Cents, censorship, and videotape
Massaging TV messages is business as usual

By Betsy Streisand

LOS ANGELES?After a national outbreak of righteous indignation and editorial-page scolding, the White House said last week that it will stop previewing scripts of prime-time TV programs to determine whether their antidrug messages reduce the need for public-service announcements. Instead, the Office of National Drug Control Policy will evaluate shows after they air to decide if they can be credited against the ad time networks are legally required to devote to antidrug themes.

News of the new guidelines was hailed by the media, which viewed the initial screening policy as censorship. Yet the change is not expected to make much difference in Hollywood, where lobbying by corporations, government, and other special interest groups to shape prime time television is, was, and will continue to be business as usual.

More than 100 advocacy groups ranging from those who urge celibacy to those who simply want to see the game of polo accurately portrayed in prime time routinely offer themselves as “resources” free of charge to TV writers and producers in hopes of influencing programming. Among them: the Entertainment Industries Council, which focuses on substance abuse; Handgun Control; and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which deals with health and sex issues. “As a writer, you’re always calling on strangers and begging them to answer your questions,” says J. J. Abrams, executive producer of the college sex-and-angst drama Felicity.

Technical advice. For instance, when Felicity lost her virginity last season, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Media Project helped guide the show’s writers through her visit to her university’s health clinic. Felicity not only got a prescription for birth control pills, but she loaded up on condoms to protect her from sexually transmitted diseases. When, in a later episode, the show dealt with date rape, it was on Kaiser’s “technical” advice that the writers included a scene where the victim takes a controversial “morning after pill” to prevent a pregnancy.

When ABC’s The Practice wanted to do a show exploring whether gun manufacturers should be held liable for deaths committed with their weapons, writers turned to Handgun Control Inc. for advice. In the end, The Practice based its show on a lawsuit the gun-control lobby had brought against a Florida gun maker. “We were very pleased,” says Luis Tolley, HCI’s Western region director, who had alerted several prime-time dramas to the group’s legal battles at the beginning of the TV season.

Although some groups downplay their influence, lest they jinx it, others are proud to claim their victories. Later in the season, a male shop teacher who wants a sex change will be added to the cast of the campy series Popular. This move comes after one of Popular’s lead characters revealed that his mom is a lesbian. “We absolutely take credit for these characters being there,” says Scott Seomin, entertainment media director for the Gay and Lesbian Allliance Against Defamation. Seomin routinely pressures writers to cast recurring gay characters. “The old MO was to wait until something bad happened, and get p- – -ed off,” he says. “But we don’t protest anymore. Why stand outside the building, when with one phone call we can be invited in.” Seomin says GLAAD, like many other interest groups, is often contacted before a character is introduced to make sure the portrayal is accurate.

In fact, the mere possibility that a story line may offend some group or big advertiser often can be reason enough for a script change. So don’t expect the networks to stop pushing antidrug messages just because of the bad publicity. After all, time is money. And under the agreement, shows that carry approved antidrug messages can be credited against public-service time that the networks would otherwise have to give the government at a cut rate. Besides, the drug czar isn’t the only one offering incentives. In an unusual deal, several large consumer-goods companies recently gave $1 million to the WB network to buy family-friendly scripts to up the chances that such shows will make it, giving them a place to advertise their wares. The deal was cut after CEO Jamie Kellner told advertisers that if they wanted more family-friendly shows to air, they’d “have to put their money where their mouth is.” In television, they always do.