Chicago Tribune - A GUIDE TO FAMILY TV

[morjana]

From the Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-
0412050510dec05,1,1354223.story?coll=chi-leisurearts-hed

(Please follow the link for the complete article.)

TELEVISION

A GUIDE TO FAMILY TV

By Maureen Ryan
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 5, 2004

Regardless of which way you voted in the recent presidential
election, most of us can agree that we'd rather avoid the following
TV-watching scenarios:

There you are, sitting on the couch with your 6-year-old nephew and
67-year-old dad, when suddenly Joey Tribbiani's sister asks
the "Friends" exile to feel her breasts. Or, flipping over to VH1 in
search of a mind-less list show, you come across a nearly naked
Brigitte Nielson on "Surreal Life," and soon the romping Swede is
locked in an ickily suggestive embrace with one of her housemates.
Or, after a passing glimpse at "The O.C.," your nephew adds a new and
colorful word to his vocabulary, one that you're going to have a hard
time explaining to his mom.

Or how about this: You check out "Third Watch," where detectives
discover the naked body of a dead girl among the trash in a Dumpster,
or you sample any of the "C.S.I.s," where severed body parts and
kinky crimes (clown fetishes?) are more common than hors d'oeuvres at
a holiday party.

It's not really a stretch to say that we're living in a TV
environment that inundates viewers with sexual situations and
innuendoes, casual profanity and an astonishing range of violence.
Even the relatively gore-free and admirably watchable "NCIS" has
featured loving close-ups of severed limbs, and it's nearly
impossible to find a network sitcom that doesn't make an offhand
reference or 20 to sex (in most cases because the writers have
nothing truly funny to say).

And while I'll staunchly make the case that programs featuring blood,
sex and swear words can make for worthy TV entertainment, the fact
is, that's not the sort of thing I want to sit down and watch with
any middle schooler I know.

There are a few more-or-less guaranteed family-friendly shows on
network TV. In the scripted realm, there's "Joan of Arcadia" and "7th
Heaven" and in the unscripted genre, "American Idol" and "Extreme
Makeover: Home Edition" are guaranteed crowd-pleasers.

But if you're in search of more family-friendly programs -- shows the
whole family can watch without risk of a risque hot tub scene,
naughty words or grisly violence -- we have a few suggestions.

View-for-all

We channel-surfed to come up with our list of best family shows

Whether or not you're concerned about "moral values" or what
those "Desperate Housewives" are up to, or whether you've ever been
tempted to call the FCC to register a complaint about what's
transpiring on your TV screen, chances are, at some point in your TV-
watching life, you've wished you had at your disposal a list of
programs that won't make you blush in front of your dad.

This is our list, one we compiled after ranging far and wide through
the TV schedule for overlooked gems. The Family Friendly Programming
Forum compiles its own list for its Family Television Awards
presentation. This year's 6th annual awards took place last week,
honoring "Joan of Arcadia" for best drama and "Everybody Loves
Raymond" for best comedy.

But we'd love to hear what your favorite family-friendly fare is: E-
mail your suggestions to moryan @ tribune.com (delete the space
before and after the @ character), and we'll post the best responses
at chicagotribune.com/tribtv.

One final note: This is not a list of good TV for kids (and please
don't e-mail suggestions along those lines). There are a ton of great
shows out there right now for young kids, tweens and even older kids.
What we've listed here are shows that are entertaining and perhaps
even thought-provoking for all manner of kids, teens and adults.

Note: The times and days listed below denote when new episodes
usually air, but many shows, especially cable programs, repeat
several times a week. Consult your TV listings for additional airings
of these programs.

**snippity doo-dah**

BEST GENRE SHOWS

"Stargate SG-1," "Stargate Atlantis" (8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Fridays, Sci
Fi): "SG-1," one of the most consistently enjoyable scripted shows on
TV, in or out of the sci-fi genre, has resolutely avoided entangling
its two lead characters (played by Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda
Tapping) in a romantic relationship for eight seasons now. Not that
we're against romance, but the core of this show are the thoughtful
friendships among all of the talented leads and the thwarting of evil
plots by interstellar baddies. Who knows, there may be more romance
on the new spinoff, "Atlantis," but we like how the writers for both
shows avoid overindulging in the sci-fi television cliche of studly
Earthly explorers constantly romancing scantily clad space babes.

