing extremely dangerous acts. Interestingly, when the subject was in-line (Rollerblade) skating, a good chunk of time at the end of the program was devoted to showing a surgical operation on a particularly unpleasant injury resulting from an accident.
Four years ago, MTV put an updated spin on the old An American Family concept with their Generation X-aimed show The Real World. Completely non-fictional, this documentary show depicts the life of a small, extremely varied group of 18- to 24-year-olds living together. The show began in New York, then moved to Los Angeles, followed by San Francisco and, this past year, London. In addition to these four separate series (known as The Real World I, II, III, IV), a spin- off series about a group of young people traveling across the U.S. called Road Rules aired last year as well. Visually similar to another non-narrated reality program, Cops, these two shows did not raise any concerns about violence.
MTV also has its own sketch comedy show, The State, and its own candid camera prank show, Buzzkill. The episodes we monitored did contain marginal amounts of violence. But the violence was clearly used for satirical effect.
Primetime airs on MTV every weekday evening beginning at either 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. This show presented a wide and varied array of new videos, several of which did present some issues. "Peaches" is a song by Presidents of the United States of America, a slyly satirical band with a penchant for humorous lyrics. Their video, directed by Francis Ford Coppola's son, concludes with a parody of Kung-Fu movies as people dressed in ninja outfits attack the band members. The action is outrageous--for example, the lead singer does a backflip 20 feet into the air to land on a tree branch--and quite funny. "California Love" by 2Pac--the highly successful rap artist who is as well-known for his brushes with the law as for the large number of records he sells--is a simple song about partying in California. The video, however, is an extended dream sequence directly mimicking the Mel Gibson Road Warrior films. There are racing vehicles, explosions and fist fights. Never too intense, the violent images are difficult to connect with the song. In another video, "Steve Polychronopolous" by comedian Adam Sandler, the lead character from the song--a real jerk of a guy--goes around causing people trouble, thereby leading to physical confrontations. It is well handled, not glorified and fits into the context of the song.
Animation on MTV is a decidedly adult affair. In addition to the old staple, Beavis and Butt- Head, MTV expanded their repertoire this season to include two shows with very mature themes: Oddities and Aeon Flux. These new shows raised concerns about violence.
Beavis and Butt-Head continue their satirical ways. A mockery of a type of MTV viewer so subtle that most of them think it is funny, Beavis and Butt-Head are a pair of social-misfit, idiotic friends who watch videos and get into trouble. Most of the violence we monitored consisted of Beavis and Butt-Head doing what they do best--beating each other up. On one occasion, a special episode airing at 7:00 p.m. on a Sunday contained some violence that raised concerns, albeit minimal ones. Other than that one time, Beavis and Butt-Head aired no earlier than 9:30 p.m. If it had aired earlier or in the morning, it would have raised more concerns. As targeted toward adults, however, Beavis and Butt-Head did not raise concerns.
Aeon Flux and Oddities are more difficult to classify. Both grew out of an earlier MTV animation anthology, Liquid TV.
Aeon Flux is a futuristic, abstruse show about a very tall, physically adept female spy operating in foreign lands and planets. It is never completely clear where or when any of the action is taking place, and many characters have a definite alien appearance. Drawn in a visually distinctive "Japanimation" style, Aeon Flux is clearly adult programming. Aeon, the lead character, dresses like she just stepped out of an S&M parlor, and sexual innuendo runs rampant. The show revolves around adventure and action; Aeon is constantly barely escaping death.
Furthermore, it is not uncommon for people on Aeon Flux, both good and evil, to be killed or maimed on screen. Near the end of one episode, an acquaintance of Aeon attempts to escape her violent country. She is captured by machines, however, and her legs are amputated.
Oddities is a showcase for one of several different animated series about freakish people or aliens in freakish circumstances. Most of the episodes monitored were from "The Head," about a young man who has a friendly and resourceful (though sinister-looking) alien residing in his severely overgrown head. The show has a dry, ironic sense of humor.
The show can be quite violent. One episode, in which the alien's brother comes to visit and brings trouble into their lives, not only features several scenes of fighting with kicks, punches and strangleholds but also another alien's arm being melted off by a laser gun. Furthermore, two different creatures are executed by being jettisoned into space.
Oddities is a problem mostly due to its early running times. Several episodes--including the one described above--appeared prior to 8:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings.
TBS was the first of the Turner cable channels. Now there are five others and more on the way. TBS is very different from other cable channels in a significant way: it is licensed as a local UHF station, WTBS, in Atlanta. This means that it is regulated like a broadcast station rather than a cable channel and must serve the public interest, convenience and necessity. In the 1970s, Turner transformed both broadcasting and cable by taking his over-the-air Atlanta station and beaming it up to a satellite to create a "Superstation." He took WTBS, with its weak signal, and transformed it into a national television station.
