And… We’re back. Hope you enjoyed your weekend. I certainly did.
Anyway, last time I posted from the TV Critics Association Press Tour, ABC had announced the new cast for Dancing With the Stars. Keep in mind, what was most exciting was that there was something resembling news, as opposed to the planned pablum they mostly throw at us.
Later on Friday, Jamie Gertz, one of the stars of ABC’s new comedy The Neighbors, talked about kids reacting to some of the sex jokes on the show, which is about a family that moves into a gated community populated by space aliens.
“I don’t know how you explain that to some kids,” Gertz said about the fact that one of the male characters might have female genitalia. “But I think it is going to definitely go over some heads and definitely a lot of giggling from, you know, about 10-year-old and up, there will be a lot of giggling.”
Ya think???
The question for we parents is do we really need our kids exposed to that kind of giggling? There is some value in letting our kids think they’re getting away with something. Aside from the fact that it’s fun (oh, come on, like you didn’t get a similar kick as a kid), kids do need a chance to push those parental boundaries. In fancy parenting-speak, it’s about the separation process that will turn your pre-teen into a sullen, obnoxious teen-ager and then into an independent, functioning adult.
That being said, there’s a whole lot of data out there showing a co-relation between the age teens become sexually active and the amount of sexual content they see on TV. The more sex on TV, the earlier they get active. It’s not a cause and effect thing, but it is something to think about.
But onward to CBS, which presented Sunday, and it’s getting really sad when the most interesting thing that happened was that CBS President of Entertainment Nina Tassler came onstage carrying a stuffed monkey. Actually, I think it was a gorilla, but obviously she was tweaking NBC for bringing Crystal the monkey onstage during their Animal Practice session by aping it.
And that’s about it from Press Tour.