**snippity doo-dah**

Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune


|*|(*)|*|(*)|*|

Morjana

SG1-Spoilergate
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/SG1-Spoilergate/

Richard Dean Anderson Fans
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/rdandersonfans/

Fans of Joe Flanigan
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/fansofjoeflanigan/

[GateTraveler]

Let's now hear from the shippers please ...

[yasmins]

From the Chicago Tribune:

"Stargate SG-1," "Stargate Atlantis" (8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Fridays, Sci
Fi): "SG-1," one of the most consistently enjoyable scripted shows on
TV, in or out of the sci-fi genre, has resolutely avoided entangling
its two lead characters (played by Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda
Tapping) in a romantic relationship for eight seasons now. Not that
we're against romance, but the core of this show are the thoughtful
friendships among all of the talented leads and the thwarting of evil
plots by interstellar baddies. Who knows, there may be more romance
on the new spinoff, "Atlantis," but we like how the writers for both
shows avoid overindulging in the sci-fi television cliche of studly
Earthly explorers constantly romancing scantily clad space babes.

**snippity doo-dah**

Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune

Its always nice to see StargateSG1 get recognition. I'm not sure if it is appropriate to respond to this issue in this forum (it *is* the News section rather than the Discussion), but here goes anyway... I agree that Stargate SG-1 is admirable in that it has not done the "Earthly explorers constantly romancing scantily clad space babes" thing. However, in my opinion, it is a far stretch to say that any depiction of romantic relationships for the main characters would be necessarily prurient. People change and characters and relationships evolve. People who work closely together and respect each other may sometimes come to care about each other. This happens all the time in real-life, and many of the people I know who are now married met each other through work.

The question is, should that one aspect in the characters' evolution take over the entire show, overshadowing the other wonderful relationships, friendships, etc.? IMO, absolutely not. I have friends who got together and have since gotten married. I am still the best of friends with both of them they continued their other friendships, their careers, etc. The notion that these things are mutually exclusive confuses me greatly.

There are those for whom any mention of a romantic involvement between O'Neill and Carter is anathema. Others seem to want to turn the show into the Sam & Jack romance hour. Both seem incredibly unnatural to me. I also find the concept that 8 years has gone by and none of these characters have any movement in their personal lives to be very unnatural. A tastefully done relationship between O'Neill and Carter which is mostly kept in the background and only mentioned every once in a while would, IMO, be perfectly natural and not in any way non-family-friendly or demeaning to either character. It should also not interfere with Jack and Sam's other relationships with the rest of their team. (I will add that (a) it is a lot more do-able now that RDA has cut back on his time and O'Neill is not a member of SG-1 anymore; and (b) getting them together and then keeping it mostly behind the scenes would probably result in much less ship-angst than we have now)

[Erik Pasternak]

Its always nice to see StargateSG1 get recognition. I'm not sure if it is appropriate to respond to this issue in this forum (it *is* the News section rather than the Discussion),

Well, this is a discussion forum, so I'm sure it's all right.

[GateTraveler]

A tastefully done relationship between O'Neill and Carter which is mostly kept in the background and only mentioned every once in a while would, IMO, be perfectly natural and not in any way non-family-friendly or demeaning to either character.

I agree and this is pretty much what they have done. Sam's and Jack's feelings for one another come out in a few episodes but it is much more overblown in the forum than it is on the show. I think for the most part, the writers have handled the character's relationships pretty reasonably and it is good to see the mainstream media recognize that fact.

[GateTraveler]

I'm seeing that people apparently were offended by my posts in this thread. Apologies. I did not mean to offend the "shippers". I was just having a little fun with it (first post) considering that the article suggests that the appeal of the show is that they haven't focused on romance. I figured there would be some reaction to the article.

I guess its my 2nd post that seemed to rile people. All I meant was that the amount of romance in the show is almost nil yet there seems to be a lot of focus here on that aspect. It seems strange to me but hey, I'm new here. I guess its real important to some people considering the nature of the (private) reaction to my posts.

Once again, sorry if I offended anyone. i certainly didn't mean to. This will teach me to leave that sensitive subject alone until I better understand the issue.