Turner was able to broadcast the games of Atlanta's baseball and basketball teams on TBS because he owned the teams. Over the years, TBS has developed like a network, with a mix of different programming types. It runs far fewer original programs than a network and more theatrical films. In 1985 Turner purchased from MGM one of the biggest and best movie libraries in the world, and that library has become a source of much programming on all of the Turner cable channels. Turner runs more television and theatrical films than any other source on television. The Turner networks air over 700 films a month and, now that the company has merged with Time Warner, that figure is sure to rise even further. TBS also runs more documentaries than the broadcast networks. Ted Turner's interest in both scientific exploration and the environment is well represented by the National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau documentaries.
TBS is also different from other cable channels because it does not have separate East and West Coast feeds. Almost all cable networks use two separate transponders on the satellite so their programming can appear "at the same time" on both coasts. While the East Coast feed is used to send a program out to the East at 8:00 p.m., the other feed sends out the same program three hours later to the West. The result is a schedule that resembles that of a broadcast network. TBS, since it also exists as an over-the-air station, must send all its programs out at the same time. Therefore, the definition of prime time differs with TBS. A program that begins at 6:00 p.m. in Los Angeles is simultaneously playing at 9:00 p.m. in the East. Some programs may raise concerns because they appear too early in one time zone, while simultaneously raising fewer concerns at the later hour in another time zone.
During the two-week period TBS was monitored, it ran 12 theatrical films. Of these, seven would raise concerns about violence if shown on a broadcast network. Most of the films contain a great deal of action. The eight that would raise concerns on a broadcast network are the following:
Delta Force and Delta Force II
These two separate films, airing consecutively on the same night, are both about a highly trained anti-terrorist squadron which performs heroic deeds--in one, rescuing a plane full of hostages, and in the other, re-capturing a druglord. Both films are similar in tone and in the concerns they raise. The violence is extremely and needlessly graphic, glorified and excessive in quantity. The violent scenes are so prolonged that violence itself becomes the context of the film. In the sequel, one scene lasted for 20 minutes.
A new teacher at a tough high school is determined to nail the leader of a gang of drug-dealing troublemakers. This movie, starring Perry King, contains violence that is excessive, graphic and glorified. More troublesome is the tone and type of violence--King's character kills three students, and clearly the message is fight violence with violence.
Two young teenage boys discover that they are the heirs to a throne of a far-off land, but first they must join their uncle to conquer its despotic leader. Less graphic than the films described above, Surf Ninjas raises concerns because it is targeted at young boys. Airing without an advisory at an early hour (7:00 p.m.), it contains a large quantity of glorified violence that clearly sends a disturbing message. It would probably be edited to a degree before appearing on broadcast television.
Two New York cops, one Asian-born, the other local, go to Hong Kong to break up a heroin ring and rescue a kidnap victim. The major concern here is the amount of violence in the film. Though somewhat absurd and exaggerated, most scenes are not overly graphic, but the constant stream of shooting, kicking and killing is excessive.
Based on the novel The Terrible Game, this low-budget action film stars champion gymnast Kurt Thomas as a man who combines gymnastic techniques and martial arts to fight his way through a deadly hunt in which he is the prey. Containing 30 scenes of violence, many of which are fist fights, the film contained two advisories and aired at 9:00 p.m. Although the fight scenes are choreographed to the point of being unintentionally comedic, they are very long and glorified and would require considerable editing before being suitable for network broadcast.
A science fiction film set in a post-apocalyptic world and aired at 9:00 p.m., Metalstorm centers around the pursuit of a maniacal villain bent on ruling the world by a fearless hero named Dogen. As Dogen endeavors on his quest, he encounters multiple obstacles in the form of monsters and evil henchmen. Although much of the violence is very overblown and hokey, it is nonetheless long and occasionally excessive. In one scene approximately one hour and 15 minutes into the film, an evil henchman throws a spiked ball into the forehead of Dogen sidekick. Dogen responds by blasting them in the guts with a laser pistol and tearing the mechanical arm off of one of them. It is more graphic than would appear on network television and would require some editing.
Theatricals that could be aired on network without any changes are:
Well made, socially significant documentary programs like National Geographic Explorer, Jacques Cousteau and Network Earth air frequently. In addition, the classic series Perry Mason included some minimal violence, but it was well handled and restrained. Also, two episodes of Little House on the Prairie aired. There was no violence in either episode.
