TV Doesn't Think Much of Marriage

I don't think this is a surprise to anyone who watches much TV:

LOS ANGELES — Marriage gets little respect on network TV shows that instead revel in the pleasures of extramarital and even kinky sex, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study by the Parents Television Council includes a strongly worded condemnation of prime-time TV, contending it "seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative light."

Even more troubling, according to the watchdog group, is what it characterized as TV's recent obsession with what it termed "outre" or bizarre behavior, including partner swapping and pedophilia.

As for references to pornography, sex toys and "kinky" behavior, those are now common on TV, the report said. Visual references to practices such as voyeurism and sadomasochistic sex outnumbered married-sex references by a ratio approaching 3 to 1.

The effect on young viewers is dire, the Parents Television Council contends.

Behavior that once was seen as "fringe, immoral or socially destructive have been given the imprimatur of acceptability by the television industry" and children are absorbing or even imitating it, the report contends.

Parents don't necessarily have the tools to identify programs they may want to block via the V-chip, according to the study: It says designations such as "S," signaling sexual content, were applied inconsistently and inaccurately.

ABC, CBS, CW, Fox and NBC, the networks in the study, all declined comment.

Fathers have also long been treated like idiots while teenagers were usually played by smart-aleck kids who were scripted to be smarter than everybody in the house. The one guy who fought that was Bill Cosby, and to this day, his sitcom was probably closer to real life for most Americans than anything you'll see in most network sitcoms. Kids who talked to their parents the way most sitcom teens talk wouldn't live long in my house, and that's probably true with most of middle America.

Of course, anyone who looks to TV as an example of how to run a family is already in trouble.