Made for Television Movies and Mini-Series
Theatrical Motion Pictures on Broadcast Network Television
On Air Promotions, Previews, Recaps, Teasers, and Advertisements
Emerging Broadcast Networks (UPN, WB)
Broadcast network programming is the primary focus of this study. Although its audience share continues to decline, broadcast network television still accounts for a majority of what is watched on television. The other aspects of the television world--cable, syndication, home video and video games--have been sampled for the purpose of comparison.
Network television has been divided into six areas, each of which was thoroughly examined:
* Prime time series
* Specials
* Made-for-television movies and mini-series
* Theatrical films shown on television
* On-air promotions and other promotional material
* Saturday morning children's programs
This report marks the third consecutive year we have monitored television violence. This year's results, together with the findings from the previous two seasons, allow us to establish a meaningful baseline and draw some important conclusions about the level, type and amount of violence on television. The baseline began with the 1994-95 television season, continued through 1995-96 and now includes the 1996-97 season. The quantitative and qualitative information from the previous years can be compared to that collected this year.
Series still comprise the majority of the networks' programming. They are what most distinguish network television from cable and other video media. More people watch television series than any other format. Series such as Seinfeld; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; The Simpsons and NYPD Blue have continued to attract large numbers of viewers on a weekly basis for many years.
As described in the methodology section, every prime time series in the 1996-97 season was monitored at least four times to determine whether it raised issues of concern with regard to violence. Shows that raised issues continued to be monitored through the entire season, while shows that aired less than four times were monitored each time they aired. Overall, 107 television shows on the four networks were monitored in this way, and a complete listing of each show and the number of times it was examined can be found in the appendix to this report. Another 24 series from UPN and WB, the emerging broadcast networks, were monitored in the same way. The results can be found in a following section.
Of the television series we examined this year, there are two that raise frequent concerns about the manner in which they deal with violence. This compares to nine series that raised frequent concerns in 1995 and five in 1996. (A complete list of programs for all three years appears in Appendix A.) Of the two programs raising frequent concerns this season, one appeared in all three of our annual reports. The other premiered this season and has been canceled. In 1995 seven programs raised occasional concerns about violence and in 1996 the number increased by one to eight. This year the number raising occasional concerns drops by two programs to six. The efforts of the networks' practices and standards departments have contributed to what we see as positive signs in television series. This report makes a real effort to understand the style, nature and goals of each show and the manner in which it deals with violence. These elements comprise the context of each program and are instrumental in examining the violent acts which occur. The violence cannot be adequately understood or evaluated apart from these elements.
Television specials, more than any other category of television, raised many new concerns this year. This is the only area of television programming that is worse at the end of the three years of monitoring. In 1995 there were so few issues in television specials that they did not warrant their own section of the report. The 1996 report found only five specials that raised concerns, but all five dealt with were reality shows featuring real and re-created footage of animals attacking and, in some cases, killing people. The fear that these five specials might signify the beginning of a trend led to a new and separate chapter on specials in the 1996 report. That fear was confirmed as television reality specials featuring graphic footage of death and disaster proliferated greatly in intensity and number. Featuring police shootouts, car chases, near death experiences and, again, animal attacks, specials in this year's report raise serious new issues of concern.
Television movies raised concerns about violence at about the same rate as last year. Over the course of the three years of our study, television movies have been one of the formats with relatively few problems with violence. In 1995, 14% of these movies were found to raise concerns about the ways in which they deal with violence. In 1996, the figure dropped modestly to 10% and this year it rose slightly to 12%. The difference over the past two years is statistically insignificant except to demonstrate that the level of problems has stayed somewhat consistent over the three years. We monitored every television movie that aired during all three seasons. This season, every one of the 184 television movies that appeared on the four networks was examined in detail. Movies that raised concerns usually did so because of a variety of factors, such as lack of advisory, violent theme, "tonnage" or inappropriate graphicness of a scene. In contrast to theatrical films, the networks have complete control over television movies. They decide what movies get made and what the audience will see.
Theatrical films on television were identified in the first year as the most problematic type of programming. This is still true, although there has been fairly significant improvement. We monitored every theatrical film on television that aired during all three seasons. In 1995, 42% of all theatrical films shown on television were found to raise concerns about the use of violence. Last year the percentage dropped significantly to 29%. This season it rose insignificantly to 30% and, importantly, 57% of the films raising concerns this season were repeats of films shown in previous years. Theatrical films are made for a different medium and have to be retrofitted for broadcast television, an often difficult task. They are also purchased far in advance. While there were still a number of films that contained over 30 scenes of violence, there were fewer of them than in the past two seasons. In some instances the broadcast networks did not re-run theatrical films they purchased because of the quantity or nature of the violence. While the percentage of theatrical films raising concerns about violence has decreased from the first season, those theatricals that remain still feature the most intense and disturbing violence on television.
On-air promotions, out of all of the different types of television programming, have demonstrated the most improvement since the 1994-95 television season. This is where the largest improvement was possible and, in fact, where the largest improvement occurred. Networks were able to create new policies and hire new personnel to deal directly with this important issue. This year there were relatively few on-air promotions featuring only scenes of violence from a television series. Theatrical films shown on television still managed to yield promos full of action, but they contained fewer scenes of violence and were almost never shown during programs or in time periods that would draw a large audience of children. The problems discussed in last year's report concerning advertisements for films about to open in theaters diminished somewhat this season. The only problematic trend in this area this year concerns promos for the live-action reality specials. Filled with many scenes of accidents, disasters or crime, these specials raise considerable issues of concern. Not surprisingly, the promos for these programs raise similar concerns.
Children's television was consistent in regard to violence from the second year to the
third, with a few hopeful signs on the horizon. The number of network Saturday morning
programs featuring "sinister combat violence" dropped from seven in the first
year to four last year. This year the number remained at four. While those four still
raised concerns, three of them are older programs and only one new sinister combat
violence program appeared. We are hopeful this is a type of children's programming that is
waning in popularity and that the category may disappear altogether as these older shows
run their course. Moreover, most shows on Saturday morning do not feature intense violence
or combat and include, at most, very minor violence.
In the first year of our report (1994-95) nine programs on the four broadcast networks were found to raise frequent concerns about the way in which they depicted violence. Last season (1995-96) the total dropped to five. In what is an important improvement, in the third year (1996-97) the number of series raising frequent concerns drops to two. Both of these series ran for the entire season.
In the first year of monitoring, seven series raised occasional concerns about the
manner in which they portrayed violence. Last year the total rose slightly to eight. This
year the total drops to six, all of which ran for the entire season.
In the 1995-1996 season the following shows raised frequent concerns about issues of violence:
Two of these shows, Kindred, the Embraced and Space: Above and Beyond, were canceled. Only one show from last season, Walker, Texas Ranger, continued to raise frequent concerns this season and will be discussed shortly.
One of the shows that previously raised frequent concerns, Nash Bridges, moved down to the list of shows raising occasional concerns this year and will be discussed in that section.
In the past two seasons, New York Undercover has raised concerns primarily due to its
trademark "music video" opening, in which contemporary music plays over a
montage of clips depicting a crime. Often, this combination has had the effect of
glamorizing the violence and detracting from its severity, making it seem stylish and
appealing rather than cruel and brutal. Although the rest of the episode may have dealt
with issues of violence responsibly and with sensitivity, we felt that the opening
segments sometimes raised issues of concern. However, this season, although the program
continued to employ the use of the music video sequence, we felt it did so more
responsibly. The choices of music, in conjunction with the depictions of the violence, did
not seem to glorify the violence the same way it has in past seasons.
Last year eight television series raised occasional concerns regarding their portrayal of violence:
None of these shows moved from the occasional to the frequent list. Of these eight
shows, four were canceled: American Gothic, SeaQuest 2032, Due South and Charlie Grace. Of
the four series that continued this season, none raised frequent or even occasional
concerns. Looking at the programs that raised occasional concerns last season and dropped
off the list this year, the following observations can be made.
Now the longest running animated program in prime time television history, The Simpsons appeared on the list of shows with occasional problems in both 1995 and 1996. Rather than a children's animated program, this show is an adult satire that also happens to appeal to children. The Simpsons raised occasional issues not because of slapstick and action typically found in children's programs, but rather because of occasional gruesome violence in some episodes. This violence is usually found in the "Itchy and Scratchy" spoofs of cartoons which are a pointed parody of violent cartoons such as "Tom and Jerry." These feature the sadistic mouse Itchy terrorizing the rather dumb and helpless cat Scratchy. Featuring beheadings, disembowelments and other horrible acts, these scenes which include animated blood and guts are on a level far harsher than what is usually found in animation.
This season The Simpsons featured very little of Itchy and Scratchy or any animation that raised even occasional concerns.
A new animated prime time series, King of the Hill, premiered on Fox later in the
season but raised no violence issues. During the summer the animated South Park appeared
on Comedy Central with a "TV-MA" (mature) rating, raising issues of violence and
taste, although that program was outside the scope of this 1997 report.
Appearing on the list of programs raising frequent concerns in 1995 and dropping to
occasional concerns in 1996, America's Funniest Home Videos--now one of the longest
running series on television--raised few concerns this year. Though not typically included
in discussions about violent television programs, this show previously contained violence
that was completely without context. It usually featured both the studio and home audience
laughing as real-life people, frequently children, were hit in the head, the groin or
elsewhere. Very little of this type of problematic material was in evidence during
1996-97.
One of the two long-running Aaron Spelling dramas (along with Beverly Hills 90210),
Melrose Place raised occasional concerns last year because of some highly stylized action
which included characters engaging in prolonged fights and falling off balconies. Often
these scenes were accentuated by slow motion and other techniques which presented the
violence as glamorous. Few of these techniques were featured in the program this season
and therefore Melrose Place raised no concerns.
One of the handful of programs that switched from one broadcast network to another this
season, JAG raised occasional concerns last year due to the amount and glorification of
violence in the program. This season, now on CBS, JAG contained fewer scenes of prolonged,
action-packed violence as when it was on NBC and typically aired in a later time slot.
Although some degree of glorified violence is endemic to military action-dramas, JAG dealt
with the problem successfully.
These are the television series that raise the most concerns about the way in which
they portray violence. In the three years of our violence reports the number of these
programs raising frequent concerns has dropped from nine to five to two. These two shows
raise concerns because of a large variety of contextual issues, which were discussed in
the criteria section.
The most violent series on television in terms of number of scenes, Walker, Texas Ranger is the only program that has raised frequent concerns about violence in all three years of this study. The program chronicles the adventures of Texas Ranger Cordell Walker, played by martial arts superstar Chuck Norris. In the past two seasons, the program has proved increasingly successful, last year rating in the top ten shows for the season. Walker, which is partially owned by CBS, recently landed one of the biggest syndication deals in television history. This is one of the most popular programs on television and part of CBS's very successful Saturday night lineup. It follows the well-known Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and the successful new series Early Edition.
The show's formula has remained relatively unchanged, each week featuring Walker and his fellow officers doling out justice with high flying kicks and punches. The issues raised by Walker range from tonnage to graphicness to glorification, and examples of each are in abundance.