Stephen King's Graveyard Shift would raise concerns at any time it was aired. With a large number of prolonged scenes, this horror story about a monster lurking in an eerie old textile mill is very intense. Graphic and gory images are frequent and the body count is high, characteristic of Stephen King films. This program was especially problematic given that it aired at 9:05 a.m. in Los Angeles.
The USA Network is the closest thing on cable to a broadcast television network. Its mix of programs, theatrical and television movies, and original series very nearly parallels that of the networks. USA is among the most successful of the cable networks. It reaches more than 60 million homes. Much of the programming on USA, both the films and the series, contains more intense action than is found overall on the broadcast networks.
Four theatrical films were monitored during the two-week sample period. Of these four, two would raise issues of concern if shown on broadcast television. The two films presenting problems this year were both about cops pairing up with dogs. Turner and Hooch was a breezy comedy that contained a surprising amount of violence. Plus, the violence itself was surprisingly brutal. K-9, starring Jim Belushi, raised more serious concerns. Also a light comedy, this film began an hour earlier and still contained no advisory. Violence is consistent throughout the film, ending in a surprisingly graphic climax. The other two theatrical films shown during this period, An Officer and a Gentleman and American Gigolo, contained some well handled violence, the consequences of which were shown. The adult subject matter in both films presented no problems.
USA ran two made-for-television films during the sample period, and one of them raised concerns. Evil Has a Face told the story of a sketch artist who helps put together a composite drawing of a serial child molester--who, it turns out, is the stepfather who molested her years before. The climax can only be described as very brutal, as the sketch artist (adult victim) stabs her stepfather repeatedly in the chest. We hear the noise as the knife enters flesh, and the camera cuts to a closeup. Finally, the stepfather lies bloodied and dying on the floor, the knife protruding from his chest.
USA aired seven different series during the period we sampled. Of these, four raised no issues with regard to violence. Weird Science is a slapstick, teen-oriented, half-hour comedy based on the 1985 film. Campus Cops is a slapstick, teen-oriented, half-hour comedy. Duckman is a satirical animated program about a caustic talking duck (Seinfeld's Jason Alexander). Aimed at adults and filled with sophisticated humor, and airing no earlier than 10:00 p.m., it occasionally contains scenes which could present a problem, for example, a duck being burnt at the stake. But Duckman is a slapstick cartoon targeted to an audience that understands the satire. Pacific Blue, which aired only once during the sample period, is an action-cop show. While filled with action, the show did not raise any issues.
Three other shows did raise some concerns. Silk Stalkings is a cop-thriller show which pairs a man and a woman who solve crimes. Of the three times it was monitored, it raised concerns twice. Violent images, often seen just before a commercial, were almost always used as a hook. Additionally, the climax is always violent--frequently ending with the death of the villain.
Another series, Highlander: The Series, has one of the most brutal premises of any show. This series is based on the Sean Connery film of the same name about a secret race of immortal swordsmen who can only be killed by being beheaded with a sword. In one episode three people are killed in 20 seconds at the beginning of the show; two are shot by the villain, and one is stabbed in the heart.
Renegade (also described in the syndication section) was monitored twice and raised concerns both times. Lorenzo Lamas stars as a renegade-type ex-cop on the run who consistently gets a chance to perform good deeds and save people. With glorified violence without consequences, this series raises frequent concerns.
Saturday morning consisted largely of cartoons airing after 11:00 a.m. Street Fighter, WildC.A.T.S., The Savage Dragon and The Exo Squad are all action/adventure cartoons. They fall into the sinister combat violence category. There is frequent, typically unrealistic fighting in all of the series. C/Net Central, a news program about the computer industry, was also monitored once and found to be non-violent.
Turner Broadcasting introduced TNT after it achieved success with TBS and CNN. Created as a venue for Turner's vast library of films, TNT consists almost exclusively of theatrical and television movies. Since its beginning, TNT has financed or produced many large scale original productions. Some examples are discussed below. Since the creation of TNT, Turner has also developed two additional networks--one for its film library, Turner Classic Movies, and the other for all of the Hanna-Barbera product it owns, The Cartoon Network. Each channel has its own programming specialization. The specialization of TNT is action movies. Like TBS, TNT does not have a separate East and West Coast feed and therefore runs its programming at one time for the entire country.
Of the 14 films monitored on TNT in the two-week sample period, six would raise concerns if shown on the broadcast networks. Several of the other eight films come close to raising concerns. All of the films contain scenes of violence, but treat them in a variety of different ways. The films that would raise concerns on the broadcast networks are as follows:
This 1993 crime drama tells the story of a Los Angeles community which, with the help of a former police officer, battles a group of street thugs who are attempting to scare residents out of their homes. The film is filled with violence from start to finish. Of the 19 scenes of violence, many are prolonged and excessive. In a scene that occurs 20 minutes into the film, a local shop owner is burned alive after thugs fire a grenade into his store. The final scene contains more than five minutes of nonstop violence, including heavy gunfire and martial arts fighting (punching and roundhouse kicks to the head). Because violence plays such a large role in the story, this film would be difficult to edit without leaving significant holes in the plot. TNT did run three advisories with the film.
