No Extra-Censory Perception

"Hot and steamy and served right smack in the middle of the 6 o'clock news." Now I'm not talking about dinner, first off I never eat that early and secondly, had I been eating I undoubtedly would have gagged. What I am referring to are a couple previews for movies and shows on television here recently.

I certainly am no prude, but when I see a scantily clad woman crawling all over some guy in the back-seat of a car and a bevy of overly anxious would-be paramours to a 30-something tennis player school-girlishly giggling about how one of them would "just like to see him naked", well that IS a bit much. But what really got my ire up (and would have my food as well) was this clip of Cloris Leachman clad in a German housefrau-type waitress outfit being more than friendly "handling" a sausage before serving it up to some guy.

Now I know that sex sells, well, not usually with Cloris Leachman, but that's not my point here...my point is that these two specific previews, from NBC's reality show, Age of Love, and the movie, Beerfest, respectively, really should not have been aired at that time, if at all. My 12-year-old daughter even asked me what was up with the Beerfest one...and honestly, I rather would have spent the time looking at Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" instead, considering IT lasted all of 1/100th of a second. The Beerfest clip, unfortunately, didn't.

I don't watch too much "big three" television programs, mainly I'm tuned to The History Channel or Turner Classic Movies, so I rarely glimpse any mainstream commercials/previews, but if this is the type of sensationalism these stations have resorted to airing in order to pay their costs, well, that's just sad commentary as to what they perceive their viewers want to see.

What ever happened to a modicum of class and dignity? I remember reading, many years ago, before the age of the Internet, that Prime Time was "family time" and oh, my - the fervor that Charlie's Angels' "T&A jigglefest" caused in the 70's...and that show, I believe, used to air 9:00 p.m. ET. And the outcry of thousands upon thousands of outraged viewers years later when that NYPD Blue guy bared his butt in the same time slot. Then, years later still, who could forget the gobs of people who complained when Janet Jackson's "less than perky" boobie was shown before the masses at the Super Bowl? And if it weren't for the Internet, VCR's and TiVo, that would have remained nothing more than a brief flash...in the pan.

Well, I say we need to address these more recent turns of events...I cannot be the only one with children who has witnessed this and been annoyed by it. I can and do choose not to watch these shows and change the channel to watch other programming during their view times, but I CANNOT stop my child from witnessing a movie/television preview for them during a whole other show. And I shouldn't have to.