On 11/2/96 Walker is forced to confront an old nemesis from the Vietnam War, Randy Shrader, who has become a high-priced soldier of fortune. After stealing a top secret military helicopter to use in a drug smuggling operation, Shrader, in an effort to prove that he was always a better soldier than Walker, tracks him down for a final confrontation. He pursues Walker in the helicopter, blowing up Walker's truck with a missile. Despite the huge explosion and the fact that the truck flips over and is destroyed, Walker climbs out of the wreckage unscathed except for a slight limp. He pulls out a portable rocket launcher and shoots down the helicopter. The two men square off for a final showdown when Walker persuades Shrader to settle things "man to man" instead of by using sophisticated weaponry. The two men put down their guns and viciously beat each other. The fight consists of countless kicks, flips and punches to the head and midsection. Seemingly defeated, Shrader pulls a knife and tries to stab Walker. As they struggle over the knife, Walker has a flashback about Shrader's traitorous actions in Vietnam which led their platoon into an ambush. He then summons the strength to overwhelm Shrader, stabbing him in the gut with his own knife. The scene lasts for over six minutes and is graphic, antiseptic and prolonged. It is also completely glorified by dramatic, patriotic music that plays in the background throughout the entire fight.
The episode on 12/21/96 was noteworthy for a different reason. A special Christmas episode targeted towards a family audience, Walker and his friends have thrown a Christmas party for a group of orphans. When one of the orphans refuses to join in the Christmas spirit, Walker tells the children a story about legendary Texas ranger Hayes Cooper and how he discovered the meaning of Christmas. The story transports viewers back into the old West with Norris playing the part of Ranger Cooper. Although the show is noticeably less violent than most other episodes, in the final showdown between Cooper and the gang of outlaws he has been pursuing, Cooper shoots six men, none of them fatally. When the leader of the gang, who has been shot in the backside, asks why he has chosen to only wound the men and not kill them, Cooper responds that it is because he "has the Christmas spirit." This episode, which was clearly tailored to a younger audience than usual, apparently envisions itself as a morality tale. At the end of the episode, the cynical orphan learns Walker's meaning of Christmas.
Another example of the problems raised by Walker, Texas Ranger can be found in the episode on 4/26/97 in which Walker takes on a street gang of crack dealers after a little girl is killed during a drive-by shooting. The girl, who comes back from the dead after meeting an angel, embarks on a mission to bring peace back into her neighborhood which has been under the violent control of the crack dealers. Ironically, despite the reiteration of the message throughout the show that you cannot fight violence with violence, this does not stop Walker from beating up gang members and blowing up a car. This is one in a series of instances in which Cordell Walker appears to relish violent conflict. It is also notable that this episode contains ten scenes of violence.
This show seems to be caught in an unusual dilemma. On the one hand, in order to add a moral dimension, Walker often tries to find alternatives to violence. On the other hand, the producers seem to realize that Walker doling out strong justice, usually with his fists, is an essential element of the program and a feature central to its popularity.
Occasionally, characters other than Walker get involved in the fighting. In the episode on 5/3/97 a female cop under Walker's command goes undercover as a tutor for a mafia boss' young son. At the end of the episode, her cover blown, the officer is confronted by the mob boss' wife. The two engage in a knock-down, drag-out martial arts brawl consisting of many kicks, punches and knees to the midsection. At the end of the fight the victorious officer stands over her fallen foe and says, "Boy, that felt good," thereby adding to the already glorified and glib treatment of the violence. Adding to the glorification of the scene is that during the fight the mobster's young son watches, mimicking the combatants' punches and kicks and rooting for his tutor. After the fight is over, the mob boss discovers the victorious tutor and the son and prepares to kill them. Just as the mob boss is about to shoot the undercover cop, Walker bursts in and engages in a vicious fight with the kingpin and his thugs.
Walker, Texas Ranger features more violence than any other series on network
television. Largely a vehicle to showcase Chuck Norris' impressive martial arts abilities,
episodes feature as many as 21 scenes of violence in one hour. The violent behavior of
Walker is glorified and in stark contrast with the prosocial, frequently anti-violence,
themes of the show. The show's heroes are seldom injured or even fazed by violence,
despite the severity of the fights. The consequences of violence, physical or
psychological, are never explored. Although many would defend this program as simply an
action series, it is action that relies solely on the use of violence and does so in a
glorified way. Of the 25 episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger that were monitored, 23 raised
concerns of violence.
A new program, Dark Skies aired on Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. as the first installment of NBC's "Thrillogy." A serial program set in the 1960s, it follows the life and adventures of John Loengard and his fiancee Kim Sayers. Loengard discovers the existence of a secret race of hostile aliens known as "Hive." They are waging a clandestine war on Earth by implanting themselves into an increasing number of human beings. Loengard is recruited into the service of Majestic 12, a covert government agency in charge of containing and controlling the alien invasion. But when his desire to let the American public know of the danger conflicts with the policy of silence implemented by Majestic, he seeks to expose both the government conspiracy and the alien threat. Thus, while fleeing from both the government and the aliens, he begins his mission to gather irrefutable evidence of the Hive presence.
Dark Skies is a dramatic, science fiction thriller. It is NBC's response to the current interest in aliens and conspiracy theories, in large part brought on by the success of Fox's The X-Files. It combines scary aliens with insidious G-men in an attempt to interweave actual events in American history, such as the Vietnam War or the assassination of JFK, into a complicated web of conspiracy. One of the principal issues with Dark Skies is its 8:00 p.m. time slot. The 8:00 time period, particularly on a Saturday night, is one that especially appeals to young children. Dark Skies always contains violence, much of which is very serious and potentially frightening.
One of the recurring forms of violence found in this program involves the process by which the aliens invade their human hosts. Typical of many alien films (beginning with Alien), the Hive infect their prey by attaching themselves to the victim's face and forcibly inserting a tentacle into his or her mouth. While this is not a bloody process, it is obviously a painful one, as evidenced by the victim's screaming and writhing. This is clearly not a typical form of violence and is simply a means to terrify the viewer, a frequent aspect of science fiction. However, it is very intense and extremely frightening.
Dark Skies also contains much more realistic, and occasionally very intense, forms of violence. In the season premiere on 9/28/96, when the scientists at Majestic attempt to kill an alien presence within its host, they first forcibly restrain him and pour a chemical down his throat. As they are injecting him in the back of the neck with another chemical, he breaks free of his restraint and thrusts the syringe into a doctor's chest, killing him. An intense fight breaks out in which the host hits several men with a chair and slams them into the glass chemistry equipment. When he wrestles a G-man's gun away, another agent shoots him in the chest. Unfazed, he returns fire and tries to get away. The chemicals finally take their effect and he falls while trying to escape, writhing in pain on the floor. The doctors jump on him and force the needle into his neck, thus destroying the alien presence. Although it is not a terribly long scene, it is very intense and violent, especially for such an early time period.
On 10/26/96 Majestic discovers a Hive operating station and attacks it in hopes of stopping the aliens who are experimenting with mind control through subliminal messages. As the government agents burst in with their guns drawn, a female alien implant steps in front of them. Without comment, they shoot her several times in the torso. The bullets graphically pierce her chest.
Another fairly quick but rather brutal scene can be found in the episode on 11/9/96. Sayers is attacked by an older woman implanted by the Hive. After being thrown to the ground by the woman, Sayers recovers and smashes a fire extinguisher over her head. Again, while it is in self-defense and is very quick, it is also brutal.
In the episode aired on 11/2/96, Loengard locates a secret alien base where his fiancee is being held and breaks into the compound with a large truck. As the alien implants open fire on him, he smashes into one with the truck, sending the body flying backwards through the air. This act is gratuitous and only serves to exaggerate the violence. After he locates his fiancee, he keeps the Hive at bay by shooting a pistol at them. When one crashes through the window of the room, Loengard dumps some other leech-like alien creatures on the attacker which makes him scream in pain. He grabs the attacker's gun and dashes for the exit. He is saved when the U.S. military arrive on the scene.
Only a few minutes into the episode on 1/18/97, a scene occurs that contains some of
the most brutal hand-to-hand combat featured in the show. In the scene, a beautiful blonde
agent from Majestic dispenses with two armed guards who are protecting Loengard and Sayers
with a series of kicks and blows to the head. As she runs up the stairs to warn him, the
blonde grabs her and throws her over the railing, knocking her unconscious. When Loengard
comes downstairs, he discovers the unconscious bodies of the two guards and Sayers. As he
kneels over her to check her pulse, the blonde steps from behind the door and kicks him in
the groin. When he falls over, she then picks him up by the throat and chokes him,
throwing him backwards onto the floor. Pulling a gun and pointing it at Loengard's neck,
she threatens to kill him if he testifies against the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald acted
alone in killing JFK. Although the scene is relatively quick and there is no blood spilled
in the ordeal, the attack is surprisingly vicious and the impacts of most of the blows are
depicted graphically.
In another instance of extremely brutal violence, on 3/8/97, Loengard is confronted by Sayers, who has become the enemy after being infected by Hive. Hopeful that he may be able to free her from alien control, he reaches out for her hand only to have her smash his with a police baton. As he tries to talk to her, she continues to hit him with the baton, first in the shoulder, then the knee. Unable to divorce himself from the feelings he still has for her, he proceeds to take the punishment as she hits him in the head and the ribs 11 more times. It is surprisingly rough and excessive. It is also antiseptic as the only consequences he suffers are a small cut on his forehead that is not apparent in the next scene and a broken wrist. Four people are killed in the episode.
As stated several times above, for the most part the real issue here is that of time slot. Had the program run at 10:00 p.m. or even 9:00 p.m., fewer of the above scenes would have raised issues. However, the terrifying nature of some and the disturbing intensity of others cause concerns in the 8:00 p.m. hour. Of the 17 times it was monitored, Dark Skies raised issues of concern seven times.
There was greater anticipation among fans of The X-Files for the premiere of Millennium than for any other series during the season. Created by Chris Carter, who is also responsible for Fox's hit show The X-Files, Millennium airs in The X-Files' old time slot of 9:00 p.m. on Friday night. This series tells the story of Frank Black, an FBI criminal profiler who is able to put himself so deeply into the minds of the killers he pursues that he is able to see and understand their thoughts. When Black's family is threatened by an unknown stalker, he suffers a nervous breakdown and leaves the FBI, moving with his family to a sleepy suburb of Seattle. However, unable to block out the horrific visions of the killers' thoughts, he is driven back into his job, working for a mysterious consulting group of former law enforcement agents. Known only as The Millennium Group, they specialize in exceptional criminal cases. In one of those strange coincidences in television, the plot bears a remarkable resemblance to Profiler, which premiered on NBC.
Each week, Black finds himself aiding local police departments throughout the Pacific Northwest in the investigation of serial killers. Black is drawn as a dark and brooding character and the only joy in his life seems to come from his loving wife and daughter. The rest of his life is plagued with vicious and violent visions which, while useful in capturing criminals, leave Black trapped in a tortured existence, devoid of any kind of extended peace. Throughout the season, Millennium raised issues of concern for a variety of reasons. In fact, because this show raised so many different issues and dealt with them in a wide variety of ways, some commendable and some of concern, this report devotes a considerable amount of time and attention to a discussion of Millennium.
Some viewers may be surprised to find Millennium on the list of shows that only raise occasional concerns. Because of its malevolent tone and intensely dark storylines, some may feel that this show contains the most disturbing violence on television. However, for a show that revolves around the investigation and capture of serial killers, Millennium features a surprisingly small number of violent acts. Rather, the show achieves its objective of scaring viewers and leaving them unsettled through graphic depictions of the consequences of horrific violence. The series premiere provides a good example of this approach.
In this debut episode, aired on 10/25/96, an apocalypse-obsessed killer beheads an exotic dancer and cuts off her fingers. He also buries several men alive after sewing their wrists to their chests and their eyes and mouths shut. The murder of the exotic dancer is portrayed in a montage of chaos, confusion and implied violence. Similarly, the viewer never actually sees the eyes and mouths of the other victims being sewn shut. Instead the victims are discovered alive after the horrible mutilation has occurred. Despite this, the grisly nature of the crimes, coupled with their exceedingly graphic and gory consequences, are enough to warrant concern and raise issues of violence.