Broadcast immediately after Private Wars, this futuristic action/adventure film contained more than 20 scenes of violence. The film contained elements similar to those of the previously mentioned film, such as numerous scenes of hand-to-hand combat, featuring karate style punching and kicking, and heavy gunfire. In a scene approximately 20 minutes into the film, a henchman wrenches the neck of a teenage girl, breaking it and killing her. The climax of the film features more than five minutes of intense fighting, with slow motion used to highlight several brutal punches and kicks to the face. Even though the show began at 10:00 p.m. West Coast time, a fairly late time slot, TNT elected to run three advisories with the film. However, the violent nature of the film would make it difficult to edit sufficiently for broadcast television.
This 1986 theatrical starring Farrah Fawcett is the story of a woman who is attacked in her home by a rapist, but manages to escape and turn the tables on him. Given the subject matter of the film, one would expect violence to play a role in the plot. It is not the presence of serious violence that raises issues, but the length and intensity of the scenes that would become a problem if aired on broadcast television. The entire second half hour of the film depicts the psychological and physical torture that the rapist inflicts on the woman: grabbing her by the hair, slapping her in the face, even placing a belt around her neck and dragging her around the house. When the woman finally breaks free from the man, she throws boiling water on him and hits him in the face with a frying pan. Ultimately, Fawcett's character exacts a confession out of the rapist by putting him through the same torture that he put her through. These scenes are very realistically portrayed and are not glorified or gratuitous. Moreover, the film does show the severe psychological consequences of sexual assault. However, some of the scenes depicted would be hard for adults to watch, let alone younger viewers. It aired with three advisories.
A 1974 theatrical starring Warren Beatty, this political thriller investigates the assassination of a state senator. The film deals with a murder and three minutes into the film the senator is shot in the back twice, causing blood to splatter on a nearby window. This scene is integral to understanding the story and must be seen by the audience, but is probably too graphic to be aired on network television without some editing.
A winner of five Oscars, this 1978 theatrical takes a hard look at three men's lives before, during and after war duty in Vietnam. While the movie only contained 14 scenes of violence during the four hours that it ran, several scenes are lengthy and very intense. In the most gripping scene, occurring one hour and 45 minutes into the film, the lead characters are forced to play Russian Roulette by their Vietnamese captors. After several pulls of the trigger, one hostage turns the gun on the Vietnamese, shooting one in the head and, in the resulting pandemonium, shooting the remainder of the guards. In a second scene much later in the film (3 hours and 44 minutes), one of the characters does shoot himself in the head playing the "game," creating a gutwrenching end to the film.
As mentioned before, several of the scenes are lengthy and fairly graphic, but they are integral to the plot and must be seen in order to understand the film. Moreover, all of the scenes are realistically portrayed and do not attempt to glorify any of the violence. The film clearly deals with the psychological effects of the torture on the three men. TNT also ran six advisories with the film, which would prepare any viewer for the violent content, but this film would still need some editing to air on the broadcast networks.
This 1985 theatrical tells the story of Conan Doyle's fictional investigator in his early life. It covers his introduction to Watson and his first case. The film contained a surprising amount of violence, with more than 20 scenes in two hours. Most of the portrayals of violence are well handled and integral to the plot. However, the film's climactic scene is more than five minutes long and somewhat out of character with the rest of the film. The scene features hand-to-hand combat, a woman being immolated, some gunfire and a lengthy sword fight between Holmes and the film's villain. While there is no single act that is particularly graphic or excessive, the scene as a whole is lengthy enough to warrant concern. With minor editing and the addition of an advisory, this film would raise few concerns on broadcast television.
The films monitored on TNT this season that raised little or no concern with regard to violence are as follows:
Two television movies ran during the sample period. One of them, Crash Course, raised no issues of concern about violence. The other, Strays, about a family that moves into a country home only to discover that it is infested with ferocious stray cats, did raise concerns. One scene is particularly excessive, featuring a large cat attacking the father of the family. The battle concludes with the man electrocuting the feline. The film has a very dark and eerie tone and, to appear on broadcast television, would need minor editing.
During the sample period, TNT aired one special in prime time, Inside the Academy Awards, and a profile of the legendary actor Clark Gable, Clark Gable: Tall, Dark, and Handsome. In both cases, the shows used film clips which contained minor acts of violence that raised no issues.
