I was watching the television show Men of a Certain Age the other day with my family and noticed they said a lot of words and did things that were considered “taboo” not too long ago.
This brought to my attention that a lot of shows these days say and do a lot of things that, at one time, they wouldn’t dare or dream to do.
I remember watching reruns of shows like All in the Family and “he Dick Van Dyke Show.
I didn’t have to worry about them using profanity because they didn’t do it.
Now, not only do people use an absurd amount of profanity, but they also seem to be determined to show sex and nudity in any show that comes on television now.
Back in the sixties, they wouldn’t even show couples sleeping in the same bed; now I’m lucky if I can find a show such as that.
The TV Parental Guidelines system was put into effect in 1997.
This is where we get our TV ratings such as TV-Y, TV-G, TV-PG, etc.
TV-Y, TV-G and TV-PG all include shows that deal with minor to no vulgarity, the mildest being Little Einsteins, while the most severe includes shows like Everybody Loves Raymond.
Then television makes the jump to TV-14, which includes strong suggestive dialogue, coarse language, intense sexual situations and violence.
While it sounds severe, most of television is occupied with shows that fall under this rating.
Almost all of television’s most popular shows would be considered TV-14 (Scrubs, House, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, The Tonight Show, etc.)
When you consider that most of what we see on television falls just short of the rankings of shows like South Park and Jackass, it puts into perspective just how desensitized we have become.
Seeing the lack of discretion makes me wonder if one day I’ll turn on my television to a family station and come upon inappropriate acts.
I suppose only time will tell how far Hollywood will we go before a line is drawn.