Another example of the show's focus on the results of violence rather than on the attacks themselves can be found in the episode aired on 11/15/96. A self-proclaimed "judge of justice" enforces his own version of justice on the wicked, having one of his followers smash a man over the head with a bowling ball and cut out his tongue with a kitchen knife. In that same episode, the judge instructs another follower to cut off a man's leg and leave him to bleed to death. In both instances, the most violent elements of the murders are never shown. However, viewers are not spared the disturbingly graphic images of the victims' severed body parts which are both shown in a medical examiner's lab. Again, although the violent action was never shown in detail, the graphic aftermath was enough to raise concerns.
In some instances, Millennium's depictions of violence are actually commendable. For example, in the episode aired on 1/10/97, two shootings are handled responsibly. In both cases, just as the killers are about to shoot their victims, the camera angle switches to an exterior shot of the building where the action is taking place. The sound of gunshots conveys what has transpired without resorting to needless portrayals of gore.
Another device used by the show to imply violence without showing it is Black's flashbacks. As he proceeds with his investigations and delves deeper into the minds of the killers, the visions progressively provide him with greater insight into the killers' motivations and psychoses. The flashes are always extremely fleeting, often lasting less than a second, are chaotic and are typically distorted by camera techniques. Yet, precisely because the visions are so quick and obscure, viewers are likely to believe that they have seen more than they actually have. Audiences are typically left with the impression that they have seen a glimpse of the gruesome murder previously described in the program when, in truth, they have not really seen much more than the victims thrashing about and screaming, perhaps with a tint of red suggesting blood.
Nevertheless, Millennium does occasionally feature graphic violence and this is when it raises the most concerns. In the opening scene on 3/28/97, a group of medical test subjects is shown having an adverse reaction to a drug treatment. The subjects are driven to psychosis. One man is driven so insane that he presses his own thumbs into his eyes, causing blood to run down from the sockets. The entire scene is very intense, frightening and unnecessarily graphic, particularly as it is the opening scene of the show and comes without warning. This scene is a perfect example of the inclusion of grisly violence, the only purpose of which is to make the audience squirm. The depiction of the man poking out his eyes is gratuitous. Any other self-inflicted injury would have conveyed the same point without being so graphic and disturbing.
In another instance of graphic violence in the episode on 4/25/97, a prisoner, who is earlier seen slitting the throat of a woman, attempts to commit suicide in his cell. He places a previously concealed razor blade to his neck and drags it across his throat. Just after he places the blade on his neck, the camera angle changes to show the scene from behind so that viewers do not see the actual slicing. However, the camera returns to the original angle to show him grasping at his throat as blood pours from between his fingers. This depiction is extremely graphic and gory and was one of the most gruesome scenes of violence on television all year. Although the cutting is not shown, the viewer is left with the feeling of actually having seen it.
Another example of this issue is found in the episode aired on 5/9/97 in which an alleged Russian Antichrist kills his victims by blowing off their faces at point blank range with a shotgun. He then cuts off their fingertips with clipping shears. Although neither the impact of the shotgun blasts nor the actual cutting off of the fingertips are shown, the acts are so brutal and grisly that they raise concerns even though they are not actually seen. As the killer crouches over his victims, viewers hear the loud, deliberate snipping of the shears clipping off the ends of their fingers like carrots being cut. The mutilated hands are shown after the deed is done as are the bloody shears. It is extremely unsettling and vicious, despite the fact that it occurs just outside of the camera's view.
Some critics might argue that every episode of Millennium should raise concerns merely because of the nature of the crimes they feature, regardless of whether the violent acts are shown or not. However, this was not the rationale used in our review of Millennium. The public clearly has a fascination with serial killers as is demonstrated by the success of motion pictures such as Seven and Copycat. The most successful serial killer film of all, The Silence of the Lambs, not only was a commercial success, it was only the third film in history to sweep the top five Academy Awards. The Silence of the Lambs showed that this subject matter can be skillfully portrayed in a quality film. To call every episode of Millennium a problem simply because of the subject matter would be tantamount to censorship, thereby implying that film or television creators are not free to examine these intriguing themes. Therefore, the show was deemed an occasional problem not by the theme of the series as a whole, but rather by the specific handling of specific episodes.
Millennium is clearly not a show for children. The premise and storylines are intense
and are predicated on horrific, frightening crimes. That being said, some of the crimes
are depicted in a contextually appropriate manner while others are exploited through the
use of horribly graphic images. It is because of this wide variety of treatments of
violence that the show, like its sister program The X-Files, raises occasional rather than
frequent concerns. Of the 22 times it was monitored, Millennium raised concerns six times,
five of which are detailed above.
Last year Nash Bridges made its debut as a midseason replacement and ran for only eight episodes. It returned this year for the entire season, airing at 10:00 p.m. on Friday nights. Last season it raised frequent concerns about the manner in which it dealt with violence. In its first full season Nash Bridges raises occasional concerns.
Miami Vice's Don Johnson plays the dashing title character, a cool, wisecracking San Francisco police inspector with a heart of gold and a flare for sleight-of-hand magic tricks. His partner and comic sidekick, Joe Dominguez, is played by veteran comedian Cheech Marin. Together the two try to clean up the streets of San Francisco while Bridges tries to find love, maintain friendships with his two ex-wives, watch after his rascal father and raise his teenage daughter.
A lighthearted, action police show, Nash Bridges is a modern day Magnum, P.I. with perhaps a slightly rougher edge. Replete with smart-alecky one-liners and amusing situations, the program is funny and the characters are extremely likeable. This season there was less violence in the program with a greater emphasis placed on the characters and humor rather than on the violent action. Airing at 10:00 p.m., the program is given more leeway in terms of violence. However, there were several instances this season in which the violence was unnecessarily prolonged for the purposes of titillation rather than plot development.
Frequently, this violence occurred in the opening scene of the program. For example, on 10/4/96 an episode aired in which Bridges and his team take down a crew of high-end thieves. The episode opens with Bridges, Dominguez and another cop rushing to the scene of a bank robbery in progress. As the robbers storm the bank, they brandish high-caliber rifles and pistols, sending the customers to the floor and hitting a guard in the face with the butt end of a rifle. For no discernable reason, one of the robbers snaps and cold-bloodedly shoots a compliant bank patron twice at point blank range, killing him. When Bridges arrives on the scene, the gunfire erupts and continues non-stop for more than two minutes. Midway through the barrage of bullets, the young cop who came with Bridges is shot in the neck. He falls backwards, clutching his neck as blood pumps from the wound. After triggering a smoke bomb, the robbers escape, leaving one dead and one wounded crew member behind. Although this scene is important in establishing how ruthless and coldly efficient these criminals are, the extended length of the scene and the endless hail of bullets are far more than what is necessary to establish this point. The rest of this episode contains no other problems and, in fact, does a good job exploring some of the consequences of the gunshot to the neck of the young inspector. But the opening scene is unduly violent.
In a similar instance in the opening scene of the episode that aired on 12/13/96, Bridges interrupts a jewelry heist at a department store. A prolonged gunfight full of automatic weapon fire ensues and lasts for just under a minute. Two criminals are shot and killed, the second one falling backwards through a large piece of plate glass in slow motion. A third is shot but gets away. The shower of bullets is chaotic and the body smashing through the glass only serves to accentuate the violence of the scene. Also of concern is the conclusion of the scene, in which Dominiguez and Bridges are standing over one of the criminals' dead bodies and Dominguez jokes, "I heard the department stores were murder this time of year." This serves to trivialize and make light of the seriousness of the violence that has just occurred.
On 5/2/97 the program opens with another unnecessarily prolonged gunfight between two drug dealers and Bridges and his partner. Midway through the gunfight, a private security team, outfitted with automatic assault rifles and armored cars, arrives on the scene and opens fire on the drug dealers. The gunfire lasts for a minute and a half and no one is wounded in this incident. The violence is neither graphic nor threatening. In fact, it is treated very casually which has the effect of diminishing the severity and impact of the event.
A final example can be found in the episode that aired on 4/11/97. It opens with Bridges talking to a local mafia boss on a private yacht. Unbeknownst to them, a hit squad, sent by an ambitious mafia underling, storms the boat with automatic submachine guns. After dispensing with the boss' guards, they open fire. For a full minute gunfire is exchanged and eight people are killed. While this scene does set up the ensuing story, it showcases an immense amount of violence in the scene. Interestingly, this was again the only scene of the episode that contained any issues of violence.
Frequently, the violence found in Nash Bridges is glorified. Always cool under fire, Bridges makes it look easy, never being rattled by heavy gunfire and never showing any sort of fear. All of the characters are very nonchalant about the violence. Occasionally, Bridges is forced to use his fists. In an episode on 2/14/97, when an arms dealer makes an inappropriate comment about Bridges' daughter, Bridges turns around and punches him, sending him flying through the air and through a glass table. While deserved, the attack is excessive, over the top and glorified. In the episode on 4/25/97, when two mafia henchmen approach him, Bridges picks up a glass pitcher and smashes it on one guy's face. We see the impact and then see Bridges and his friend beat up the two men. Although the altercation is quick, it is very glorified and conveys the message that Bridges, despite his intelligence and friendly demeanor, is not someone with whom one should mess.
Of the 23 times it was monitored, Nash Bridges raised issues of violence seven times.
Debuting last year in early March as a midseason replacement show, High Incident was one of the first programs to be developed by the highly touted and greatly anticipated DreamWorks SKG. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the program is an ensemble cop show chronicling the day-to-day duties of police officers in the fictional Southern California community of El Camino. Though only six episodes aired last season, the show--though more graphic and less gritty than other serial cop shows such as NYPD Blue--intelligently and thoughtfully emphasized the extreme consequences, both physical and psychological, of violence in city life. Also, the program focused more on the development of the characters and their relationships, both in the workplace and in their personal lives, than on the violence of the job. This season, however, in terms of violence, the program took a turn for the worse.
Although last season High Incident contained some very serious and graphic violence,
less emphasis was placed on the actual violent encounters and more on their effects on the
officers' lives. A prime example of this can be found in the series debut in which an
officer sees his partner gunned down by a motorist. Forced to shoot and kill the attacker,
the officer rushes to his dying partner to find him shot in the neck, blood pouring from
the wound. Very intense and also very graphic, the violence was appropriately shocking and
also quite affecting. The rest of the episode, as well as several episodes that followed,
dealt with the extreme guilt, anger and fear this event caused in the surviving cop. The
extremity of the consequences was realistically matched with the severity of the incident.
In contrast, possibly to increase the show's excitement level, this season's violent encounters were stressed much more than their consequences. In the episode aired on 11/7/96, an Asian gang is robbing armored cars. In the first several seconds of the episode two officers arrive at the scene of a robbery in progress. As they approach in their squad car, another car speeds directly towards them, causing them to sideswipe a building. The criminals then open fire on the cops with automatic submachine guns, spraying bullets through the windshield. The cops respond by returning fire, shooting and killing one assailant with a shotgun. As the criminals speed away, gunshots continue to ring out. Although the scene is relatively short, it is full of gunfire and is the first thing audiences see in the episode. Later on in the same episode, two other officers are involved in a prolonged gunfight with the robbers. This scene is longer and much more glorified than the first one, utilizing some slow motion to stress the violence. Two people are killed in the scene and the gunfire blazes non-stop for roughly 45 seconds. The episode later deals with the emotional reaction of one of the officers to having shot someone for the first time in the line of duty, but it does so only tangentially.
