Family-- the New "F" Word?

"Family" is not a rating, either for films or TV. Those would be "G" or "PG". But the stamp, like those ratings, is often the kiss of death to creativity. The market is lucrative-- it has to be. Someone has to grind out stuff for kids, which is what the "family" and "family-friendly" ratings have come to mean. Nowadays the word has become a synonym for mediocre, and any schlock seems good enough to fill the "family" dustbin, requiring as it does, an endless supply of "kid-friendly" media for consumption, from artless cartoons to mindless "teen" shows, all suitably sanitized to brainwash the insatiable masses.

Its producers, however, hold it in palpable contempt. They make no secret of their attempt to make the youngest viewers addicts of media, and thus profitable consumers. Creative souls avoid "family" shows like the plague, and those who, through some accident, are forced to make them, inject into the shows, in countless ways, their postmodern sneers. Everyone knows the giant brand names of the super studios are behind them: Disney, Nick, FOX Kids, WB Kids, PBS, and everyone knows they have bigger fish to fry. Kids' shows, therefore, are more about indoctrination, from ABC's "No kind of family" to the little purple triangles wittily hidden in numerous Cartoon Network shows, than creativity. It was not always so, one could note. But need it be now? is a more current question.

As long as "Family" is one division at media companies and studios who really want to be about something very different, or one sort of offering on cable networks whose other programming would in no way prove suitable for that audience, there is no hope for TV. Some have suggested boycotting certain studios or networks, and certainly to vote for something with one's wallet means, in a sense, voting against something else. Some, like this reviewer, opt to take back the cable box and simply watch shows on DVD. But the cable company knows that when they make me a good offer with the channels I want I'll sign up again, so they're not worried.

All I can say is that someone has to work in this area. Someone's calling is to be here. Someone's calling is to make great TV. Someone's calling is to make family TV that's not schlocky, not mediocre, that has some sort of moral (if it does) beyond "show up for a family dinner". Look at all the creative shows that once found their way onto Cartoon Network. Look at how Ted Turner ran that network at a loss until enough people demanded cable companies carry it. Look at what a great success it was! Look at how sad it is that Adult Swim has become such a lot of rubbish. Can you really not make a cartoon without it being all blasphemy and sex? Must everything be ironic? Wasn't there once a time when you wanted to change the world and make it better? Wouldn't you once have given anything to work in cartoons or comics? Weren't you once straining at the bit to use your gift?

I'm merely asking. A song I once wrote has the line, "Is this your idea of a good time? I'm so bored I'm going out of my mind. It's a crime." Yeah, it's a crime. But it's not too late. As someone once said, "to him who is joined to the living, there is hope." I don't think I'm alone in hoping for some good family TV.