How'd They Get Away with THAT?

[Mikal]

On the South Park "shit" question, IIRC Matt and Trey were stunned the FCC let "shit" get said when CBS did some live version of On Golden Pond as well as occasionally on other shows on the main networks so they fought to be able to do the same on their show...just with more "shit" being said.

I think it's ok to say shit on basic cable since it's a pay service even if Congress wants to have the FCC regulate that as well.

[Deleted]

I remember hearing the F bomb dropped quite a few times during USA's Riding the Bullet. I actually forgot I was watching basic cable, until they did bleep one out and I remembered. Even the crow swore - "What the fuck are you looking at?" {Joey Lawrence} Woah! {/JL}

[fanatic]

I was just watching VH1 and they mentioned that Paris Hilton not only didn't vote in the latest election, but she didn't even register. YET SHE WAS LECTURING PEOPLE ABOUT VOTING AND DOING BILLBOARDS FOR P.DIDDY...

..How come no one hollered at her for this?

[january]

It's kind of like we expect this kind of thing from Paris, maybe.

[Deleted]

Speaking of the F bomb, Comedy Central sometimes airs Chris Rock concerts and they are unedited. I was watching it one night and I kept checking to make sure I was watching Comedy Central and not HBO.

[Door]

I don't know why there wasn't more controversy over Woody Allen and Soon-Yi. Yeah, she's not *biologically* his daughter, but he still helped raise her. I still can't get over it -- or watch a Woody Allen film.

[Maddiemoo]

I think you can get away with pretty much anything on cable if it's late enough. Comedy Central airs South Park: The Movie unedited, and USA, TBS, etc, usually let most swears slide, if not the F-Bomb. Hell, Oxygen plays soft-core porn at some odd hour.

[huntergrayson]

Comedy Central actually makes an event out of it -- they call it the "secret stash -- uncensored, uncut, etc." It's every Saturday evening at 1 a.m. Oxygen and soft core porn? Man, it's not nicknamed the O! network for nothing.[/rimshot] (I think Nip/Tuck and such prove that basic cable can do anything now).

Speaking of: Oprah had to change the name of her magazine from simply "O" to "O:the Oprah Magazine" because the former was being used for a German fetish publication. Good times.

Woody and Soon-Yi pales compared to Charlie Chaplin. Besides being a communist, he took four brides -- all but one underage (two 17s and a 16 year-old). Keep in mind, that's how old they were when he married them, not neccessarily when they initially met and uhm, did things.

Oh god, I'm reading about this and it gets worse: One, Lita Grey, had met Charlie when she was six. They performed together for 10 years and then started their affair. Somehow, the mother approved and allowed this.

[zivvie]

Continuing with Julia Roberts...I still don't understand how she can go on Oprah's show and play the blushing bride, then the doting mom {and the audience cheers and kisses her ass}. She refuses to cop to the fact that she's an adulterer who deliberately went after a married man. If she were a non-celeb named Jane Smith and had engaged in the same behavior, the audience would boo her off the stage.

I don't know how Tom Clam can get away with acting like he's a junior high school student in love for the first time*. Tom, you're almost 43, you've been married and divorced twice, and you have two children. The ga-ga schoolboy thing wore a bit thin a long time ago.

{for those benighted souls who don't buy that TomKat is all a load of crap}

[monsterzero]

Comedy Central actually makes an event out of it -- they call it the "secret stash -- uncensored, uncut, etc." It's every Saturday evening at 1 a.m. Oxygen and soft core porn? Man, it's not nicknamed the O! network for nothing.[/rimshot] (I think Nip/Tuck and such prove that basic cable can do anything now).

Actually what the basic cable channels are doing is perfectly legal. Since we now have ratings for TV shows technically when something is labeled 'TV-MA' you can play nearly anything. If anybody complains, they're out of luck: it's marked as being for mature audiences so you have no grounds to complain. This is why the TV ratings aren't what the NASCAR dads and soccer moms really want: they wish to have the freedom to turn the TV to whatever they want and not run the risk of having to tell their children about various matters that might put a wrinkle in their Haggar slacks. But the real victory here is that with ratings you don't outlaw 'indecency' as much as you sanction it. The logic behind this is that if you don't want everybody to have an opinion that's contrary to yours your children to be 'offended' (or exposed) to something you don't like, then you now have the tools to defend against it at your disposal and are easy to use if you know how to read a fucking TV manual. If not, then you only have to blame yourself for not knowing how to use those very simplistic tools and you have to deal with the responsibility like an actual adult.

So all this MA stuff on TV? The TV ratings started it and this is their natural conclusion, no real big deal about it. Hell, TCM gets away with doing the same thing and they don't make a production out of it.

Continuing with Julia Roberts...I still don't understand how she can go on Oprah's show and play the blushing bride, then the doting mom {and the audience cheers and kisses her ass}. She refuses to cop to the fact that she's an adulterer who deliberately went after a married man. If she were a non-celeb named Jane Smith and had engaged in the same behavior, the audience would boo her off the stage.

Not everybody kisses Horseface's ass: Conan O'Brien has made fun of her before and mocked her. It's just that the 'richest' people on TV are often the ones who just go with the flow and ignore reality when it displeases them.