As mentioned in last year's report, TNT runs a Saturday morning lineup that is not geared toward children. The schedule features the Western action/adventure shows How the West Was Won, The Wild, Wild West, Brisco County, Jr. and Lazarus Man. Typical of the genre, these shows all have some degree of violent content, usually fist fights and the occasional shootout. With few exceptions, the scenes are integral to the plot and are not excessive or graphic. However, one episode of Brisco County, Jr. (5/18/96) did raise some concerns.
Home video, an industry that barely existed 15 years ago, now generates revenues exceeding box office ticket sales. Home video is heavily dependent on the publicity and promotion attendant to a motion picture's release in theaters. While there has also been very successful non-theatrical home video content, such as exercise tapes and old television shows, most of the home video rental business comes from theatrical films.
Home video is divided into the purchase and rental markets. More and more people are purchasing home videos rather than renting them. Prices for purchasing videos tend to be either in the $13-$20 range or over $80. Increasingly, large motion pictures such as Jurassic Park or The Lion King are offered for sale at $15. Coupons for special promotions lower the price even more. Nevertheless, there seem to be a limited number of films that people want to own. The Disney animation classics and very popular films do well in the purchase market. Most viewers rent their home videos at their local video store.
In the areas of sex, language and violence, home video offers at least one level of protection for children not available in the other television distribution systems. Home videos are not available by merely clicking on channels on the television set. The viewer has to make an active decision to go to a video store, select a film and rent it. The situation varies from store to store, but young children often cannot easily rent films because a cash deposit or, more frequently, a credit card is needed. Ideally, the video is watched in whatever room and at whatever time the parent decides. Films with sex or graphic violence can be viewed when the children are asleep. The video is small enough to be hidden or locked away from children who should not watch it. These controls have significantly contributed to the growth of pornography in the home video market and the spread of that material into CD-ROM.
With few exceptions, the content of theatrical films on home video exactly duplicates what is seen in the theater. When this is true, the MPAA rating is still applicable and can guide viewers as to the content of the video. Occasionally, the home video differs from what is seen in the theater. Sometimes additional footage is added to the film. Motion picture studios belonging to the MPAA require directors and producers to deliver to them films that will be rated no stronger than "R." In some cases, scenes have to be edited or completely eliminated to receive the "R" rating. Home video provides an opportunity to restore these scenes. But in most cases, home video replicates theater content.
Although home video is a system directly linked to the film business, the videos are shown on a home monitor and become part of the television system. Therefore, home video becomes a part of this monitoring project. We examined the top ten home video rental titles each quarter as determined by Billboard. The monitoring began with an early August, 1995 list and continued every three months in November, February and May. While we arbitrarily chose the initial week in which to begin, we were bound by the lists that followed at three-month intervals.
Once again, the goal of monitoring video rentals is not to determine whether these films raise concerns about their use of violence in their native environment of home video, but rather if they would raise concerns if shown in this form on the broadcast television networks. Film is a medium that appeals to an adolescent and young adult audience which is more tolerant of graphic or intense violence. As a result, one would expect many of the most popular video rentals to be action films that use violence as part of the story. It is not surprising that of the 40 home video rental titles examined over the past year, 24 would raise concerns if shown on broadcast television. Last year 22 out of 40 videos raised concerns about violence. More than a few of the home video rentals have titles which promise action or intense themes. Of the 24 films that would raise concerns on the networks, six, or 25%, have action or violent titles. The six that do are Kiss of Death, Murder in the First, The Quick and the Dead, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Assassins and Mortal Kombat. Of the 16 that would not raise violence concerns, only one, To Die For, had a somewhat violent title.
Some of the films could probably be easily modified or edited to eliminate concerns on broadcast television. These films do not use violence throughout but do contain scenes of violence. The length or intensity of these scenes could be changed for broadcast without affecting the integrity of the story. The Shawshank Redemption, the story of a man wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of his wife and the friendship he develops with a fellow prisoner in the midst of barbaric conditions, would require only minor editing before it could be shown on broadcast television. The film contains two graphic scenes of violence that could be edited without interfering with the integrity of the film.
Though it is extremely unlikely that Showgirls will appear on broadcast television for reasons of sexuality, its raises relatively minor concerns about violence and the offending scenes could easily be modified for network television. Congo, an action thriller about gorillas in Africa, contains battle scenes toward the end that are slightly graphic, but which could also be easily modified.
