FanWorthy

A Message To TV Producers

This is a public service announcement for Tact And General Political Correctness. You will be returned to your regularly scheduled blog after this post.

Over the past month or so, there have been two sources for major news headlines – Somali pirate attacks, and the possibly fatal swine flu pandemic.

Usually, I am not a sensitive person when it comes to general PC. But there have been a few remarks and a plot on TV that I felt could have been avoided with some clever editing. I have only seen three instances so far, but they’re worth mentioning:

Brothers & Sisters:

- While talking about dreams they had, Rebecca and Justin mention pirates. Justin remarks something to the affect of “I like pirates.” He was referring to Pirates of the Caribbean-type pirates, of course, but it came off wrong just the same.

-Tommy is in Mexico. Not a problem when the plot line first premiered, but now people are probably wondering if he’s going to come home (IF he comes home) with the swine flu. Worse yet, they send Nora down there in the most recent episode to look for him.

Wizards of Waverly Place:

-Yes, even Disney Channel is guilty of this.  In “Don’t Rain on Justin’s Parade -Earth,”  main character Alex makes light of the possibility that her brother could get “the flu.” 

Now, I know some of you are rolling your eyes at this, and it’s true, I’m probably making a big deal out of nothing.  All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t hurt for producers and editors to show some tact these days.  I haven’t been offended at all, but there’s the chance that a lot of viewers were, and it could hurt ratings.  An incident comes to mind many years ago when Friends pulled and re-filmed a different story line because the original joked about airport security after the 9/11 attacks. 

This is more of a warning for mainstream network TV not to get sloppy with PC, especially with how much people are affected by swine flu reports.  I’m not calling for a movement to stop watching any offending show, I’m not upset, I’m not angry.  

All I want to do is warn TV producers: BE CAREFUL.