'Nashville' Might Sound Very Different Next Season ...
Fight for Your Right To Party
Radio and Television Society takes on censorship and reality TV
by Julia Ward, posted Dec 8th 2006 9:31AM
This may come as a shock to you, readers, but the writers of scripted television programs hate reality TV. And, do you know what they hate even more than reality TV? Network censors. If you've been watching Studio 60, you already know this. Those standards and practices people are such prudish little worrywarts - cowering in their offices, praying the FCC won't smack the network's hand for using the word "butt" in primetime. This past Wednesday, television's top showrunners got together for a Hollywood Radio and Television Society luncheon where they got to grouse collectively about the twin evils of Mark Burnett and broadcast standards. Chiming in were Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane, The Office's Greg Daniels, Lost's Damon Lindelof, Gilmore Girls' Amy Sherman-Palladino and Battlestar Galactica's Ron Moore (pictured) among others. The discussion was facilitated by Jimmy Kimmel. How much would you have loved to be in that room? How much would I love to be working for any single person in that room - really, any of them?
According to reports, most of the chatter was amicable and fairly middle of the road. The only real war stories came from the writers recounting their network censor run-ins. MacFarlane shared his frustration over not being able to bring his full arsenal of bodily humor to bear while Battlestar's Moore detailed on-going negotiations on the number of pelvic thrusts that could be shown before cutting away. It wasn't the number of thrusts that were the issue. It was the depiction of "rhythmic sex." I'm not even sure what that means.
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