Several of the films fall into the action category described in the broadcast television section on theatrical film. These films contain 20-40 scenes of violence that combine to form a context primarily composed of violent action. It is impossible to edit out the problematic violence without removing huge portions of the film or destroying its ability to tell the story. These films raised more concerns about violence than any that appeared on broadcast television. The home video titles that fall into this category feature the same stars and themes. It is questionable if they could ever be shown on the broadcast networks without raising concerns about violence. Die Hard with a Vengeance is the third installment in the Die Hard series, starring Bruce Willis as a New York cop who always finds himself matched against ingenious criminals and terrorists. Like the first two films, it is full of action and violence. Little of it is very graphic, but there is always lots of fighting and shooting. Die Hard 3 contains well over 20 scenes of violence and, like many action films, it would be difficult to edit without losing important parts of the story. Assassins, starring Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas, is, as its title promises, filled with a great deal of violence. Containing over 20 scenes of violence, the film graphically depicts shootings in slow motion as well as many other intense scenes of violence. This is central to its appeal and it would be fruitless to try to remove all the violent scenes.
Judge Dredd, with close to 40 scenes of violence, is another action film starring Sylvester Stallone that raises issues of tonnage. The story surrounds the efforts of Judge Dredd to clear his name by proving that he is not guilty of the crime with which he is charged. Stallone plays Dredd, a futuristic law enforcer who serves as cop, judge and executioner, all in one. As might be expected in a story that comes from a comic book, few of the scenes are very intense or graphic, but the sheer quantity of the violence would make it very difficult for the film to be shown on broadcast television.
Five of the films that could not appear on broadcast television without raising concerns about violence bring forth some interesting issues about different types and styles of violence. These films warrant more detailed discussions. They are:
This extremely controversial film starred John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson as a pair of hit men. Directed by Quentin Tarentino and occurring in a non-linear time frame, the film is about glamorized and highly stylized violence. Brutal acts of violence, even though they demonstrate consequences, are often played for laughs. When a man in the back seat of a car is accidentally shot in the head and blood and brain explode all over the rear window, the reaction from the viewer is supposed to be laughter. There are many intense and extremely graphic scenes of violence. It would be nearly impossible to edit this film for broadcast television and to do so would strip the story of its art and the director's vision.
This is one of the few films that is unlikely to ever appear on broadcast network television. There are simply too many scenes of terrible violence and the story as a whole is about horrendously violent people. It would be impossible to take the violence out of the film without destroying the entire story. It would be equally difficult to edit the scenes. The director makes his point through the use of extraordinary violence, and toning those acts down would change the meaning of the story. The director made this film for theatrical release and eventually home video. It is not a film for broadcast television.
Seven features two cops, played by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, who track down a sadistic serial killer, played by Kevin Spacey, who commits grisly murders against people guilty of the seven deadly sins. The scenes of the killings are extremely bloody and graphic. Although the scenes of violence are few in number, their sheer gruesomeness as well as the horrific nature and details of the crimes make this film unlikely to ever be seen on broadcast television. The film sets a tone that creates uneasiness in the viewer. The most disturbing scene of all, at the conclusion of the film, does not rely on anything more than suggestion to make its point.
Braveheart won the Academy Award for best picture and earned its director-star, Mel Gibson, the best directing Oscar as well. The story of Scottish rebel William Wallace, the film is filled with many gruesome scenes of battle that show knives entering bodies and throats being slashed. Though the final scene depicts a disembowelment, it is well handled and essential to the integrity of the story. Braveheart's problem with regard to broadcast television is that it contains so many intense and graphic scenes of battle and that it would be difficult to edit them out of the story. In all likelihood Braveheart will appear on network television, requiring detailed attention from a practices and standards department.
This film is about man who recovers after "being dead" and finds himself mentally linked to a crazy killer who is after his daughter. Based on the book by Dean Koontz, the film stars Jeff Goldblum and is filled with extraordinarily graphic and violent scenes. This is one of the most intense films witnessed during the entire monitoring season. It raised very serious concerns about violence. In one scene, after murdering his mother and sister, a man impales himself on a knife. As he kills himself with a knife, the weapon is shown as it graphically enters his chest and blood flows out of his body. In later scenes throats are graphically slashed and a woman is stabbed in the eye. There are over 20 scenes of horrible, prolonged and disturbing violence. Hideaway is a film that is unlikely ever to be edited for broadcast television.
Another graphic story of a serial killer, Copycat, like Seven, is extremely graphic and intense. The film stars Sigourney Weaver, and six minutes into the story her character is attacked by a man in a public restroom, slipping a noose around her neck and hanging her. When a police officer happens upon the attack in progress, the killer puts a gun to his head and a knife to his throat. For a moment he considers how to kill the policeman and ultimately chooses to both shoot him and slit his throat. It is an extremely graphic and violent scene.
The killer slashes another police officer's throat on screen later in the film. He also brutally beats a man to death. In the film's finale the killer is very graphically shot through the head. This is a story about horrendous violence. Consequently it contains so many scenes of brutality that it would be difficult to ever air on broadcast television.
