Famed director Steven Spielberg says that television shows such as “CSI” and “Heroes” are too gruesome, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Today we are needing to be as responsible as we can possibly be, not just thinking of our own children but our friends’ and neighbors’ children,” Spielberg said at the International Emmys board of directors meeting.
Spielberg decried on-air promotions for television shows like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” that showed “blood and people being dissected.” He also said that when his favorite TV show of the new season, NBC’s “Heroes,” showed someone cut in half in the 9PM hour, he sent his younger children out of the room.
Our question to Steven would be… Why are you allowing your younger children to watch “Heroes” in the first place? This is not a show for kids under 16 years of age and, as a responsible parent and, especially as a Hollywood insider, you should already have been aware of this. Just because it is a scifi/fantasy show does not necessarily mean it is suitable for all age groups. As a concerned parent it is your job, not the job of the network or Big Brother’s FCC to do that good parenting work for you.
Now, as far as on-air promotions are concerned then we here in the news department of Slice of SciFi fully agree with Steven that the television networks do have a responsibility to tone down the content, especially if the promo is done before 9PM. That is just plain smart and responsible television.
I don't think I'd call "Heroes" TOO gruesome. But I guess he wants us all to watch things like "Barney & Friends" and "Sesame Street". Right?
Well, "Barney & Friends" might be too scary, but not in the way he's thinking.
(Has he forgotten about his movie "Jurassic Park"? A LOT or kids went to see that movie, even though there were scenes of people being ripped apart by dinosaurs. I guess that's okay.)
Okay, wait. Is he unaware of the fact that the show has a rating of TV14-V, or does he not know the V stands for violence?
Except for the scene in the coroner's office, I haven't seen anything that would have been out of place in a comic book, and I think he's upset because he was surprised... but it's because he didn't pay attention to the TV rating, not because of the show content.
And yes, there's a reason Barney showed up in a DOOM mod.
I'm surprised Spielberg doesn't seem to know about the TV ratings system. Also, when a show comes on at 9pm or later? All bets are off.
Mr Spielberg, it's 9pm. Shouldn't your kids be in bed?
And shouldn't you maybe watch an episode BEFORE you let the kiddies watch?
Crime Scene Investigations, Steve. Don't you think that this automatically means there's gonna be a bit of the gruesome happening there?
And as rich as you are, I know you can afford to download on iTunes an episode of EVERYTHING on TV so you can pre-screen it for your kiddies.
And I know you have the most expensive cable package money can buy: HBO has 20 channels, at least 2 of them being "family" programming. The same for Showtime.
And there's always the Disney Channel.
TV doesn't need to "tone down" anything.
PARENTS need to do their job and PARENT.