A similar instance is found in the episode that aired on 2/13/97, in which several officers engage in a gunfight with a submachine gun-wielding motorist. As the criminal riddles the squad cars with bullets, one officer is hit in the neck and falls to the ground, clutching at his wound. As two officers attempt to save him, two others return fire with shotguns and pistols. The hail of bullets rages non-stop for well over a minute, culminating with one of the officers heroically charging the car and shooting the attacker while the other blows up the car by shooting the gas tank. It is a very long scene of violence, intensified by the nature of the injury suffered by the wounded officer. The use of slow motion, the manner in which the officer risks life and limb to thwart the assailant, and the explosion at the end of the scene all serve to glorify the violence and make it seem extremely exciting. It would be excessive at any time, but is especially so at 8:00 p.m.
Another issue this program raised was tonnage. The episode on 5/8/97 was inspired by the actual events of a North Hollywood bank robbery, in which heavily armed men wearing body armor attempted to shoot their way out of the robbery. The program wished to convey the severity of the situation and the threat posed to police and civilians alike. However, the entire first half of the episode was filled with virtually non-stop gunfire, much of which was glorified. Ultimately, the robbers are both killed, the last one shot in the back of the head. It is an extremely intense episode which becomes even more so when two of the program's main characters are severely injured--one possibly paralyzed and the other left in a coma. The psychological consequences are acutely explored with great emotion. However, despite the powerful exploration of the impact of the violence on the lives of the officers, the sheer amount of extremely real and intense violence (12 scenes to be exact), many of which were several minutes in length, caused particular concerns in an 8:00 p.m. program.
High Incident also raised issues of glorification. The episode on 2/6/97 contained two violent scenes that raised issues of violence with regard to the message of the episode. One of the storylines involves an African American officer, Mike, who, while off duty, is severely beaten by a racist white deputy from the sheriff's department. When the deputy threatens Mike's partner unless she remains silent about the beating, Mike hunts down the other cop and attacks him in a coffee shop bathroom, thrashing him and shoving his face into a toilet bowl. It is a vicious, albeit warranted assault. Although he is criticized by both his partner and captain for his actions and reference is made about him possibly losing his job, audiences are left with the impression that, by taking the law into his own hands, he acted heroically in this instance. Despite the fact that his actions were illegal, Mike feels he is being persecuted by an unjust system.
Another storyline in the episode containing a questionable message involves Officer Marsh's effort to clean up a high-crime, low-income neighborhood under the control of a drug dealer named Chino. When Chino kills the son of a woman Marsh has befriended, the conflict becomes personal. At the end of the episode, Marsh finds himself chasing Chino to a building rooftop. There the two wrestle and Chino is thrown over the edge. Marsh clutches Chino's wrist, preventing him from falling to his death. After coercing Chino into confessing to the murder, rather than pulling him up and arresting him, Marsh lets him fall off the building, killing him. Historically, in television and film heroes have frequently found themselves ultimately faced with the decision of whether to let the villain live or die. With few exceptions, the heroes have always realized that by killing the villain or letting him or her die, they will have lowered themselves to the villain's level. Thus, they decide to spare the villain's life. It is notable when Marsh is faced with this same decision and chooses to kill Chino, particularly since he feels no remorse and faces no consequences. After Chino is allowed to fall to his death, the community comes back to a vibrant life. Clearly, the nature of police drama is changing and the producers wanted to focus on the dilemmas of real cops rather than the cardboard heroes of Jack Webb's Dragnet or Adam-12. However, in this instance, the moral dimensions of allowing Chino to die are not examined. His death is solely portrayed as a good thing.
At the core of the issues raised by High Incident is the time at which it was aired.
Last season the show was aired at 9:00 p.m. However, this season, it was bumped up to 8:00
p.m. even as the amount and intensity of the violence were ratcheted up. High Incident is
an adult-oriented show, dealing with mature themes and intense situations, and would have
been much more at home this season in the 10:00 p.m. time period. The change in time and
tone for the program proved unsuccessful and the show was canceled at the end of the
season. Of the 24 times it was monitored, four episodes raised issues of violence.
At the end of last season, America's Most Wanted, the real-life crime program hosted by John Walsh and one of the Fox Network's first hits, was canceled. A cry of protest rang out from many of the show's fans. Law enforcement officials across the country pointed to the program's extraordinary record in assisting in the capture of close to 500 criminals. After a brief hiatus, the series returned this season with a few new twists as America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back. Still hosted by John Walsh--himself a survivor of violent crime--the program follows a similar format, with a new, tougher subtitle. In each episode, the program profiles some of the country's roughest and most dangerous criminals and re-enacts their offenses, in hopes of catching the eye of viewers able to help lead law enforcement officials to the at-large criminals. In recent years, in an effort to prove that its system really works, the program has expanded to contain profiles of captures that have been direct results of viewer tips. However, over the course of this three-year study, the program also occasionally has raised issues in regard to its presentations of violent crimes. The first year of this study found the show raising occasional concerns while the second year of the study did not. However, this year it again raises occasional concerns, intermittently glorifying and graphically showcasing excessive violence.
In episodes aired on 1/11/97 and 2/1/97, there is a re-creation of an assault and murder involving two men arguing over an unpaid bet. When one bar patron refuses to make good on a bet over a game of pool, his opponent shoves him. When the pushed man responds by grabbing the other man, he is hit in the face with a pool cue, punched in the face twice, slammed into the bar and punched twice more. In self-defense, he grabs a knife from the counter and slashes his attacker across the forehead just above the eye. This is an important event. Though brutal, it is appropriate to the story and sets up the eventual murder. However, when the man who is slashed follows the other man home and shoots him at close range, the choice of camera angle emphasizes the size of the gun in such a way that it is glorified. The segment was shown again on 2/1/97 after the real-life murderer was caught. While it is important to prove to viewers that their calls are important, showing the entire sequence over again was unnecessary and served no purpose, as the footage sometimes does in helping capture a criminal. Instead it seemed like an opportunity to simply show violent footage again.
Another issue frequently raised by this program is the repetition of scenes of violence. For example, in the episode that aired on 2/22/97, real-life footage of a gun battle between police and two men they pulled over is repeated five times, once as a preview, and four times during the segment. In another segment, a re-enactment of twin brothers viciously beating up an old man is shown three times. In instances such as these, it feels as though the program is showcasing violence in the interest of increasing the action level of the program, not to increase viewer interest in catching the criminals.
Another interesting instance of needlessly upping the level of violence in the program was found on 2/8/97. During a profile on a murderer, a re-enactment of him repeatedly shooting a man in a car is shown. During the re-creation, the narrator informs the audience that the man at large ruthlessly fired nine shots into his victim, killing him on the spot. However, in the re-enactment, the killer fires 14 shots into his victim. While these re-enactments are by no means exact in nature, it seems as though the inclusion of five extra gunshots was simply an effort to increase the violence of the scene.
Two years ago, some of the re-creations were far more graphic than were necessary. This season, there was only one such instance. In the episode aired on 5/3/97, there is a recurring segment titled "Street Smart," in which safety instructor and security consultant Sanford Strong advises viewers how to protect themselves in everyday life. Strong recounts a murder case on which he once worked. The re-enactment tells the story of a newlywed who, while waiting for her husband to come home for lunch, is attacked by a man in their home. When her husband comes home and finds the intruder attacking his wife, he tackles the man. While struggling, the assailant stabs the husband five times in the midsection, killing him. The stabbings are far more graphic than is necessary, showing the blade puncture his stomach three of the five times. Also, each stab is accompanied by an unsettling sound effect which only accentuates the violence. Although the purpose of the segment is to instruct men on how not to deal with intruders in their homes, the scene is excessively graphic. It could have been filmed in a much less troublesome way without compromising the program's message.
Because of the occasionally gratuitous nature of some of the violence--in the form of
graphicness, repetition and over-emphasis--it raised occasional concerns. Of the 25 times
America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back was monitored, it raised issues of violence
four times.
In its fourth season, Fox's hit show The X-Files continues to be one of the most elusive programs on television in regard to violence. Sometimes exemplary in its presentation of violence and sometimes blatantly problematic, the show combines elements of humor, horror and science fiction in a blend that has garnered one of the most loyal cult followings in recent television history. This season in its new Sunday at 9:00 p.m. time slot, The X-Files became one of the biggest hits on television. Chronicling the bizarre investigations of FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, the program revolves around such supernatural and occult topics as alien abductions, government-orchestrated cloning experiments and witchcraft, to name only a few. It has become that rare television phenomenon that has inspired countless imitations, none as successful as the original.
The program always contains violence, most of which is somewhat grisly in nature. Depictions of violence are sometimes quite restrained, utilizing camera techniques and lighting to conceal unnecessary graphicness, leaving much to the audience's imagination. However, in other instances, unduly graphic violence is shown in an effort to unsettle and disturb audiences, usually effectively. Because of the exceptionally grim nature of much of the violence, whether graphic or not, The X-Files may raise the most concerns for some viewers. It is not surprising, considering that both programs come from the same creator, that similar issues are found in both The X-Files and Millennium. In both cases, the shows do not raise concerns solely because of their dark and disturbing themes. As with Millennium, occasionally The X-Files raises issues of concern with regard to violence.
The sheer brutality of some of the violence in The X-Files is of concern. For example, in the episode that aired on 10/11/96, Mulder and Scully are summoned to a small Pennsylvania town to investigate the murder of a deformed baby found buried alive. When they discover that the murdered child was the unwanted offspring of three inbred brothers and their mother, Mulder and Scully try to track down the guilty parties. In a scene approximately half way through the episode, the three brothers--each horribly disfigured by generations of inbreeding--attack the local sheriff in his home. Storming into his bedroom at night, they beat him to death with baseball bats while his wife watches from her hiding place. They then discover and kill her also. Although the entire scene is extremely dark and the impact of the blows is never seen, the sounds of the bats and the image of the victim's blood spreading over the hardwood floor leave little to the imagination. It is a horrifying scene of violence, haunting and grotesque, that is ironically juxtaposed with a 1950s love song that plays over it. Later on in the episode, Mulder and Scully, with the help of the sheriff's deputy, raid the brothers' home. The deputy falls victim to a booby trap and is decapitated, the portrayal of which is restrained and not particularly graphic. However, like several other scenes in this episode, it is still extremely intense and unsettling.
Frequently, The X-Files features extremely graphic images devoid of any actual violent act. Typically, they are the result of a violent attack or some strange, supernatural event and are fairly gory. This makes the show appear to contain more violent acts than it really does. An example of this can be found on 1/27/97. This episode was broadcast immediately after the Super Bowl and thus aired at 7:00 p.m. in some markets. Although this episode was also preceded by an advisory--a relatively rare occurrence for this program--it contained very graphic and frightening images that were intense for such an early time slot. The episode revolves around the investigation and pursuit of a man with the ability to regenerate lost body parts. He does this by eating cancerous tumors culled from medical patients. In the opening scene of the episode, the man is decapitated during a car accident. His severed head is shown in several subsequent scenes, one of which takes place as Scully is examining it. As she is about to make an incision, the head's eyes and mouth open. Later in the episode, the villain is shown regenerating an entire other self. It is an intense and graphic scene as he is shown, the blood of his most recent victim smeared around his mouth and all over his naked body. He appears in obvious pain as something is moving under his skin. Finally, his mouth is stretched wide open, as another entire head comes out of it and lets out a haunting scream of pain. It is extreme and grotesque, the stuff of nightmares, and, although not conventionally violent, certainly has a similar impact.