The other home video rentals that would raise concerns on network television are the following:
The home videos that did not raise concerns were:
Even though To Die For was based on a violent crime--an aspiring anchorwoman arranging for her husband's murder so she could be free to pursue her career--the actual scene of death was exemplary in how it was handled. What could have been a gruesome or gory scene interfering with the satirical nature of the film was instead filmed from the victim's point of view and furthered the plot without resorting to depicting excessive violence. It is a model of how such scenes of violence can be portrayed.
The video game business, like home video, is a relatively new industry. In the last 20 years video games have become an important force in the media world. In the early days of video games, most were played at commercial machines in restaurants and other places of business. Then video arcades opened and attracted many young customers.
Video games spread from the arcades to units that attached to consumers' televisions and did not require coins to play. The industry has gone through much turmoil. Atari, a very successful company in the early 1980s, has today become a minor force (though it is still competing in the 1990s with a new system). The standard has been 16-bit machines and that market has been divided between Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. The equipment for this format attaches to a television set and becomes part of the world of television. Most titles have been licensed to both platforms, but some are developed by one of the companies and thus not available to its competitors. Donkey Kong Country 2, a game developed by Nintendo that was the number one seller of the past year, is not available to Sega.
The video game business is currently going through another transformation. The current 16-bit standard offers only adequate quality graphics and is slow compared to what is becoming available. With the addition of CD-ROM technology, there is a move to 32- and 64-bit machines, such as the 3DO or CD-I systems as well as the Sony Playstation. This transition to new and better formats is causing great confusion in the industry as consumers are not yet sure which systems will survive and therefore which systems they should purchase. The whole business is changing and the only thing that is clear is that the economic stakes are high, as customers are certain to purchase much hardware and software.
Although video games appeal primarily to young people, many of the users cannot afford the equipment without financial assistance from others, usually their parents. The current price of the hardware for the less expensive systems begins around $100. This is more than most kids can afford. More complex systems cost as much as $300. The software can also be expensive. While there are less costly titles available, the most popular games cost about $50.
Because of the high costs compared to television or home video, parents are almost always a primary part of the purchase process in video games. Kids simply cannot acquire the hardware or most of the software without help. Parents must acquiesce in their children's desires by giving them the money for the equipment or buying the titles they want.
Since the parents are usually part of the purchase process, they have an obligation to become informed. It is their responsibility to find out about the game and how it is played. Almost any video store will demonstrate the game. Parents should not passively hand over the money for the games or acquire the video packages without investigating. More so than with any other media system described in this report, parents have a responsibility and an opportunity to learn about the video games that interest their children.
To help with this parental role, the video game industry has developed a rating system. Devised by the Entertainment Software Rating Board for the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), the ratings are administered by Dr. Arthur Pober. As of summer 1996, video games are rated for one of five audiences:
EC: Early Childhood titles that do not contain material parents would find inappropriate.
KA: Kids to Adult titles that may contain minimal violence or some crude language.
T: Teen titles are for those 13 and older; they may contain violent content, strong language or suggestive themes.
M: Mature material for ages 17 and older; these products may include more intense violence and language with more mature sexual themes.
A: Adults only titles; these may include graphic depictions of sex and/or violence and are not to be sold to those under 18 years of age.
This is a system that deals with different levels of violence. The IDSA is addressing parents' concerns in a responsible way. The ESRB has rated close to 2,000 video game titles and maintains a Web page (http://www.esrb.org) and an 800 number (800-771-3772) for parents or anyone else seeking ratings or further information.
Last year it was noticed that, whether by accident or design, a number of retailers had placed a price tag over the games' ratings. An unscientific sample of retail stores in the Los Angeles, New York and Washington areas indicates that this year this occurred less frequently.
All of the other forms of media discussed in this report have some relation to each other. Theatrical films, for example, become the content of home video, cable and network and local television. Television series become the content of the syndication marketplace. While video games do attach to the television set and become a part of the home television environment, they are really a very different part of that world. Some game titles, however, do come from television programs and, on least one occasion, a video game (Mortal Kombat) has been made into a motion picture. We looked at video games in a very tangential way and do not imply that our findings apply to all games in the industry. We did, however, look at the most successful games.
We examined the six top-selling video games of the year as compiled by the NPD Group--which, according to the IDSA, is accepted as the best source of retail sales data. The NPD Group's listings separate games by type of game system. Ignoring the distinctions between different game systems, we established the list of games to be monitored as follows:
There is great similarity between last year's list and this year's. Last year Donkey Kong Country topped the list of best-sellers and this year the list is headed by the sequel, Donkey Kong Country 2. Mortal Kombat II was replaced on the list by Mortal Kombat III and NBA Jam, a basketball game, was replaced by Madden NFL ?96, a football game.
