Badpuppy Gay Today |
Friday, 10 October 1997 |
Is it another ABC-TV Plot to keep Ellen before the public eye? If so, its working, but it could backfire this time, say angry activists. At an unexpected time—prior to an episode that included a joking-lips-on-kiss with her heterosexual friend—the ABC-TV network has pulled a fast one: abruptly adding an on-screen warning to parents to consider restricting the watching of Ellen. Ellen DeGeneres, the New York Times reported, threatened to walk away from the popular comedy show but an agent for the comedienne indicated to CNN that the quitting threat had been exaggerated. ABC, according to Ms. DeGeneres, has censoriously opposed "numerous" scenes that the show's writers have submitted this season, including the joking homo-hetero-kiss scene, which seems to have prompted the parental advisory. She told the New York Times that "no other show on ABC, not Spin City, or Drew Carey or Dharma and Greg would be forced to carry that kind of advisory for a scene like this." "How do I go forward," she is reported to have said, "This is blatant discrimination!" ABC-TV's fortunes have taken a noticeable dive this season and Ellen ranks among the top-drawing shows her network offers. In a national report issued scoring last week's TV ratings and covering every network's prime time shows popular among 18-49 year olds, Ellen ranked eighth. The consumer spirit in this age group is reputed to be most alive and the most easily influenced by TV advertising. The Human Rights Campaign, (HRC) the largest national and gay and lesbian political organization, which has only recently added its first heterosexually-inclined member (Ellen DeGeneres' mother Betty) to its speaker's bureau, slammed ABC Wednesday upon learning the parental warning would be aired. "Ellen DeGeneres has portrayed an openly gay character honestly and with enormous sensitivity and humor. Now, ABC-TV wants America to think this warrants 'viewer discretion,' " said Elizabeth Birch, HRC's executive director. "The realistic depiction of the life of a gay person hardly qualifies as content that should be marked for viewer discretion. This amounts to an absurd double standard in which characters who reflect the real lives of gay people are marked as 'adult content.' The Ellen show, says the HRC, is rated TV-14, meaning inappropriate for teens under 14. Additional ratings are available for violence (V); sex (S) or language (L) should a particular episode's script warrant. "This advisory is telling kids something's wrong with being gay," objected Ellen DeGeneres. "Its like if they had a black show," she fumed, "and put on a warning that said the show isn't suitable for people who don't like black people." One scene reportedly nixed by the President of ABC Entertainment, Jamie Tarses, showed Ms. DeGeneres' character, Ellen Morgan, walking toward a bedroom with a woman with whom she's fallen in love. "The only other ABC show that's ever had this (adult) label," said Ellen DeGeneres, is NYPD Blue and that has nudity and violence." The Human Rights Campaign is urging its membership and all other interested parties to contact ABC-TV and to urge network executives to eliminate unnecessary warnings they may post about Ellen. ABC can be contacted by e-mail, cablegrams, telephone calls, letters, and postcards: Ms. Jamie Tarses, Entertainment President |
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