Veterans Day and Saving Private Ryan
Nov. 11th, 2004 08:32 amThere are about 20 ABC affiliates around the US that have decided not to air "Saving Private Ryan" tonight (the story's here, from CNN) even though it ran uncut in 2001 and 2002. It turns out that the affiliates are actually freaked out about the use of the word fuck, as opposed to the carnage that comes in the first 20 minutes of the film (and considering Fallujah right now). This is due to the FCC's crackdown on Janet's boob and Bono's use of the word fuck earlier this year. But this is what made me burst out laughing: a spokesperson for one of the affiliates "cited recent FCC actions and last week's re-election of President Bush as reasons for replacing 'Saving Private Ryan' on Thursday with a music program and the TV movie 'Return to Mayberry.'"
Let me repeat that: they're considering replacing "Saving Private Ryan" with "Return to Mayberry."
In the words of mda: "We are the weirdest country on the planet. Ever."
Let me repeat that: they're considering replacing "Saving Private Ryan" with "Return to Mayberry."
In the words of mda: "We are the weirdest country on the planet. Ever."
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Date: 2004-11-11 03:12 pm (UTC)What really gets me is that we live in a country where brain splatter is cool, but boobs are an abomination.
Every human being has mammary glands. People need to get over it. No one ever died from massive amounts of tits being dropped on a city.
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Date: 2004-11-11 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-11-11 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-12 04:11 pm (UTC)I saw it more as a way to make some noise over the FCC's rulings than anything else. I think that this was a way to highlight the issue and make it very public. Saving Private Ryan is a popular movie. They were showing it in honor of a national holiday, etc.
As a side note, being in the part of Massachusetts that I'm in, we also get Providence channels. The Providence ABC affiliate showed it. Go figure.
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Date: 2004-11-13 01:28 am (UTC)Well, the upshot is, I watched the movie last night, whereas I might not have, otherwise. So I'm a culture creature, after all. I wonder if they'll ever show _Schindler's list_ uncut now, b/c of the naked ladies.
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Date: 2004-11-13 05:27 am (UTC)I was thinking about Schindler's List too. I really doubt that they would show it without the same kind of scandal.
Eh...in a couple of years, they'll be back to how they were in the good ol' 90s. All of this Janet and Bono crap just has to settle down first.
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Date: 2004-11-13 01:52 pm (UTC)It will settle down, you're right. And in other ways it will just become more insane. I keep remembering when I was a kid, there was the show "Maude." And Maude had an abortion. It was 1 of the big episodes. They would never do that today on prime time TV (of course, it happens all the time on the soaps, or at least I think it still does). And this was about 30 years ago.
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Date: 2004-11-15 02:33 pm (UTC)One of the characters on Days of Our Lives just had an abortion. It's on the one channel that we get at the lunchroom at work. We're all addicted. :)