In what was perhaps the most extreme and unsettling bit of graphic violence of the whole season, in the episode that aired on 11/10/96, a satanic plastic surgeon obsessed with vanity possesses other doctors and causes them to commit horrendous acts of violence on their patients. These include liposuctioning a man to death, burning a hole through a woman's face with a laser and pouring acid on another woman's face. Towards the end of the episode, the evil doctor changes his identity by literally cutting off his own face and replacing it with another. He is shown placing a scalpel at the top of his forehead and then making an incision around his face. As he cuts, blood runs from the wound down his forehead. The camera cuts away but promptly returns to show him having sliced all around his visage. He then takes a surgical tool and proceeds to peel off his face, pulling his forehead away from his skull.
Gruesome violence is one of the signature aspects of The X-Files and thus it is
examined with considerable scrutiny. Most of the time, the program does an excellent job
of creating a dark and eerie tone which implies violence without actually showing it. When
violence does appear on screen it is usually well done and integral to the story's
development. However, when a program like this constantly pushes the limits in terms of
content, it is not surprising that it will occasionally cross the line. While the first
season of this study found that The X-Files raised frequent concerns of violence, last
year it raised few concerns. This season contained some of the elements that made it a
problem in the first year, however not nearly as often, and therefore falls in the middle
of the first two years by raising occasional concerns. Of the 24 times the show was
monitored, it raised concerns of violence four times.
A fantasy adventure program, Sliders aired on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. just before Millennium. The show is about the adventures of four friends who "slide" through portals to parallel universes in an effort to find their way back to their home universe. In each new world they inevitably find themselves in precarious situations and are faced with the challenge of surviving.
The genre, writing and time slot of Sliders all indicate that it targets a young audience. Very seldom is the violence in Sliders very threatening or graphic. However, it is frequently antiseptic and glorified and there is a surprising amount of it.
One of the primary issues raised by Sliders is the glorification of the violence. The group's unofficial leader is a young inventor-scientist named Quinn, who is often forced to fend off villains with his fists. In an episode that aired on 11/1/96, the group slides into a desert world where water is the prized commodity. The whole episode is very reminiscent of the post- apocalypse Mad Max films. In one scene, as the sliders try to kidnap a water witch from a ruffian desert rat named Cutter, Quinn pounces on his dune buggy and punches him in the face. When Cutter slams on the brakes, Quinn is thrown off the vehicle and the two square off. Cutter pulls out a large knife and begins slashing at Quinn who defends himself with a metal bar. Quinn jabs Cutter in the gut with the bar and then punches him hard twice in the face. The second punch sends Cutter over the edge of an embankment, rendering him unconscious. While the scene is relatively quick, and the villain is dispensed with only two punches, the violence is very exciting and also very glorified. By attacking Cutter and beating him in a fight, Quinn is painted as a hero.
Another example of glorified violence from this season is found in the episode aired on 3/7/97. The group slides into a world where a drug has turned virtually all its inhabitants into flesh-eating zombies. When Quinn is turned into a zombie, the group is forced to try to find a cure. While exploring a ravaged hospital, they are attacked by zombies. One of the sliders, a female warrior who joined the group in one of the worlds through which they passed, wields a shotgun to fend off the onslaught. When one zombie charges them, she blasts the zombie, sending it flying backwards through the air. The scene is extremely exaggerated in order to accentuate and glorify the violent action. This exaggeration is underscored when another character compliments the slider on her ability to "kick butt."
In a similar example, in the episode that aired on 5/9/97, the sliders go up against a vampire rock group. When one of the female sliders falls under the spell of the lead vampire Morgan, Quinn is forced to fight him. In their final confrontation, Morgan runs down Quinn on a motorcycle, roughly kicking him to the ground as he blazes past him. Morgan turns and makes a second pass at Quinn, but this time Quinn picks up a wooden spear and jams it into the heart of the charging vampire. Morgan is sent flying backwards off the motorcycle with the spear protruding from his chest. As he lies on the ground dying, Quinn walks up to him and, for good measure, grips the spear and twists it, killing Morgan. This scene is extremely overdone, excessive and glorified and was one of the most problematic from Sliders all season. It was surprising to find such an instance of brutal violence in what is essentially a youth-oriented show in a youth-oriented time slot.
Tonnage is also frequently an issue with Sliders. Some episodes feature as many as 20 scenes of violence in one hour. This is in large part due to the fact that the worlds in which the sliders finds themselves are often violent and hostile. An example of this is the episode that aired on 9/20/96 in which the group slides into a world where they are contestants in a deadly game show where the only way to win is to survive. Obviously, this violent premise gave way to many violent interactions. One in particular, in which the sliders do battle with a squad of laser gun-wielding androids, stands out because of its length and the significant amount of gunfire.
A basic issue raised by Sliders is its time slot. Although much of the violence is very
unrealistic and in the vein of science fiction, it is also frequently glorified and
rampant. Occasionally, some of the violence is a little too intense for the early hour. Of
the 25 times it was monitored, Sliders raised issues six times.
Several issues in prime time series television have been identified and are discussed
in-depth below. Several of these matters were addressed in last year's report. While new
and interesting issues from the 1996-97 television season have been distinguished and
addressed, several of those that were raised last year are compelling and important enough
to warrant continued consideration. Where appropriate, several of these previously
identified issues have been updated and illustrated with examples taken from the current
season. In instances where a better example existed in the previous year of monitoring, it
was re-used to better illuminate the issue.
Last year's report commented on the extraordinary quality of some of television's 10:00 p.m. dramas. This trend continued as the 1996-97 season produced some of the best drama ever to appear on television. The overall quality of shows such as NYPD Blue, Chicago Hope, ER, Law & Order, Homicide and Fox's 9:00 p.m. Party of Five (the Fox Network does not have a 10:00 p.m. time slot) reached new heights this season.
These are shows featuring vivid, fully drawn, multidimensional characters who have complex personalities that unfold as the season develops. Though these shows frequently contain scenes of violence--as shows dealing with the real world would be expected to--they rarely, if ever, raise concerns about the manner in which they use violence. The following section will detail the ways in which they portray violence and the lessons that can be learned from these shows.
But these are not just shows that deal with violence well. They contain some of the
highest quality drama created by Hollywood. Considering that a two-hour motion picture
takes a year or more to produce, the fact that a program like Chicago Hope can produce 22
high-quality hours a season is a tribute to the talent of the creators and writers. Many
episodes of Homicide and Law & Order are as well written and compelling as the best
feature films.
In the history of television, law enforcement officials have almost always been portrayed as "good guys." The passage of time and events such as the Rodney King beating have chipped away at the popular notion of the "by the book," Adam-12 or Dragnet police officer. No longer are all police thought of as moral absolutists, upholding the law above anything else. Instead, they are portrayed in more human terms, subject to all the pressures and difficulties that come with their jobs. Nowhere is this better reflected than on television, where the majority of dramatic series are based on law enforcement.
This season, there were many occasions in which police officers crossed over legal boundaries and were excessively violent with criminal suspects. In the past, dramas might have featured a "bad" cop who, reacting to the pressures of his job or the constant fear of death, goes too far and abuses suspects. Occasionally, a show might even focus on a cop who takes the law completely into his or her own hands and either passively or actively allows the death of someone under his control.
What is different in contemporary television is that now these actions are sometimes taken by recurring characters whose actions are shown in a favorable, or at least sympathetic, light. All of this is part of a trend to avoid cardboard characters who always do the right thing. Instead these shows attempt to examine the complex motivations and actions of real human beings. Clear divisions between right and wrong are replaced with moral ambiguity and doubt. Some of these cops do the "wrong" thing and everything still turns out well. Parallel to this morally ambiguous world of police is an equally immoral universe of lawyers, working in a judicial system where it is assumed that criminals rarely receive real justice. In this system, the most brutal acts not only remain unpunished, but are also likely to be repeated. Here, where a murderer might laugh at the justice he will never face and is likely to kill again, is it "really wrong" for a cop to shoot a killer in the heart rather than in the leg? This is the type of question that is addressed in modern police dramas.
Last season, in an episode of New York Undercover, a criminal played by rap star Ice-T sought revenge on Detective Williams who, in the line of duty, had killed his brother. In retaliation, Ice-T frames Williams for the murder of a drug dealer and attempts to kill his ex-wife and son. At the end of the episode, Williams captures Ice-T and holds him at gunpoint. Defiantly, Ice-T tells Williams that if he doesn't kill him, he will come after his son. At this critical moment, in a shocking turn of events, Detective Williams shoots and kills Ice-T. It is not rare in television or film for the hero to hold the fate of the villain in his or her hands. In this situation, up until very recently, the hero has always chosen to spare the villain's life, not wanting to sink to his or her level. Typically, the villain was arrested or made a final move for his or her gun, forcing the hero to kill the outlaw. This latter tactic conveniently satisfied the audience's desire to see the bad guy "get it good" while keeping the hero's morality intact. Thus, when Williams, a good cop, murders a man in cold blood and then goes unpunished, the viewer cannot walk away without examining a morally ambiguous situation.
This season there were two more examples of police contributing to the murder of a suspect. One of these is examined in the discussion of ABC's High Incident, a series which raised occasional issues of concern. In the episode on 2/6/97, Officer Marsh, a cop with a tendency towards violence, finds himself holding a drug dealer and murderer, Chino, over the edge of a building. Officer Marsh implies that he is going to drop Chino if he does not admit to a murder. Chino confesses. After hearing his confession, rather than pulling Chino up to safety and arresting him, Marsh instead lets him drop to his death. The clear message at the end of the program is that the life of everyone in the neighborhood improves after the death of the drug dealer. Again, the viewer is presented with a morally ambiguous situation.
In the episode aired 4/25/97, on NBC's Homicide: Life on the Streets, detectives are frustrated over their repeated attempts to arrest a murderous drug kingpin, Luther Mahoney. After witnessing him shoot one of his henchmen and an innocent bystander, Detective Lewis tracks down Mahoney and beats him savagely. However, the tables are turned when Mahoney wrests Lewis' gun away from him. Lewis is saved when his partner, Detective Kellerman, and a narcotics detective arrive on the scene with guns drawn. Mahoney surrenders, lowering his gun, but laughing defiantly, knowing that he has been able to elude justice countless times before. Detective Kellerman then, rather than taking Mahoney in, shoots him in the heart, murdering him. Standing over him, Kellerman turns to his fellow detectives and asks, "Anyone got a problem with this?" Both detectives shake their heads no, although the narcotics officer has obvious misgivings.
In both of the above described instances, the police suffer no consequences and, in both instances, their decisions are rewarded. The problems these criminals posed disappear and the world is a better place because they are dead. It is compelling storytelling, particularly in the case of Homicide, because the next several episodes explore the impact on the officers involved and their remorse or lack of remorse.
In virtually every show about police work, there is a "loose cannon"
character who takes the law into his or her own hands. While this may be an accurate
reflection of reality in some instances, these programs sometimes glorify such acts. It is
possible that some audiences, disillusioned by perceived high crime rates and the stifling
bureaucracy of the legal system, tend to cheer for these characters. Generally, these
programs do a responsible job of exploring these characters and their actions. They
reflect the fact that police work can be stressful and that sometimes officers may crack
under the pressure. Also, most of these programs air in the 10:00 p.m. time slot,
attracting adult audiences who can recognize and understand the moral ambiguities
involved.
Certain genres of television programming and feature films frequently combine elements
of violent action and comedy. This is different from the use of slapstick violence in
situation comedies or the hyperbolic "real" violence found in the Naked Gun
films where the violence itself is the joke. Instead, in these instances, the humor simply
accompanies the violence, typically in the form of dry, snappy dialogue during violent
encounters. Detective shows like Spy Games, Nash Bridges and Mr. and Mrs. Smith are the
types of programs that most often feature this blend of comedy and violence. This union of
elements often has the effect of enhancing the characters' appeal, making them appear cool
under pressure. However, it also functions to trivialize the violence, much of which is,
in reality, very serious. Incorporating comedy into such dangerous and potentially lethal
violence as fist fights, gun battles and car chases makes the violence seem lighthearted
and inconsequential. Scientific research and logic indicate that this can lessen viewers'
inhibitions against violence by making it appear less serious and glorifying it. By
detracting from the severity and consequences of violence, certain audience members could
become desensitized to this type of violence and view it as more acceptable. Because of
children's greater susceptibility to such perceptual influences, this is of particular
concern when it occurs in earlier time slots.
