The Parents Television Council considers the title of the new CBS sitcom to be profane, and it warned earlier that it would not take its presence on the schedule lying down. PTC is now enlisting its membership to go to work on advertisers and local CBS affiliates.
PTC claims that the airing of the program has already had an unwanted ripple affect, saying that it “has already encouraged others in Hollywood to use barely-concealed explicit language in the titles of programs (such as Investigation Discovery’s Who The [Bleep] Did I Marry?)”
Here is PTC’s call to arms: “The PTC has vowed to take the fight not only to the network and national advertisers, but also to CBS affiliates and sponsors in every local market where the program airs! But to do this, we need YOUR assistance. Here’s what you can do to help:
* Record or DVR $#*! My Dad Says
* Take note of commercials for businesses in your area (local restaurants, stores, car dealerships and the like)
* Send us the sponsors’ names by emailing us at [email protected]
YOUR help will assure that CBS gets the message: we don’t want any of your $#*! in front of our families!”
RBR-TVBR observation: The meaning of “$#^!” is all in your mind. Most of us no doubt insert a word that can’t be said on prime time broadcast television, but there are other acceptable words that could be inserted in the place of the word we may be thinking of. You can block a word or two from broadcast airspace, but there is simply no holding back an idea, even a sophomoric idea.
That said, we will once again stand behind PTC’s right to take this action. Even as CBS is exercising freedom of speech in titling this program, PTC is exercising its own freedom of speech in protesting as loudly and forcefully as it can.
Will the PTC action place the commercial prospects on this program into some deep guacamole? (See how easy it is to use an actual word substitute for “$#^!”?) We doubt it, but we totally support their right to make the attempt.
