Tuesday, August 26, 2003
ACCENT ON THE "FOOLY": I had an odd feeling when Cartoon Network ran "FLCL" (pronounced "fooly cooly" at this house) over the past two weeks that such a tripped-out freaky-vibe show would not go unchallenged by the hoi polloi. However, I thought the main rant would be over the freaky-deaky nature of the program, not something like this.
For those who refuse to follow my blind links, the crux of the whole thing is that this lady's husband was tipped off by some twentyish coworkers about this great animated series, so he and his wife sat down to watch it and freaked. Not because of FLCL's almost incomprehensible storyline, but because of the upfront sexuality and hyperviolence of the show. Nowhere in this opinion piece does it say that their teenage kids watched it; they were just floored that their teenage kids could watch it.
So an adult was told by another adult to watch a show that runs after 12 (ET) on a program block called ADULT SWIM, with a huge disclaimer at the beginning that strongly cautioned the program that follows is NOT suitable for all ages, and they freak out about the kids because it's a CARTOON, and even cartoons shown at midnight should be for kids. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Apparently they have a V-chip in their TV, which is hardwired to PG-13, and they were stunned...STUNNED, I TELLS YA! Because of this little marvel of technology, they feel safe leaving their kids unsupervised. It makes me wonder if they've actually seen what goes ON in a PG-13 movie. She even mentions the up-front warning. "It doesn't do any good for The Cartoon Network to display a parental warning prior to its late-night programming because parental codes don't lock out a show based on that type of warning. What works is to rate a show correctly in the first place." Yes, it doesn't do them any good to warn about content in the most explicit and clear way possibe, because WE WANT A CONFUSING AND POORLY THOUGHT OUT RATING SYSTEM THAT ONLY A MACHINE WILL UNDERSTAND. Besides, she probably won't be up by then.
Oh yeah, I'd kind of like to know where she saw the nude-below-the-waist teenage girls she mentions in her letter, unless she was talking about the short-shorts that are standard gym class issue in Japan...that ain't naked, lady. I'd also like to know if she considers fighting robots exploding out of a kid's head to fight a huge hand reaching for a huge iron on the outskirts of town imitatable violence. Then again, I ask a lot of questions for which I never get answers.
Unfortunately, Cartoon Network is a bit schizo when it comes to their target demographic; Adult Swim notwithstanding, they still view themselves as a children's network, which means they'll probably give this situation much more thought than it's due. Entertainment Weekly got reamed by CN for mentioning Teen Titans and Stripperella in the same column space, and I was pissed...at the idea that somebody at CN thought kids would read Entertainment Weekly. Or that adults do, sometimes.
When I think of this gripefest, I'm reminded of what happened to the Disney Channel over the past few years, when they killed off their overnight boomer-nostalgia Vault Disney block and essentially started running their daytime schedule overnight, too. Their justification? Some kid might wake up at three in the morining and want to watch "Kim Possible." Seriously, that was their defense, to make the channel look exactly the same no matter what time of day you tune in, whether the target demographic of the kids' shows were even supposed to be awake at that hour. In other words, instead of sending an omen of the future, Ms. McBride-Wyatt might actually be behind the curve regarding corporate-think.
Ball's in your court now, Ska...
For those who refuse to follow my blind links, the crux of the whole thing is that this lady's husband was tipped off by some twentyish coworkers about this great animated series, so he and his wife sat down to watch it and freaked. Not because of FLCL's almost incomprehensible storyline, but because of the upfront sexuality and hyperviolence of the show. Nowhere in this opinion piece does it say that their teenage kids watched it; they were just floored that their teenage kids could watch it.
So an adult was told by another adult to watch a show that runs after 12 (ET) on a program block called ADULT SWIM, with a huge disclaimer at the beginning that strongly cautioned the program that follows is NOT suitable for all ages, and they freak out about the kids because it's a CARTOON, and even cartoons shown at midnight should be for kids. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Apparently they have a V-chip in their TV, which is hardwired to PG-13, and they were stunned...STUNNED, I TELLS YA! Because of this little marvel of technology, they feel safe leaving their kids unsupervised. It makes me wonder if they've actually seen what goes ON in a PG-13 movie. She even mentions the up-front warning. "It doesn't do any good for The Cartoon Network to display a parental warning prior to its late-night programming because parental codes don't lock out a show based on that type of warning. What works is to rate a show correctly in the first place." Yes, it doesn't do them any good to warn about content in the most explicit and clear way possibe, because WE WANT A CONFUSING AND POORLY THOUGHT OUT RATING SYSTEM THAT ONLY A MACHINE WILL UNDERSTAND. Besides, she probably won't be up by then.
Oh yeah, I'd kind of like to know where she saw the nude-below-the-waist teenage girls she mentions in her letter, unless she was talking about the short-shorts that are standard gym class issue in Japan...that ain't naked, lady. I'd also like to know if she considers fighting robots exploding out of a kid's head to fight a huge hand reaching for a huge iron on the outskirts of town imitatable violence. Then again, I ask a lot of questions for which I never get answers.
Unfortunately, Cartoon Network is a bit schizo when it comes to their target demographic; Adult Swim notwithstanding, they still view themselves as a children's network, which means they'll probably give this situation much more thought than it's due. Entertainment Weekly got reamed by CN for mentioning Teen Titans and Stripperella in the same column space, and I was pissed...at the idea that somebody at CN thought kids would read Entertainment Weekly. Or that adults do, sometimes.
When I think of this gripefest, I'm reminded of what happened to the Disney Channel over the past few years, when they killed off their overnight boomer-nostalgia Vault Disney block and essentially started running their daytime schedule overnight, too. Their justification? Some kid might wake up at three in the morining and want to watch "Kim Possible." Seriously, that was their defense, to make the channel look exactly the same no matter what time of day you tune in, whether the target demographic of the kids' shows were even supposed to be awake at that hour. In other words, instead of sending an omen of the future, Ms. McBride-Wyatt might actually be behind the curve regarding corporate-think.
Ball's in your court now, Ska...
|| Eric 12:55 AM#