ER was the breakout hit of the 1994-95 television season. It finished number two in the Nielsen ratings for the entire season this year. Created by author, director and physician Michael Crichton and produced by John Wells, it was the first medical show in years to become popular and restored much of the lost luster to television drama. Chicago Hope is produced by David Kelley, the Emmy Award-winning writer and producer of L.A. Law and the creative force behind Picket Fences.
Both series air at 10:00 p.m. and raise interesting issues regarding context and definitions of violence. Both are set in hospitals and ER, of course, is specifically set in an emergency room. It is not surprising, in light of the producers' intent and approach, that both shows very graphically portray the consequences of violence.
Very early in the first season, we had to deal with scenes of doctors using scalpels to cut into patients. We had to decide whether these were scenes of violence and, if so, how to classify them. It was in incidences such as this that the soundness of the contextual analysis of violence became most apparent. We clearly felt that under no circumstances could a scene with a doctor using a scalpel to save someone's life ever be construed as a scene of problematic violence. Early in the 1994-95 season we saw an episode of Chicago Hope in which a doctor makes a long incision into an abdomen during surgery. The camera zoomed in very close and, as the scalpel moved, the viewer could see blood rise to the surface of the skin. It was an extraordinary special effect likely to make many of those watching squirm. While it was an extremely graphic image, it could not be categorized as violence that raises concerns. The context lets us know that this is a beneficial act designed to save a life. The same scene of a scalpel cutting, however, would have been one of the most horrific scenes of violence possible if the knife had been held by a terrorist or a murderer. The difference between a non-problematic violent act and a horrific act of violence has nothing to do with the close-up itself. It is the surrounding context that determines whether the act is interpreted as life-saving or sadistic.
Medical shows frequently contain scenes similar to the one described above. We expect
to see scalpels and blood in medical shows as part of the context. Both of these shows
were examined 19 times each this season and neither ever raised any concerns.
In the 11/1/96 episode of Family Matters, the popular "nerd" character, Urkel, is transformed into a martial arts champion and leads two small children into a brawl with local gang members. Each of the children, with Urkel taking center stage, proceeds to thrash the gang members with an assortment of martial arts-style kicks and punches. The scene, although a parody of karate movies, is actually surprisingly similar to a scene that would be found in one, complete with enhanced sound effects and high flying kicks. After dispensing with eight thugs, Urkel slams down a metal partition on the back of another foe who he had just thrown into a utility shack. The whole scene lasts for nearly four minutes as the studio audience cheers for the boys.
An example of audiences laughing at characters' injuries can be found in the 9/4/96 episode of Sister, Sister. When a male friend climbs up to the girls' second story window at night to apologize for an earlier transgression, they respond by pushing his ladder backwards, sending him falling to the ground. Although this is slapstick and is not meant to be taken seriously, in reality such an act would be terribly dangerous and possibly lethal. In this children's program, the act is never seen as anything more than a convenient and time-tested comedic device.
While comedy does deserve some latitude, somewhere a screenwriter decided that to make
the audience laugh there would be a scene in which someone was beaten up in a gang fight
or pushed off a ladder. This raises the issue of characterizing serious injuries as being
funny.
Sometimes a show that rarely deals with issues of violence will air a program with a violent theme. This raises a very interesting question. The show develops a reputation as one that seldom, if ever, contains violence. Viewers become accustomed to this, rely on it and perhaps it is a major reason they like the show. When, because of violence, a particular episode is out of step with the entire series, is it inappropriate because it is not what viewers expect? Or because the show so seldom raises these issues, is it afforded a measure of latitude to occasionally expand its themes or move in a slightly different direction?
This season, two episodes of NBC's hit show ER stand out as containing atypical amounts of violence. This program regularly features the results of violence, as victims of violence are constantly brought in for treatment, but very rarely does the show actually depict violent acts. In the episode that aired on 2/13/97, a nurse from the hospital, Carol Hathaway, is present during a convenience store robbery. When the robbery goes bad, gunfire is exchanged by the criminals and the store owner. The owner is killed and one of the robbers is seriously wounded. One store patron escapes during the gunfight and notifies the police, creating a hostage situation. The situation is resolved when the man in charge of the robbery is shot repeatedly and killed by police. The episode is unusually violent, graphically depicting several shootings. While they are contextually relevant and handled in a thoughtful and intelligent manner, they are much more than regular viewers of the show would normally expect.
Another episode, which aired on 5/1/97, revolved around a ruthless attack on one of the emergency room doctors. As Dr. Mark Greene is washing his hands in a hospital bathroom, he is assaulted by an unseen assailant who slams Greene's head into the sink and then into the mirror. He then punches Greene twice and kicks him. As Greene tries to stand up, he is thrown against the wall and knocked back to the ground where his attacker kicks him in the back and then stomps on his hand. It is a vivid and brutal attack, as realistic and disturbing as any found on television. Because of its realism and the in-depth examination of the physical and mental consequences, which spans several weeks, this episode did not raise issues of concern. However, the fact remains that this type of violence is not what viewers typically expect to see on this program.
Violence is out of character for these kinds of shows, but they deserve a measure of latitude, particularly as they search for new directions and attempt to deal with real life issues in an intelligent manner. Nevertheless, the violence that occurs must still be contextually appropriate for them not to raise concerns. These types of shows are subject to the same general standards to which all shows are held. Though out of character episodes such as those mentioned above in ER could raise concerns, these particular ones did not. Also of note is the fact that both of these episodes were rated "TV-14," although the program is typically rated "TV-PG."
Reading the preceding analyses might give the impression that prime time series are filled with violent themes. In fact, only a few shows this season consistently raised issues about violence. Many shows impressively conveyed conflict and grittiness without resorting to excessive or contextually inappropriate uses of violence. As mentioned earlier, the 10:00 p.m. dramas were particularly outstanding in how they handled violent themes, almost never resorting to excessive, graphic images or gratuitous or glorified violence. The work of Steven Bochco, David Kelley, Dick Wolf and John Wells is especially notable in its sensitive handling of violence. It is encouraging to see that violence can be portrayed so responsibly and thoughtfully.
An entire season of monitoring NYPD Blue 21 times, Chicago Hope 19 times, ER 19 times,
Homicide 21 times and Law & Order 23 times produced no problematic portrayals of
violence. Although these shows deal with themes containing violence, they generally do so
by portraying violence in a way that is not overly graphic, is relevant to the story and
is in a time period suitable for such themes. There is much to commend in these shows.
They should serve as models for how to deal with violence in an intelligent and
responsible manner. In the following analyses we have tried to explain what is impressive
in these shows. Five programs that were commended in last year's report, NYPD Blue,
Homicide, Law & Order, Chicago Hope and ER, continue to be high quality shows, often
with violent themes, that seldom raise concerns about how they portray violence. All of
these shows except Chicago Hope have been commended in each of the three years of this
report. The programs that deal with violence well this season are discussed below.
Envisioned as broadcast television's first R-rated drama, NYPD Blue consistently deals with violent themes in a responsible manner. Famous for its use of some semi-nudity and explicit language, the show was never found to be irresponsible in its use of violence. Many people unfamiliar with the show associate it with other police shows containing explicit violence. Those who watch NYPD Blue know that it contains little violence. If it does address violent themes, it does so in a manner relevant to the story.
Based on the experiences of New York City Police Department detectives, the show necessarily deals with violence. It would not be possible to portray the lives of New York cops without frequently dealing with violence. Unlike the policemen portrayed on older police shows such as Adam-12, the officers are not completely virtuous. Featuring officers pushed to the wall by the pressures of their dangerous jobs, the show deals extensively with the psychological causes and consequences of violence. The officers struggle and occasionally act brutally when arresting or extracting confessions from suspects.
Violence is depicted as a realistic part of daily life in the city. However, the show is not overrun by guns. The violence, such as slaps or threats, is often born of frustration. Although the police officers frequently consider violent action, they typically demonstrate restraint.
Violence is portrayed as problematic. The police are depicted as human and multi-dimensional characters. The bad guys are not purely evil. This leads to a responsible and realistic handling of violence. The producers understand that it is not necessary to show graphic scenes of violence in order to deal with violence in the show.
Every act of violence portrayed in NYPD Blue is contextually appropriate. Nothing is excessive, everything is realistic and the consequences are always shown. NYPD Blue is close to a textbook example of how to deal with violent material. Others can benefit by studying its methods.
Although nothing changed this season in terms of the way violence was depicted on NYPD Blue, several episodes were especially commendable for their exploration of violence committed by police officers while on the job. Typically, the only on-screen violence occurs when a detective, feeling the pressures of the job and pushed to his wit's end, occasionally crosses the line and physically abuses a suspect during interrogation. In the episode that aired on 1/14/97, Detective Andy Sipowicz is sent in to question someone suspected of a knife attack. The man is suspected of slashing the face of Gina, one of the receptionists who works in the police station. If the suspect confesses, Gina will not have to deal with the terror of testifying in front of her attacker. The station's commander, Lieutenant Fancy, specifically chooses Sipowicz to conduct the interrogation because of his violent character and ability to extract confessions. Knowing what is expected of him, Sipowicz hits the suspect several times in the face and back of the head and finally slams his head down on the table. Fearful for his life, the man confesses to the attack.
Following the interrogation, Sipowicz enters the detectives' locker room where he is confronted by a fellow detective, Greg Medavoy. Medavoy, who had brought the suspect in, had been relieved from the questioning process and replaced with Sipowicz. Obviously upset at what has happened, Medavoy presses Sipowicz about his methods of interrogation, pointing out a variety of bad things that could come out of them: coerced confessions, tainted investigations, even being thrown off the force and sent to jail. What follows is Sipowicz's discussion of what he does, why he does it and the rules he follows. It is not a glamorized account. He points out that before he ever lays a hand on a suspect, he must realize that only he is responsible for his actions and he may ultimately pay a serious price for them. He explains that it is just his way of getting results and not the right method for everybody. It is a thoughtful and compelling conversation that explores the moral ambiguities that police officers face on a daily basis. Their exchange concludes as Lieutenant Fancy enters the locker room to ask who is going to write the suspect's confession. As Fancy enters, he is barely able to look Sipowicz in the eye, his own misgivings about assigning Sipowicz to interrogate the subject apparent on his face. It is truly a remarkable scene that deals with a socially important issue of violence with gravity and intelligence.
In a continuation of this storyline, in a later episode that aired on 2/25/97, Detective Medavoy tries being more physically aggressive with suspects in an effort to get the same results as Sipowicz. While he initially meets with success as he gets a gang member to give up information about a shooting by hitting him in the head with a phone book, he is obviously shaken by his own actions. His partner is also surprised and unsettled by his uncharacteristic outburst. As the episode continues, Medavoy finds himself progressively getting rougher with suspects until it backfires on him when a suspect refuses to give him a statement because of his approach. His partner's anger toward him, in conjunction with his own doubts about his behavior, ultimately lead him to the conclusion that, while sometimes appropriate and effective, roughing up suspects is not for him. Again, the exploration of this idea is well done and responsible. The episode never portrays Medavoy's actions as glamorous or heroic, but rather as awkward as he stumbles through his tough guy act. The portrayal of his behavior is quite realistic, painted in real life shades of gray.
