James, Kristen, & Dreama

Hey, I’m not overly found of the bitch myself, but that’s why God gave me a remote control.  I’ve watched this one a couple of times now and it just doesn’t work so well for me.  I’m not upset that they push the limits of taste and seem to be going out of their way to keep the censors on their toes.  It’s not that at all.  It’s not the recreational drug use either or the under-age drinking.  It’s the general lack of funny and the over-dependence on the shock factor.  The two main characters are intended to be a modern era Odd Couple.  One is the quintessential ‘good girl’ from the sticks and the other, naturally, has to be the jaded ‘bad girl’, aka the bitch.  Dreama Walker (blonde and wholesome) plays the goody-goody and Kristen Ritter has the meatier role of the B—- in question.  The dynamic between the two roommates is the only appeal this show has.  The support characters, including James Van Der Beek stretching his acting chops by playing himself (I’m really not being sarcastic), are one-dimensional and paper-thin.

Bottom line here … Don’t Trust the B—- makes me nostalgic for 2 Broke Girls.  That can’t be a good thing.

As for our old friend the Parents Television Council, it’s hardly a surprise that the B—- has the PTC folks up in arms.  Their usual bitching, however, is more strident that usual:

The program is a sexist mixed-bag of hedonism, drug-use, alcohol abuse (including the main character plying a 13-year old boy with alcohol to get him drunk) and explicit levels of promiscuity that are shocking even by today’s broadcast TV standards.

Please take action now by contacting the show’s sponsors [Company A, Company B, Company C] and holding them responsible for paying ABC to beam the offensive content on Don’t Trust the B—- into every home in America.

The series represents a continuing and disturbing trend of using offensive, profane language in the very title of the program, where it is nearly impossible for families to avoid.

But beyond the offensive and inherently misogynistic title, the repugnant content of this program should raise the concern of every parent in America — and it should convince every responsible corporate advertiser in America to avoid associating its name with this series.

I’m not sure about the ‘trend of using offensive, profane language in the very title of the program’ –a couple of ‘bleeped’ program names does not make a trend–but I can’t really fault the overall description.  It’s just the usual over reaction that makes me shake my head.  And suppose there actually is such a ‘trend’.  I would think the PTC would be all for it since such titles would make it remarkably easy for your average Bible-belter to figure out this was a show to avoid.

But do we really need to play the ‘boycott’ card again?  How about this instead: Don’t watch and you won’t have to boycott anybody because you won’t ever see the adverts in question and thus will not be tempted by the items/service/product being sold.

Yeah, ABC is responsible for this horror.  And yes, ABC is owned by Disney, the same company that introduced Selena Gomez to the world.  Really, which is the greater evil?  How about you PTC folks boycott the Disney Channel instead?  Now that would be a public service.

The Parents Television Council is not too happy with Glee lately.  As someone who has been watching Glee from the beginning, I have to wonder  … What took so long?  Beneath all that singing and dancing is a whole lot of offensive … and some of it is the singing and dancing.  For the most part, the offensive bits appeal to me a lot more than all that singing and dancing.

So the PTC should hate this show.  They should despise it.  They need to be organizing boycotts and refusing to send their own kids to school on the off chance someone breaks into song.

But here’s a note to you PTC clowns.  Don’t call me a pedophile.  I wasn’t a pedophile when I thought Britney Spears was smoking hot in that school uniform in her “Hit Me Baby One More Time” video.  I’m not a pedophile now if I admire a photo layout in GQ featuring a couple of scantily clad actors from Glee.

You people need to quit throwing around terms like “pedophilia” so damn lightly.  That just tells me the PTC has no damn clue what it really means or how serious it really is.  A picture of Lea Michelle in a bra doesn’t make anyone a pedophile!

Damn.  Being a borderline Gleek is bad enough without this shit.

From the PTC website, a “news” article filed under this headline: PTC Denounces CBS for New Show, “$#*! My Dad Says”.

Hey, The Parent’s Television Council loves to denounce shit. They live for that kind of stuff. That headline could simply read PTC denounces $#*! and be equally accurate.

Anyway, the article goes on to outline all the many ways PTC will exercise its mighty wrath against CBS, threatening stations, advertisers … all the usual: “The PTC will not stand silent and allow this program title to become the new accepted norm.”

“Denouncements” like this are a kind of a win/win for the PTC. If the show fails for any reason, PTC can claim credit. If the show succeeds–and given Shatner’s record on TV, it just might–PTC can shout about how the networks are corrupting our youth.

Overlooked is the simple fact that this title contains a censored form of the profanity in question. But at least the PTC recognizes that this kind of “censorship” is almost a wasted effort. Everyone knows what it really says, so why bother? It’s like spelling bad stuff around your kid after she wins the local spelling bee. You can beep all the words you want, but guess what? We know what you really said. Better still, regardless of what you might have said, we’re gonna fill in the worst possible option in our heads.

I’m not sure how, on one hand, it’s okay to use $#*! in your headline but it’s not okay for CBS to use the same symbols for the title of its show.  PTC uses the very thing they are all worked about in their own headline. Which is the more-or-less the same reason that CBS uses it in the title of the program. Shit My Dad Says (in case you missed it) is the real, unfiltered title from the internet/twitter phenomenon–and popular book–which is the inspiration for the sitcom.  I’m not sure if Jason’s recent tweet is related to the PTC’s protest, but from May 21 (uncensored and in all its glory): “They’re offended? Fuck, shit, asshole, shitfuck; they’re just words…Fine. Shitfuck isn’t a word, but you get my point.”

I agree.  But then, I’ve always been pretty certain that the PTC was mostly full of $#*! anyway.

According to a recent story on the Parents Television Council website, a whopping 32% of advertisers have “stopped sponsoring graphic content on Two and Half Men“. That’s roughly 1/3 of the show’s sponsors jumping ship! Damn … that show must be naaasty!

Well, yeah.

It’s also a regular Emmy winner and arguably the top rated comedy on network television. And what the PTC story doesn’t tell you is why 31 out of 94 sponsors no longer buy ads on the show.  Could it have anything to do with a down economy and the fact many advertisers are cutting back on television ad-time?  May it have anything to do with the fact that the period studied was from January to September 2009, aka Summer Rerun Hell? Any mention of the expense involved to buy ad-time on one of ABC’s more popular shows?

They do quote one letter from a Lowe’s executive. But even that doesn’t refer specifically to any kind of objectionable content. You can bet if PTC had specific examples of any advertiser citing the shows content as a reason they dropped it, we would have seen that quote. Just like there is conspicuously no mention whatever of any sponsors Two and Half Men may have picked up over the same time period. My efforts (however minimal) to find any story anywhere (other than by or from PTC) on the subject yielded absolutely zilch.

I wonder if we might see a follow-up story from PTC about the sponsors that return to the show after its typically strong premiere last week.

Probably not.

Parents Television Council