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The Parents Television Council (in the US) has announced that “Buffy” The Vampire Slayer” is the least family friendly show on network television.
Buffy ranked behind {or should that be ahead of} television shows like “Temptation Island” and “Chains of Love.” UPN airs the shows with a warning that it is for mature audiences.
I don’t know what to make of that? It’s possible of course, we had an Angel show banned in the UK I think because it insinuated monster sex.
what do these people expect? would Buffy be Buffy, if instead of monsters getting their backsides kicked and vamps exploding into dust, we had something like:
giant teddy marches into Sunnydale: demands that all the little children follow him to Never Never land. Buffy marches up-“excuse me old chap, would you mind leaving town? otherwise i’ll just have to beat you with this pansy i’m holding”
seems daft to say that Buffy isn’t family friendly- by its very nature, its content, it should be obvious that it isn’t a show for the wee ones. if they even attempted to make it more family friendly it would just ruin the feel of the show, and it would no longer be the programme we know and love.i would assume they are annoyed by the conspicuous absent of parental figures on buffy; joyce was the only parent we saw with any regularity, and she died, forcing buffy to take on mom role for dawn…willow’s parents lack of involvement was a running joke, xander’s parents were drunks who charged him for room and board, and tara’s family tried to isolate her so that she could be the family slave…giles was a good father surrogate, but ultimately he left buffy just like her own dad…hmmm, reality based or not as buffy may be about parents today, i guess the non-family value thing is not totally amiss…
however, let’s remember that buffy is also about consequences for actions (i mean angel gets evil after sex for chrissakes), not being a victim (buffy is the ultimate non-victim) and about standing by each other…oh enough for now, don’t want to get too preachy…Usually a bunch of old prudes deciding on what’s good for family viewing, and totally out of touch with the public.
Buffy has often accused of being cheesy especially when compared to Angel, I’m glad it does take it more seriously, Buffy is a series that shouldn’t be aimed at the younger teen generation and below, it would ruin the whole thing.
Nothing against that age group, but Buffy isn’t Sabrina, it’s needs a dark side and if it did pander to that generation I think it would put off it’s older viewers, I think it’s toed the line really well.
I hope Whedon doesn’t pay any attention to those who think it should be more family orientated, truth is, is that Buffy has not really changed in that way.
Squishy
Well all the tapes and DVDs are 12 and 15 rated, so that should be a clue, really. I guess all the uproar is because of the early time slot. When I was a wee gal, at 8 pm precisely (that’s when Buffy is aired) I used to watch a programm called “Good night babies” (no kidding) all about teddy bears and sock puppets and cartoons about how important it is to share and brush your teeth and stuff. So I guess an episode of Buffy isn’t the best thing for six year old to see before bedtime. What should parents do about it? Write to the station and complain? Well, here’s another thought – how about CHANGING THE CHANNEL, for example?
WHAT??!!! And have to get up and find the remote control?
On the other hand I can see their point of view. As a parent, you can’t monitor all of your kids viewing (or so I’m told). Throughout the series’ it has been getting darker. As Buffy and the Scoobies grew older the writers were able to address more mature issues, and they have not made a secret of this. In fact they seem to be using this as a selling point. The stations don’t seem to want to shift the slot though. I guess that as the series was originally intended to pull in the teenage audience, they don’t want to let go of those viewing figures. It would, after all, result in a loss of revenue. Can you really see a corporation going for that? Yup, I am that cynical.
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