This program reaches a level of dramatic quality usually found only in the best feature
films. Thus, it is not surprising to find such complex themes and characters as one does
in this show. The result, in terms of violence, is a program which approaches the violence
of urban America with sensitivity and truth, dealing far more with the consequences and
impact of violence than with its graphic and gory details.
The story of an ex-Marine turned high school teacher with a heart of gold, the show stars Annie Potts as the main character Louanne Johnson, affectionately referred to as "Ms. J" by her class. In each episode, Ms. J deals with her multi-ethnic and intelligent but at-risk students as they face many of the social ills that plague urban America: teenage pregnancy, poverty, racial tension and gang violence. Much of this subject matter necessarily involves violence. However, because of the show's prosocial and positive message, the violence is always presented as problematic, an evil that must be stopped.
A particularly noteworthy aspect of Dangerous Minds is a cinematic technique used whenever a violent scene occurs on screen. Whenever violence happens, the camera shot becomes grainy and the scene is blurred. The effect of this is that the actual violent act is obscured, diminishing its graphicness, without compromising the severity of the attack or confusing the audience. This camera technique was extremely effective. It indicates a desire for viewers to focus on the message and the plot significance of the violence, refusing to exploit it for the purposes of excitement.
Less preachy and more realistic than last season's Matt Waters, Dangerous Minds is a
positive show that deals with relevant issues of violence from a thoughtful and prosocial
perspective. Although some critics have faulted the show for being overly sentimental, the
show is worthy of praise for earnestly handling important, contemporary issues in a manner
that is both constructive and genuine. Regrettably, Dangerous Minds was canceled at the
end of the season.
Homicide contains few scenes of violence. Some episodes contain none at all. Frequently scenes contain no violence other than a dead body that is the basis of a subsequent homicide investigation. Thus, the show is often a murder mystery that does not even depict the murder. The focus of the program is typically the investigation and psychological dimensions of the crime, rather than the graphic and exciting nature of the violent act itself. Like NYPD Blue, Homicide presents a world in which violence and conflict are prevalent in urban life.
Almost all of the violence is realistic and demonstrates consequences. Frequently,
action is taken to prevent violence. Homicide effectively avoids gratuitous violence while
at the same time portraying the gritty reality of urban life.
"In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate but equally important groups: the police, who investigate, and district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories." With this statement, Law & Order begins. This is an unusual show which dedicates approximately half of the one-hour program to a police investigation and the other half to the follow-up prosecution of the case. The goal of the show is to depict the justice system in a realistic light. This is achieved through character and plot development which is gritty and intense, and illustrates consequences.
Typically, Law & Order features the results of an act of violence at the beginning of the show. This is usually the crime which is being investigated, which acts as the storyline's driving force. Thus, this act of violence is always contextually appropriate (as are all of the other violent acts in the show). More often than not the crime itself is not seen, and the audience is presented with the aftermath of the violent action, i.e., a "dirty dead body." Moreover, the consequences of the violence are dealt with in a commendable manner. One example of the show's admirable portrayal of consequences occurred in the season finale that aired on 5/22/96. In this episode the four main characters are witnesses to a state execution. The remainder of the show is dedicated to how the characters deal with what they have seen: two turn to alcohol, one has a brief affair and the other questions the law and even her career choice. In speaking with one of her old law professors, she says, "What happened this morning will stick with me for the rest of my life."
In attempting to make the show true to life, it occasionally portrays the police as bullying some suspects with threatening language or physical coercion. In one episode, a police officer pushes a suspect during an interrogation. However, these acts are never overdone or gratuitous in nature.
Law & Order integrates violence into the plot in a responsible fashion. The violent
acts are not heroic, glamorized or prolonged. Instead of showing the violent act, Law
& Order substitutes graphic images and realistic consequences. This gives the program
a more violent feel without having to show actual violence. The dramatic edge is provided
by portraying the detailed rigors of police investigations. These investigations often
involve mysteries that the District Attorney's office must solve. Then, the dramatic
tension is continued by the atmosphere of the courtroom, in which the outcome of the trial
is never predictable. This is a cop show without a lot of violence and yet it has
compelling elements that keep viewers riveted to the show.
Similar in premise, both Chicago Hope and ER follow the lives and work of doctors in Chicago hospitals. Both are high quality shows featuring strong characters and well crafted stories. Focusing on the treatment of injury and disease, both programs necessarily include a degree of violence as patients are often the victims of attacks, car accidents, fires and other incidents. Sometimes the acts of violence occur in the hospital itself and are directed against the medical staff. Both programs deal with the full consequences of violence, making it clear that death or permanent injury is a frequent result of violence and that the toll on the victims, their families and friends, not to mention the doctors themselves is usually devastating.
On the occasions when violence is portrayed within the shows, both Chicago Hope and ER have handled it with commendable gravity and realism. An episode of Chicago Hope that aired on 1/22/96 contained the most realistic depiction of an explosion and its consequences all last season. Unlike what is typically seen in many theatrical films, the explosion on Chicago Hope was in no way stylized or glamorized. It was shown as a horrible event with horrendous consequences. Often when something explodes on television the explosion is filmed in slow motion from multiple angles as smoke and red, yellow and orange billows of fire unfold across the screen. However, in this episode of Chicago Hope, in which an extremist anti-abortion organization bombs a clinic, the explosion was handled in a manner that was in no way glamorized. Instead, viewers were confronted with a realistic blast and its effects, thereby achieving a far more dramatic impact than if it had been treated in a manner more typical of action genre shows.
At no time during the season did either program raise any issues of concern in terms of
violence. All violence contained in both shows was integral to the development of
characters and plot. It was also portrayed in a realistic manner that fully dealt with the
consequences of the violence.
SUMMARY:
These dramatic series are commendable, but not because they avoid dealing with violence. Most comedies do this. What is so impressive about these shows is that they achieve a high level of grittiness and excitement without overemphasizing violence, but by placing it in an appropriate context. A recommendation that a police or hospital show simply avoid violence would be unrealistic given the demands of the genre. These shows deal with violent themes but consistently do so in a contextually appropriate manner. Some conclusions regarding responsible depictions of violence are as follows:
1) Violence is a part of city life. These shows understand that violence does occur in twentieth century urban America. They do not have to invent unusual or unrealistic ways of portraying violence.
2) The violence must be realistic. When violence is depicted on these shows, it is never exaggerated, cartoonish or sanitized and the consequences are shown.
3) Characters who commit violent acts do not do so easily and frequently demonstrate remorse. Violence does not exist in a vacuum. Rarely do police officers shoot or kill suspects, even guilty ones, and call it a day. Deciding to commit a violent act can be difficult. Often a character struggles with other options before resorting to violence. After committing a violent act, one often undergoes a painful process of self-examination and reflection.
4) It is not always necessary for the audience to see the violence. Violence need not always be shown in order to make a point, advance the plot or develop a particular character. Graphically depicting violence is seldom necessary and often serves merely to sensationalize rather than illuminate.
5) It is more difficult to write and produce these kinds of shows than typical action shows. These shows require the creation of multi-dimensional characters whose actions are not always predictable. The characters cannot be superficially drawn because viewers have to understand their backgrounds and personalities in order to comprehend their actions. More traditional action shows, on the other hand, can use simplistic characters who reflexively resort to violence as the solution to problems.
These guidelines point to ways in which programs can effectively deal with violent
themes in a contextually appropriate manner that rarely, if ever, raises concerns.
In the first year of the monitoring, there was no section in the report on television specials. Of the several dozen television specials during the 1994-95 television season only one or two raised issues of concern. A new section was added last year because of a worrisome trend that started to develop in that season. Although representing only a small fraction of the total number of specials, The World's Most Dangerous Animals I and II on CBS and When Animals Attack on Fox were heavily promoted and achieved respectable ratings. It was our fear that this was the beginning of a trend that could escalate in the 1996-97 television season. Unfortunately, our fears were well founded.
These specials are a combination of real-life footage and re-creations of animals attacking and, in some cases, killing and eating human beings. The sometimes blurred distinction between the real tape and the re-creation causes confusion in the viewer. There is no question that a morbid human fascination exists with this kind of macabre video tape. Although almost everyone decries motorists slowing down to crane their necks at an automobile accident, almost everyone does so as they drive by. This is a normal, albeit not admirable, aspect of human nature. As was mentioned in last year's report, however, "The programming of a television network should not seek to emulate a car wreck at the side of the road." We also pointed out that even though "Shark Week" on The Discovery Channel--the highest rated week of their season--features shockingly violent images and scary music, viewers also learn about the mating habits and migratory behavior of sharks. Those programs have essentially remained documentaries, despite some admittedly terrifying footage. But many of the specials that appeared this season depict only the terror and carnage.
Concerns about the images in some of these animal specials were first raised in last
year's report. These concerns were echoed over the next few months in publications such as
the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek as well as several broadcast outlets. These specials
contain some of the most graphic and terrifying images to be found anywhere on network
television. And, most worrisome of all, this is a trend that seems to have spread. These
programs proliferated over the 1996-97 television season. It is our hope that there are
now so many that the market has become saturated and the number will begin to decrease.
One of the reasons these programs are so popular with programmers is that they are so easy
and inexpensive to produce. Over the past season the genre extended beyond animal attacks
to include car chases, near-death (or death) experiences, stunts, disasters and shootouts.
While last year the report was able to talk about each of these specials in detail, this
year there were so many that only a few can be highlighted.
This trend of reality-based shows began with specials about animals attacking and sometimes killing people. There are still many examples of this programming in the current season. This season saw the airing of programs like The World's Most Dangerous Animals Part III, When Animals Attack II, and When Animals Attack III. All three programs raise concerns similar to those expressed about their predecessors in the last report.
The World's Most Dangerous Animals Part III aired on CBS on 2/27/97, profiling some of the planet's most ferocious and feared creatures. Although this third installment of the series is not quite as gory as its predecessors, the show still remains a showcase of wild animals mauling and killing their human victims. One of the most violent scenes is a graphic re-enactment of a bear attack which is surprisingly intense and bloody for network television. As a whole, the program raises concerns because of the tonnage of similarly vicious scenes.
The show did air with an advisory, but it silently scrolled across the screen along with an opening montage, making it very easy for many viewers to have overlooked it.
Many of the factors that make The World's Most Dangerous Animals Part III troubling are only amplified in the two sequels to Fox's When Animals Attack. It would be extremely difficult to overstate the severity of the violence presented in When Animals Attack II (11/3/96, and repeated on 11/18/96) and When Animals Attack III (2/17/97). The slight educational value of The World's Most Dangerous Animals Part III is entirely absent from either of these two programs. Both programs open with an unusually graphic montage of violence, featuring images of attacks by bears, sharks, alligators, deer, pit bulls and many other animals. Later in each show, violent previews of upcoming footage appear before each commercial break to lure viewers back to the program.
These programs also raise serious concerns because of the way in which they glorify violence. Each show employs the use of ominous music and slow motion to underscore the brutality of each attack. Moreover, in certain instances both shows repeat the most violent portions of an attack as many as four or five times in an apparent attempt to further shock and disgust the viewer. For instance, one of the most graphic scenes in When Animals Attack III shows a bull impaling a woman with its horns and tossing her through the street like a rag doll. By the time the segment concludes the attack has been shown no less than three different times.
Another disturbing element in these shows is that they feature real-life footage of animal attacks. Unlike injury or death depicted in other televised formats, viewers cannot comfort themselves with the reassurance that what they are watching is just a fictional story, or that the injuries they are looking at are just the product of a skilled makeup artist. Rather, these shows capitalize upon the opportunity to show extraordinarily gory images of actual injuries. One segment of When Animals Attack II features actual footage of a gruesome shark attack, culminating in an extended close-up shot of the victim's bloody, wounded arm.
