ABCfamily channel

[Leslie2k]

I was watching 'Sabrina, the teenage witch' with my 7 year old on Saturday morning, a fairly common occurrence. When the show ended, a movie came on, and since it was on the ABCfamily network, I figured I would leave it on to see what it was. Not 10 minutes later, I found myself trying to explain to my daughter why the people on tv were naked and one of them was sitting on the other one. WTF

What is going on with this network Not too long ago I remember reading someone else complaining that this channel was showing 'It' during the day on a weekend. Now don't get me wrong. I love 'It' and would have probably liked the movie I was watching on Saturday. Unfortunately, I don't think either one belongs on a network that, by it's very own name choice, is supposed to be family friendly. My daughter couldn't see why I wouldn't let her watch the movie. After all, it was on ABCfamily. What could be wrong with it

I went on the ABCfamily.com site and sent them a comment. By design, they don't respond to comments, so I will never know if my frustrations are even being read.

Please tell me that I am not alone in my disgust with this

[hadassahchana[$]]

I hate that! When we got TV last summer, I hadn't had access to that since the very early 80's, and never since I had kids. Boy was I shocked to see that the advertisements during 'family' time are just horrible! I don't even want to see the trailers for slasher films, much less do I want the boys to se those. And yep, all the adult stuff, too. What on earth are they thinking?

[pippadaisy[$]]

What movie was it??

[phoenixx]

The channels go by the ratings - there is no human review of the content. I'd be willing to bet that the movie in question was rated PG-13 or less, thus qualifying it for "family" fare by the bots.

If you want to know why the rating system for movies in America is screwed up, watch the documentary "This Film Not Yet Rated" about the rating industry and everything from measured curse words, definitions of nudity to outright threats and bribery. It's pretty fascinating.

Meanwhile, if you are concerned, I'd draft a letter to ABC's Program Director asking for human review of the content on their ABC Family channel, and cite the name of the movie and the day and time it was shown in your letter.

[Leslie2k]

The movie was 'Head Over Heels' -2001 release.

Here is what the abcFamily site has for information on it.

SHOW TITLE: Head Over Heels
CATEGORY: Comedy
SYNOPSIS: A New Yorker living with four models falls for a neighbor who may be a murderer.
CHANNEL: 46 [FAM]
DATE / TIME: March 31: 12:00PM
RATING: PG-13 *+
RUN TIME: 86 minutes
NOTES: English
STARRING: Monica Potter
Freddie Prinze Jr.
Shalom Harlow
Ivana Milicevic
Sarah O'Hare
Tomiko Fraser
China Chow
Jay Brazeau
Stanley DeSantis


what does the star after the pg-13 mean. I don't know about you, but I don't tend to go online to each channels website to find out information about a movie. I looked the movie up on allmovie.com and it lists this movie as have adult language, adult humor and sexual situations. Nice choice for the family channel, eh

[phoenixx]

Again, the rating system means nothing. Seriously, I'm not kidding about that. It is a contrived system to generate income, not to rate movies. In all seriousness, everyone should watch the movie "This Film Not Yet Rated".

[pippadaisy[$]]

I wouldn't consider a PG-13 movie "family" fare at any rate. And yes, the current MPAA system is ridiculous. Want to change the rating? Remove ONE instance of the word "f*ck" and voila! Family fare!

[phoenixx]

Here's an example from the WiKi to illustrate my point (language alert):

If a film uses "one of the harsher sexually derived words" (such as fuck) 1-3 times, it is routine today for the film to receive a PG-13 rating, provided that the word is used as an expletive and not with a sexual meaning (this was mentioned in Be Cool, when Chili Palmer complains about the movie industry. "Fuck" is said only in that scene, giving the movie a PG-13).

Be Cool is a movie about gangsters and the film industry starring John Travolta and Uma Thurman and is meant to be part of the loose "trilogy" of movies including Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty. Most parents don't think of that movie as PG-13 material. They think of that movie as R. But the rating system is designed to placate parents with its placebo illusion of security while still making movie houses money.

Drugs are even more taboo than sex in our Puritarian American society, so the barest reference to drugs in a movie gets an automatic PG-13 at a minimum, while a sex scene or brief nude scene might pass as a PG if the context is deemed valid and the nudity is not full frontal or male (don't even get me started on why it's ok to see a woman naked but not a man in America).

Films that have legitimate historical or educational value are often granted leniency. Some have argued that the level of violence in Saving Private Ryan merited an NC-17, but that the film was given leniency because it was a historical war movie. This argument also came up when The Passion of the Christ was released without cuts, with an R-rating.

I still can't believe they allowed the excrutiatingly graphic and gory Passion of the Christ to pass without an NC-17 rating, but as it notes above the barest semblance of moral or historical value, even if it isn't valid or isn't your morals, gets a movie a pass to the more acceptable and marketable R rating.