Some critics have argued that video games, by their very nature, encourage violent behavior. They make the case that the act of pulling some kind of trigger or pushing a button is like shooting a gun. They also argue that chasing anything, even a friendly little blob as in Pac Man, is tantamount to hunting and then killing. While we understand the philosophy behind this argument, we are not persuaded that all video games are, by their nature, violent.
The categories created for assessing children's programming, slapstick, tame combat violence and sinister combat violence, apply well to these games. In dealing with video games, a new category, sports, could be created, but those games usually fit into the tame combat violence category. The only sports game we examined, Madden NFL ?96, allows the user to play a video game version of football and falls into this category. It is not a particularly violent game except, as in football, players bump into and tackle each other. There are grunting noises but no blood or visible injury. No matter how hard a player tries to tackle, the result is always the same. Madden NFL ?96 is rated "KA." Martial arts games would not be considered as part of the sports grouping.
Most of the rest of the games (like many of the Saturday morning shows) fall into the tame combat classification. In these, some kind of minor confrontation is part of the game. These confrontations, however, neither involve weapons nor killing; instead the victim may simply disappear or fall off the screen and out of the field of play. If there is fighting it is, as the category name suggests, tame. The game environment usually has bright colors and graphics, carnival-like background music, and simple-looking, clearly animated characters that are small in relation to the screen size. Donkey Kong Country 2 (KA) and Super Mario World 2 (KA) both fall into this tame combat category. These games would not raise concerns about violence except possibly for the youngest audiences. Killer Instinct is a combat game similar in some ways to Mortal Kombat. It is rated "T" for teens and contains the descriptor "animated violence" and "animated blood and gore." Even with the combat motif, Killer Instinct does not fall into the sinister combat violence category. Unlike tougher games, there are no finishing moves, the combat is not as realistic and there are no grossly violent techniques.
The third category, sinister combat violence, contained one title, Mortal Kombat III. These are the games in which the goal is to injure or kill the opponent (another player or the computer). The characters tend to be larger than in the tame games, allowing for greater detail to be shown in combat. Methods of fighting tend to be more elaborate and far more lethal in nature. A much wider variety of fighting techniques and options is available. For example, rather than just punching an opponent as might be found in the tame combat games, in sinister combat games a character has a selection of different, distinctive punches, some of which are more lethal than others. Players learn the ins and outs of fighting. These games also tend to be much more graphic; blood and disfigurement are often evident. Interestingly, the characters in these games have backgrounds and identities described in the instruction manual. Every character or fighter has his or her own distinctive personality, thereby making them seem more human and the game more realistic.
Some studies show that parents believe video games contain horrible violence and bring out aggressive and disturbing behaviors in their children. Mortal Kombat III (and I and II) is the game that sustains this belief. It contains the type of brutal violence about which many parents are concerned. It is sinister combat violence and even pushes that category to the edge.
Mortal Kombat comes in a variety of formats: video arcade, home video games, computer software and, in August 1995, a motion picture. Mortal Kombat III comes with the Mature ("M") rating and the descriptors "realistic violence" and "realistic blood and gore."
Mortal Kombat is a very realistic combat game. Players choose which character they wish to portray. There are 14 playable characters from which to choose and one additional character that can only be accessed with a secret code. Two of the 15 are women. Each character has special moves and skills that are described in the instruction manual.
A player enters combat against another player or the computer. The combat is brutal and realistic, involving vivid sounds and special moves. As the opponent is beaten, there is no doubt that the confrontation will end in death as the computer encourages the victor to "FINISH HIM." The game is about brutal combat and players spend hours mastering combat moves and techniques.
What parents and many others do not know, however, is that there are special "blood codes" available that take the game to a higher and extraordinarily graphic and violent level. These codes are not in the instruction manual and parents would not know about them. A player in Mortal Kombat I achieves this higher level by pressing buttons in a special sequence. Both Mortal Kombat II and III have special moves that are published in video game magazines and on the Internet. The articles reveal special moves not described in the manual that allow players to rip off arms and watch them spurt blood. They also teach how to impale one's opponent on hooks, slash an opponent's throat, cause an opponent's body to explode, or decapitate him or her. It is the most shocking and grisly violence imaginable.
Most video games now are under the umbrella of rating systems. There have been some extremely violent games, including some on CD-ROM, that involve terrorizing women. The worst of the games are as bad as critics and parents fear. Our hope is that the video game environment will continue to improve as parents assume their responsibility in the video game purchase process and learn and use the rating system.
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