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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: US: That irritating beep tone on censored words...
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Greg Anderson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 766
From: Ogden Valley, Utah
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 03-02-2008 10:27 AM
I remember when TV was filled with professional entertainers... guys like George Carlin who could talk to Johnny Carson and, knowing they were on broadcast television, would simply clean up their language voluntarily. They knew how to save the other material for other venues. I find it annoying when people who know they're going to be censored use the foul language anyway (Jon Stewart, Joel McHale) as if they're being cute. Well, I'm not 13 years old anymore and it's not funny.
And never mind that our airwaves are filled with non-professionals these days... like people on so-called "reality TV" who don't know what they're doing to begin with... and they're drunk anyway. Besides, all of these typical foul words are just old and boring. Those tranks need to invent some new words to use with their bojo friends.
When I was working on episodic TV, I could tell that the writers were heavily influenced by the original programs they were watching on HBO and Showtime. While they were unable to do the same kind of work on broadcast TV, they still kept pushing in that direction. And it just made the shows more awkward because, as a viewer, you knew what they wanted to do but they couldn't. Bunch of losers. Why didn't they just get jobs at HBO?
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 03-02-2008 12:36 PM
quote: Bobby Henderson
I think it's all pretty silly. I'll make a reference to George Carlin's brilliant "seven words you can never say on TV" bit.
Bobby, I just noticed what you wrote; I didn't post the link in response to what you wrote, we must have both had the same thought at almost exactly the same moment. In the few minutes that it took me to find the copy on You Tube, and post the link to it your post came in just before mine.
When I was over there a few years ago George Carlin was appearing soon at somewhere that I visited, I think it was at the Union County Arts Center at Rahway, NJ. I wasn't going to be in the Country that day, or I might have gone to see the show. He now looks very different to he did when he recorded 'Class Clown'. I don't think I ever heard him over here since that record that I heard, almost exactly a third of a century ago now.
Despite it being so long ago, there are a couple of other bits that I remember. The first was another section of his thoughts on words; I think I can remember it almost word for word:
'Here are words that no one has ever said before:
Please saw my legs off.
Hand me that piano.
Do what you want to the girl, but leave me alone.'
The other was a piece about Muhammad Ali; I hope that at this distance in time from the events involved it's not considered too political:
'He had an unusual job; beating people up. Government wanted him to change jobs; government wanted him to kill people. He said ¨No, I'll beat 'em up, but I don't want to kill 'em¨. Government said ¨You won't kill 'em, we won't let you beat 'em up¨'
Bizarre way or looking at things.
His 'seven words' piece struck me as being genuinely funny. Of course, there never was a list of seven words, those words have been heard on television, and many others have been censored, seemingly quite randomly, and I see nothing wrong with making fun of that. Putting the very mild word 'Tits' at the end of the list makes it seem quite ridiculous. I also like the bit about the ratio of words - '399,993 to 7'.
'Derek and Clive' on the other hand struck me as being utterly un-funny. I believe that there were three 'Derek and Clive' records, but I only ever heard the first one, 'Derek and Clive Live'. It consists of a series of conversations between two characters, played by two comedians who had done much better work earlier on. It's just an endless string of four-letter words about nothing in particular. I can't quote any of it, because I simply can't remember any of it, and doubt if I could have done, even a week after I heard it.
The most famous swearing episode on British television was probably this:
You Tube again
This was the famous Sex Pistols interview, from 1976. The programme was 'Today', an early evening current affairs type magazine programme, made by Thames Television, who at that time held the Independent television clannel for the London area on Weekdays. At that time there were only three broadcast channels, two BBC and one independent. This was some time after the start of punk; the Sex Pistols had been featured on several previous programmes, but these had been pre-recorded concert footage. The newspapers had been full of stories about how vile and terrible they were, there were ridiculous stories accusing them of just about everything short of baby-eating. One thing about them however was clearly true; they tended to swear quite a lot. Given this fact, if you don't want swearing on your early evening programe, then it's probably not a good idea to include a live interview with the Sex Pistols. Why not pre record it, or at least put in a delay with a loop of tape running round a couple of Quad VTRs, as had been done previously with other 'risky' material? The presenter given the thankless task of trying to interview the Pistols was Bill Grundy, who clearly hadn't got a clue how to handle the situation, and may himself have been drinking before the show. The resulting total mayhem was, I am sure, exactly what the Sex Pistols and their manager, Malcolm Mc Laren, would have wanted. Grundy just looks totally out of place among all the punks, but basically just lets them get on with it. To be honest, there's probably not much else he could do, the whole situation was almost totally out of his control. Grundy was sacked after this episode.
I believe that one of the young women at the back was Siouxsie, who later came to fame with The Banshees.
[ 03-02-2008, 02:17 PM: Message edited by: Stephen Furley ]
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