The rating system has been loosely in place since the late 60s, but it didn't really come into popular use until the 1980s - age of Tipper Gore and the censorship of entertainment in America. It is my opinion that there should be no ratings system other than NC-17 and X to denote truly horrifically violent or extremely graphic sexual movies. I think it would work better if a detailed description of each movie, including any cursing, drugs or nudity, was given. this would allow parents to read the movie jacket or on air description and make their own informed decision based on their own morals, not the morals of others.

To read more about this interesting subject you can go to the Wiki here, or rent This Film Is Not Yet Rated.

[phoenixx]

Oh yeah, and the ABC channels ( and others) use the asterisk as shorthand for what that IMDB lays out for you in plain English: why it got the rating. Just plug it into the the IMDB and you get the reason behind the rating (and the asterisk):

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, crude humor and language. (emphasis mine)
Runtime:

86 min
Country:

USA
Language:

English / Russian
Color:

ColorBlind - ICC Color Management
Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

Test Page for Apache Installation / Dolby Digital / Sony SDDS - Taking Motion Picture Sound to the Next Level
Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #37485) / EA Forums - Powered by vBulletin / Argentina.com :: Internet Gratis, e-Mail, Turismo, y mucho más / australia.com / canada.com / esse.es (w) / Irish Newspaper Online with News from Ireland & the World - ireland.com / SPAIN hotels, Spain travel guide, chat, cheap discount airfare, car rental, vacation deals info, holidays / Index of / / Our Sites... (cut) / South Korea:15 / South Korea:18 (original rating) / Singapore:PG
Filming Locations:

Bryant Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA more
MOVIEmeter:

8% since last week why?
Company:

Robert Simonds Productions more

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Many of the tv stations now start with "This Film is rated (whatever) and contains the following" and then they list if it's language or sex scenes or what have you, so you don't need to look it up. The V Chip will also block films based on those criteria, I believe.

[mtbat]

Ms. Congeniality is rated R-but has less nudity than most pg-13 movies.

There are R movies I'd let my kids watch, and PG-13 I won't.

[Leslie2k]

mj,
A lot of stations do have warnings at the beginning of the films. For example, cartoon network has a big disclaimer at the beginning of many of its evening programs stating that they are not intended for kids. Unfortunately, abcfamily has not chosen to do this, at least not on any of the movies I have seen.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Leslie2k said

mj,
A lot of stations do have warnings at the beginning of the films. For example, cartoon network has a big disclaimer at the beginning of many of its evening programs stating that they are not intended for kids.

Yeah, I think that's what I said I don't watch ABCF much, but they had an "adult content" disclaimer every night before Whose Line Is It Anyway (haven't noticed if it's still there). They DO still have a disclaimer before the 700 Club or whatever it is that comes on at 11pm, stating the views expressed by the (crazy religious zealot on the) following show are not the views of ABC Family

Meanwhile, the V-Chip seems to be a bust, at least for now. The latest survey I spotted said something like only 10% of households with children used it.

[phoenixx]

mtbat said

Ms. Congeniality is rated R-but has less nudity than most pg-13 movies.

There are R movies I'd let my kids watch, and PG-13 I won't.

Like I detailed above, the R rating is not for nudity, but for full frontal female nudity, male nudity, explicit sex, extensive language and extremely bloody violent content. The Semi nude women, 1 use of the word fuck, bloodless violence, etc. all get a PG-13.

Again, I HIGHLY recommend visiting the Wiki I linked on the rating system, and also watching This Film not Yet Rated. Very educational.

[hadassahchana[$]]

I think I need to find that film, Leslie. Thanks for hte tip. I've seen PG-13 movies with the boys which made me blush, and watched R which were fine for them. The film is going to make me nuts, am I right?

[emeleel]

What really drives me buggy are the "PG" films from back before the days of PG-13. If there was only a little bit of questionable content, it got a PG - which still holds today.

We borrowed "Logan's Run" one time a year or so ago. DH and I had both forgotten about the one brief female frontal nudity shot toward the end. By the time we could dive for the remote, it was over, but it was not at all what I was expecting in a "PG" movie, LOLOL.

[phoenixx]

hadassahchana said

I think I need to find that film, Leslie. Thanks for hte tip. I've seen PG-13 movies with the boys which made me blush, and watched R which were fine for them. The film is going to make me nuts, am I right?

Yes it will, and also, um, maybe not appropriate to watch it with the boys. It illustrates its points visually, so there is visual explanation for the level of nudity at each rating, for example, among other things, including language. Still worth a watch.

[hadassahchana[$]]

LOL, thanks for the heads up about the warning movie!

[Leslie2k]

mjfrombuffalo said

Yeah, I think that's what I said

sorry- I was actually agreeing with you, just didn't word it very well.

[drmomentum[$]]

I second the recommendation on the film Leslie recommended.

"This Film Is Not Yet Rated" is worth a peek into how broken the rating system is. And how incestuous it is.

-JP