On this, the ten year anniversary of the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime show, defenders of Hollywood are already, predictably, working hard to downplay the concerns exhibited by millions of Americans in the immediate aftermath, and the cultural significance of the spontaneous public backlash the event triggered.
Read more →The two main things you pay attention to during the Super Bowl are of course the game, and second, the commercials. Companies spend millions of dollars for a shot at pitching their product or service to the year’s biggest television audience.
Unless you’re a fan of the New England Patriots or the Carolina Panthers, it’s unlikely you remember very much from Super Bowl XXXVIII, played on February 1, 2004 – except maybe the halftime show.
Read more →An expert on brain development warns of the hazards of video games — particularly in young children.
PTC President Tim Winter wrote to Don Thompson, President and CEO of McDonalds, calling on McDonalds to re-establish its trust with customers — by sponsoring family-friendly entertainment.
Supposedly aimed at children ages 2-6, the Nick Jr. cable network drove away most of its viewers with its “NickMom” programming block two years ago. Despite its financial and popular failure, the network remains committed to pushing content totally unacceptable for children.
Just over a year ago, Intuit, the company behind Quicken and Turbo Tax, was listed by the PTC as among the worst TV sponsors, with its ads appearing to support sexually graphic and extremely violent content. The PTC went before Intuit’s shareholders, board of directors, and corporate officers last January at its annual shareholder...
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Parents Television Council President Tim Winter commended Intuit at its annual shareholders meeting for dramatically changing its TV sponsorship practices over the past year.
If you grew up in the ‘80s, there’s a good chance you watched The Cosby Show. It was a cultural phenomenon and a ratings juggernaut for NBC for most of its eight-year run. The Cosby Show made for Must-See-TV for millions of households for the better...
David Janollari, the former MTV boss who pushed dramas about minors engaging in drug use and graphic sex at teenage audiences, is now producing a new prime-time series for NBC – about a Christian church.
Top Hollywood boss Harvey Weinstein is promoting his new TV series, one which he claims middle Americans will love…because it’s set in a trailer park.
The Parents Television Council is calling on its members to file indecency complaints over an episode of Fox Broadcasting’s “Dads,” which featured an implied depiction of and references to semen, and references to masturbation.
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Recently NBC announced its production slate for the upcoming television season. In the works is an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s fanciful children’s books about the fairyland of Oz. Predictably, however, rather than remaining true to the source material and creating a...
The Parents Television Council commends the CW Network for protecting families watching the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards last night when network censors quickly bleeped two “f-words” and one “s-word” said by several actors.
Read more →Dads, a new sitcom airing on Fox, Tuesday nights at 8:00/7:00c, focuses on Eli and Warden, two game developers whose lives drastically change when their fathers move in with them.
Have you been watching? My guess is “No,” being that Dads earned a series low this week according to TvByTheNumbers. But I can’t say I’m...
Read more →The Parents Television Council offers congratulations to Gene Kimmelman, who was appointed to be president and CEO of Public Knowledge.
Read more →TV today is infamous for its sex-slathered sitcoms, from Dads to Two and a Half Men. But during a recent Television Critics Association interview, one TV writer claimed that sex on sitcoms is not gratuitous. 
Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell says consumers shouldn’t be “forced” to pay for their local broadcast channels on cable – but he has no problem forcing them to pay for dozens of cable channels they never watch.
It is a commonly-held belief that Europe is more permissive than the U.S. But two recent incidents demonstrated that European nations are more willing to take positive steps to protect children from harmful media content. 
A new study, released today, is giving credit for the decline in teen pregnancy rates to the MTV series “Teen Mom” and “16 and Pregnant.” By comparing Nielsen television ratings and birth records, researchers Melissa S. Kearney, the director of the Hamilton...
Days after Motion Picture Association of America head Joan Graves stated that “parents don’t want even one F-word in PG-13″ rated movies, her organization has changed the R rating on a profanity-riddled film…to PG-13.
One obvious proof of the need for Ratings Reform is the fact that the Motion Picture Association of America still refuses to consider changes to its movie ratings system – despite criticism from those inside and outside the entertainment industry.
What better way to start off the year than with some positivity, and it appears Procter and Gamble (P&G) couldn’t agree more. Just a couple of days ago P&G posted a lovely tribute to not only the Olympians of the upcoming 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, but just as...
Read more → The Parents Television Council is calling for a complete reform of the television and motion picture ratings systems to address recently documented inaccuracies and inconsistencies of both.
The genius of Bill Cosby, Tim Conway, Carol Burnett and a handful of other comedians is not that their comedy is particularly revolutionary, but in their ability to find the humor in everyday situations and relay it in a way that is instantly recognizable to the...
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