An argument could be made that shows of this variety could potentially inspire
unreasonable fear of certain animals. To varying degrees, The World's Most Dangerous
Animals Part III, When Animals Attack II and When Animals Attack III all exploit viewers'
fears in the way they present these violent attacks. One noteworthy instance of this
effect concerns an attack by a house cat. When it aired on The World's Most Dangerous
Animals Part III, the attacking cat was portrayed as vicious and deadly. Interestingly,
the exact same footage was shown on a different program as a comedic moment when it aired
on NBC's TV Censored Bloopers (2/22/97).
Another variety of reality-based specials this season featured criminal activity that had been caught on tape. Fox aired three such programs, World's Scariest Police Chases, World's Scariest Police Shootouts and Video Justice: Crime Caught on Tape, all of which present a multitude of images that bring to mind George Gerbner's "mean world syndrome."
Attempting to present itself as a warning against trying to outrun police, World's Scariest Police Chases showcases a collection of video clips. The program proudly declares that there are "no re-creations." What follows is actual footage of police chases, primarily focusing on the final outcome of each chase--in virtually all cases a violent crash or a pursuit on foot ending in a shootout.
This program raises some concerns because it airs at such an early time, 7:00 p.m. In addition, many of the crashes are shown without any accompanying consequences. Several clips show innocent motorists becoming the victims in these out-of-control pursuits, but do not pay much attention at all to the bodily injury that would undoubtedly result from these violent collisions. As mentioned above, last year's report likened the appeal of reality-based specials to the "morbid human fascination that leads people to gawk at auto accidents." World's Scariest Police Chases is the most literal possible example of that statement.
World's Scariest Police Shootouts delivers much of what its title promises. The seemingly endless scenes of gunfire and bloodshed in the program become overwhelming after a certain point, leaving the typical viewer somewhat unmoved by what would otherwise be perceived as truly heinous acts. Still, the most extreme images continue to horrify, as in the case of a desperate man who flips his car off the highway and then holds his wife hostage at gunpoint. A standoff ensues, and after several hours he turns the gun on his wife for no apparent reason. As she stands next to him, he fires directly into her chest and the viewer sees the bloody aftermath of his actions. She tries to flee and he fires a few more times at her, but within seconds the police have gunned him down. The entire sequence is astonishingly graphic and intense, made only more so by the fact that it is real.
The third special of this type that raises concerns is Video Justice: Crime Caught on Tape. This show tries to make the case that video cameras have become an important weapon in the fight against crime. By the end of the hour, the viewer sees two different policemen hit by oncoming traffic as well as a trio of thugs assaulting and fatally shooting another officer.
All three of these specials share certain elements. They all feature extensive use of
slow motion and repeated showings of the most intense pieces of video tape. They also rely
heavily on dramatic music and an especially violent opening montage. The minute-and-a-half
opening montage of Video Justice: Crime Caught on Tape included two shootings; 13 acts of
physical violence (punching, kicking, striking with an object); eight instances of
shoving, pushing, or struggling; eight threats with a gun; two firings of a paintball gun
and one instance of an officer being hit by a passing truck.
Many other of these "shock-umentary" programs center around terrifying instances of accidental violence. One such show is Close Call: Cheating Death which aired on Fox on 11/25/96. Featuring footage of boating and helicopter crashes, bungee jumping mishaps and other severe accidents, this program tries to make the point that the line between life and death can be very thin indeed.
Nonetheless, this program raises serious concerns because of the way in which it glorifies many of the horrendous accidents it depicts. One such scene shows a member of a bomb squad leaning over a chamber where a possible explosive is stored, only to have it detonate in his face. The explosion itself is repeated seven different times throughout the program. Many of the repetitions are in slow motion. The camera focuses on the gore following the accident, featuring a close-up of the man's hand which is missing three fingers as a result of the blast. Interestingly, the excessive graphicness in this scene is followed by a later sequence in which a man, in the process of rescuing his friend from a helicopter crash, inadvertently reveals the top portion of his buttocks, which are digitally blurred. One can only assume that the creators of this program felt that there was no problem showing viewers a man having his face blown up seven different times, but that viewers needed to be protected from the image of a "butt crack."
This show also raises concerns because several of the segues between segments are comprised of unrelated clips of excessive violence. Examples of these gratuitous images include an indoor bear attack upon an unsuspecting woman, two people falling several stories down a ladder, ski jump accidents and a bull impaling a man on its horns. None of these images are explained or put into any context; rather, they exist simply to shock and titillate.
A similarly violent show, When Disasters Strike, aired on Fox on 10/28/96. This show demonstrates the awesome power of nature's forces, focusing on the aftermath of earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and fires. One especially disturbing sequence shows a burning high-rise in Sao Paolo, Brazil. The fire completely engulfs the building in flames and traps hundreds of people inside. In their desperate attempt to escape, many of the victims hurl themselves off the building, ultimately falling to their deaths. This unusually disturbing sequence is reminiscent of films like Faces of Death, which purportedly show actual footage of people caught in the act of dying by falling, electrocution or suicide. It is also interesting that a very similar scenario, a burning building in a Latin American setting, is shown in a far more appropriate manner on ABC's I Survived a Disaster. This program emphasizes personal recollections of the event rather than gruesome footage.
However, When Disasters Strike raises concerns for other reasons as well. A montage of wreckage that introduces a segment on technology is filled with out-of-context scenes of death and destruction such as automobile, plane and boat crashes, as well as people falling to their deaths from hot air balloons. The montage is accompanied by sensationalized, pulsing, tension-building music which detracts from the severity of the violence. Later, an air show disaster is highlighted, showing a collision between two planes that explode and land on the audience. The language used by narrator Martin Sheen gives some idea of the brutality of the images that accompany it. He states simply, "The fireball instantly incinerates 61 people."
Many of the same issues are raised by Fox's When Stunts Go Bad, which aired on 5/14/97. This program purports to emphasize the dangers involved in daredevil stunts, but amounts to little more that sensationalized, titillating carnage. The show features botched motorcycle jumps and fiery car crashes in an attempt to appeal to the same human impulse that drives individuals to crane their necks on the highway to witness an automobile accident. Many of the acts depicted are especially disturbing. A stunt skier accidentally falls down the side of a mountain, flipping 13 times before coming to rest at the base of the incline. In another sequence, a man dies in a bungled Houdini-like stunt as he is literally buried alive under tons of dirt and cement.
Other problematic specials are centered around a different type of accidental violence. Programs such as TV's Funniest News Outtakes contain the type of comedic violence that has raised concerns on shows like America's Funniest Home Videos. TV's Funniest News Outtakes, which aired on Fox on 3/16/97, raises concerns because of graphic images such as a judge at a track and field meet being impaled by a javelin. Astonishingly, this life-threatening scene of graphic violence was played for laughs without any exploration of the consequences suffered by the victim.
Other examples of this type of violence are found in Fox's Funniest of the World's Funniest Outtakes (4/13/97) and Oops! World's Funniest Outtakes 5 (2/23/97). The first of these shows presents a clip of a man dressed in a Scottish kilt singlehandedly attempting to hoist a log into the air. As he loses control of the log, it slips from his hands and clobbers him in the head, knocking him to the ground. He remains motionless for the remainder of the clip. Oops! World's Funniest Outtakes 5 shows surveillance camera footage of a drunken robber's attempt to hold up a liquor store. Two female employees bludgeon him in the head with glass bottles. As the man bleeds profusely and staggers away, the studio audience watching the clip giggles with delight at this horrific act of graphic violence.
These type of reality-based specials--whether they are based on animal attacks,
crime-related brutality or accidental violence--are among the most violent shows on TV.
Their proliferation during the last few television seasons represents a disturbing trend
in television broadcasting.
Other specials that raised concerns include:
Beginning in the 1970s, movies of the week (MOWs) and mini-series became a staple of broadcast network television. Some of the most memorable moments of the past 25 years of television come from this format. Similar in many ways to theatrical films, but specifically written and produced for television, movies of the week and mini-series began as an important forum for the discussion of society's concerns and problems. Earlier mini-series and movies--such as Roots, Holocaust, Something About Amelia, The Day After and The Burning Bed--not only captured extremely high ratings and many Emmy awards, they also sparked valuable national discussions about racism, the attempted extermination of the Jews, incest, nuclear war and spousal abuse.
Originally intended as "events" in a television world largely comprised of series, they quickly became a regular part of television programming and have lost some of their luster. Television movies abandoned important and provocative themes and soon settled into a "disease of the week" format. At the same time, mini-series, intended to be television's blockbuster events, frequently seemed bloated in length and concept. To satisfy commercial demands and to recover some of their frequently very high production costs, two-hour television movies are stretched into three hours and four-hour movies into six.
One important difference between MOWs and theatrical films is the speed with which MOWs can be brought to the television screen. While a feature film may require one to two years of production, a MOW can be conceptualized, produced and aired in a matter of months, and even less in some cases. Now, many MOWs specialize in bringing very recent events to the small screen. Within months of the resolution of the Amy Fisher case, three networks aired television movies on this sensational story. NBC authorized a television movie on the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas and it was half-way completed before anyone knew whether the followers of David Koresh would get out alive. Whatever the outcome, the television movie would air. Fox aired The O.J. Simpson Story during the early days of the trial. Next year promises at least one television movie on the murder of Gianni Versace and perhaps several on the death of Princess Diana.
As discussed in the history section, MOWs and mini-series in the May 1993 sweeps period were a major source of the belief that television violence had reached new heights. Most of the concern, but not all, was focused on the television movies claiming to be "based on a true story."
We went back and looked at earlier MOWs and mini-series programming, including some shows from the May 1993 sweeps, and saw that there has been progress since then. This is an area over which the networks have total control, and advertiser and political pressure may have influenced them to make some changes in this area.
In the 1995 season we monitored 161 television movies and mini-series and in the second year, 198, an increase of 23%.This season the number shrank a bit to 184. There was no sampling with regard to television movies. Every one of the 184 movies was viewed in its entirety and examined to determine whether it raised concerns about its use of violence.
In 1995 23 television movies, or 14%, were found to raise concerns. That figure dropped modestly in 1996 to 10% (20 out of 198). This year the percentage of television movies raising concerns about violence increased slightly from 10% to 12%. Twenty-two out of 184 television movies raised concerns, a statistically insignificant change. In none of the three seasons were the relatively few television movies raising concerns considered a serious source of violence on television. Although many of these films are based on a violent premise, the elements of violence are handled well almost 90% of the time. Last season this was found to be one of the areas of broadcast television most free of problems. There was less room for improvement here than in other areas such as theatrical films, on-air promotions and children's programming. Also of note is the fact that television movies still seem to be the one type of programming for which the networks are most reluctant to use advisories. Although only a small percentage of these movies raised concerns, those that did were usually lacking advisories. This is a situation that only applied to the first three months of the season as the new television labeling system was implemented shortly after the first of the year.
The first part of this section will discuss some particularly relevant examples of made-for-television movies that raise concerns. The second part will delineate some issues and themes which run through most of the programs that raise concerns.
A made-for-television movie from acclaimed Hong Kong action movie director John Woo, Once a Thief is as close to a big-budget action feature film as one will find in this category of television programming. Airing at 8:00 p.m. without an advisory, the film is about a three-person team of covert, international police who must stop a Hong Kong mafia kingpin from setting up shop in Vancouver before his bank money is seized by the Chinese government. Complicating their mission is the fact that two of the team are not only former members of the crime boss' organization but also his ado