Although I can hardly call myself a television watcher, my curiosity was piqued when I saw the
Parents Television Council, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of television, released a report
ranking the top 10 and worst tv shows for family viewing on prime time. Except top 10 isn't quite accurate as the organization
claimed they could only find 9 shows deemed acceptable for family viewing. Ranking is based upon the
"content of the program and the appropriateness of the show for children [and includes] frequency of foul language, sexual content and violence but also the time slot, target audience, themes and plotlines of the programs." Here's a quick overview of the results:
Top 9:
1. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
2. Three Wishes
3. American Idol
4. Ghost Whisperer
5. Everybody hates Chris
6. Reba
7. Bernie Mac
8. Dancing with the Stars
9. 7th Heaven
Worst 10:
1. The War at Home
2. The Family Guy
3. American Dad
4. The O.C.
5. C.S.I.
6. Desperate Housewives
7. Two and a Half Men
8. That 70's Show
9. Arrested Development
10. Cold Case
What happen to Simpsons? Either television networks need to bring it back to prime time (last I checked it was) or the PTC missed one of the most entertaining and in my opinion deemed family oriented cartoons ever! I also don't agree with the ranking of
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I think you would be hard pressed to find a youth who watches it regularly and thus should be ranked in a different category.
To sum it up, FTC is really disappointed in the quality of television and they were rather quite harsh (obviously) in their
article.
From what I've read and what friends tell me, it appears that comedy has become much cruder and if you've read my
review of the 40 year old virgin, you can probably tell I'm not a fan of this type of humor (unless its witty!). I think I'll stick to my computer and my model of
TV-on-Demand ;)