On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 2:01 AM, JW <[email protected]> wrote: > >> And it would shock people, which is what television is supposed to do. > > Supposed to do? Inform, educate, entertain, sure. Sell products, in > the American broadcasting model. Shock may happen in one of these > contexts, but it's not a primary purpose. > >> Is it possible to even imagine a character like Pam on The Office, >> or Allison Blake on Eureka, getting an abortion? > > If one of those series needs to create buzz at the risk of offending a > segment of the potential audience, then yes. Of course, if it happened > on The Office, it would be another example of NBC's ineptitude.
I just want to clarify what JW has pasted above, which is a conflation of excerpts from posts from two different authors (Kevin and myself). Kevin of course can speak for himself - my sense of his original point was not that TV exists just to gratuitously shock people, but in part to challenge and provoke and stimulate debate (something along the lines of ERM's "teach... illuminate...and even ... inspire". The passage lifted my post did not suggest that abortions should be shown on television purely for shock value - I was simply suggesting another topic that is widely regarded as shocking - so shocking that most entertainment programs avoid it. Whether they should or not is another matter. But I think it is still interesting that, while 40 years ago it might have been shocking for a young, respectable, likable female star of a sitcom to get pregnant before she got married (as Pam has done, with little or now public shock) today the idea of the same character getting an abortion is almost unthinkable, or, as JW puts it, evidence of the programmers ineptitude. Personally I don't think a show should portray an abortion purely to shock, or to create buzz. But people do get abortions, for a variety of reasons. It is legal and safe, and has no more negative physical or psychological consequences for the woman than giving birth does, and I think it is rather bizarre that this aspect of everyday life for millions of people just disappears when that life is refracted back on television. I think if Americans saw people they like on TV getting an abortion once in a while it might help them put abortion in a little bit of a different perspective (and maybe physicians who offer the service would not have to spend quite as much time and money on protecting themselves and their families from murdering stalkers). It also might underline the point that all of the sex that tv characters often pursue so ruthlessly has real consequences. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
