AND FASTER, TOO!
It is odd that what appears to be the first serious efforts in a long time to attempt to clean up our entertainment a bit, should happen at the very time that violence seems to have peaked at a new, higher level.
Two seemingly unrelated incidents are involved.
The first was the unfortunate decision made , it appears, by two mediocre young performers who decided to spice up their rhythmic talk and gyrations routine during the Half-Time “show” at this year's Super Bowl game. No one expected much from the show which was billed well ahead of time as a sleeze showing to include cheer leader-type girls undressing. A bare bosom would not be out of place, exactly, yet when Justin Timberlake tugged at Janet Jackson's costume blouse enough came off to reveal one-each bare breast.
People were shocked! If one compares the incident with scores other entertainment acts on stage the very day, theirs was kindergarten stuff, at best.
The time was right, however, and millions of people - many who did not even see the act - condemned it and spilled ink and phone calls all around the world bemoaning the low depths to which our moral life had descended.
Now all that took place a good three weeks or so before Rosie O'Donnell and her homosexual companion were officially “married” in freaky Frisco along with three-thousand other such couplers. Rather than “capping the climax” that public display knocked the bottom out of the lowest level to which we had fallen by that time.
Meanwhile, back at the entertainment ranch...
An old violence theme had been re-done and was being made ready for the public with great care and detailed planning. It will take a while for society to understand the relationship of the Janet Jackson bare breast bit and the intensely hyped introduction of Mel Gibson's R-rated film masterpiece: “The Passions Of The Christ”
It appear that Mel Gibson has successfully pulled off an old stunt done on a fine but much smaller scale many years ago here in Virginia. Robert Porterfield started his famed “Barter Theater “in wrongdoing, Virginia That was home to him and he knew his family roots well. He knew he had to be very careful about bringing actors and actresses to the rural area in any number. To many “locals” actors and actress were symbols pf “loose living”. Upon their arrival, Porter field already had a plan at work. H He held orientation sessions with them and on the following Sunday morning, and the very first after their arrival they scattered and appeared as earnest twosomes s with a natural desire to be in church of a Sabbath morn. They knew the hymns, joined in the singing with much interest and seemed at ease with the litany of the varied services. They met and mingled with the people and formed actual friendships in those first weeks .The idea of having resident theatrical troupe in the community ceased to bother the long-time residents. They worked together to make the “Barter Theater” the success it became even in those Great Depression times. Admission to the theater productions could be – and often was - done by bartering of local food and products. They locals became an important part of the theater itself. A host of stars came from the companies on stage at the Barter Theater, Abingdon. Robert Butterfield, actor and manager won over a supporting audience at the very start for a chancy, doubtful project and Mel Gibson has done the very same thing on a grander, national scale by gaining the support of religious leaders and church members before the premiere of his masterpiece - “The Passions Of The Christ”.
The film, which was R-rated because of excessive violence would have had a tremendous uphill battle without his pre-showing screenings to church groups before the film was shown to general public. The Gibson gambit worked well. It worked so well that books will be written about it.
Then ,following those two events, we find a sudden flurry of activity from regulatory agencies causing one network to kick Howard Stern off the air in six leading markets... that's “s-i-x.” Suddenly new legislation surfaces seeking to apply present limitations to cable TV as well as over-the-air transmissions. “Cool the cable” seem to have become the watchword for a clean-up crusade with some. Most telling of all is the fact that ABC-TV has set,for the first time, a mandatory five-second delay of the forth coming Academy Awards Presentations program, which gives producers a change to delete profanity, obscenities and who-knows-what-else which may be tried?
I have worked with two second delay on talk radio and we became quite comfortable with it on the doing end. Two second delay enabled us to cut quite a few nasty expressions, cuss words and indecent references without those notable “bleep” sounds. A five-second delay makes you wonder what ABC-TV is expecting to meet with during the Academy Awards speeches.
A.L.M. February 27, 2004 [c856wds]
