OT: Sunday night's Boston Legal

[Mr_Vindictive]

I started watching Boston Legal after a few people here on the board gave it a strong recommendation.  I have found that it's a great show, and I'm upset that I missed so many episodes.  I am a bit disappointed though at Sunday's episode.

The episode dealt with a high school principal that blocked out one certain news channel from all the TVs in the school.  Although the news channel is never mentioned there are references to the documentary Outfoxed as well as references to "Fair And Balanced".

This is all well and good, but it seems that ABC censored David E. Kelly's script, which was about.....CENSORSHIP.  They made him take the name FOX out of the script, and he couldn't refer to the network directly.  He did get his jabs in at ABC though by having Spader say things such as:

"Censorship has gotten so bad these days that even TV dramas have to change their scripts."

ABC even blocked the showing of an ad for Outfoxed, eventhough the doc was mentioned in the show.  I'm not trying to get political in any way, but I am quite disappointed at this.  The whole episode was about how bad censorship could be, and yet ABC didn't heed the message.  

Here's an article from the LA Times:

ABC Writes Out Fox
By Scott Collins
Times Staff Writer

March 11, 2005

TV shows often feature plots ripped from the headlines, but an upcoming episode of David E. Kelley's legal drama "Boston Legal" was a bit too lifelike for ABC executives.

Sunday's episode of the series starring James Spader is about the censorship issues raised when a high school principal tries to block students' access to a cable news channel. In Kelley's original script, the network in question was News Corp.'s Fox News Channel.

But that script didn't pass muster with the standards department at Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, which ordered Kelley to remove multiple references to Fox News.

The episode, titled "Let Sales Ring," now avoids any mention of Fox but has characters referring to a network that is accused of pushing a conservative agenda, leaving it to viewers to make their own inferences.

Although networks' standards departments routinely ask for changes in scripts, the revisions ABC wanted were fairly extensive. ABC said the decision had nothing to do with politics.

"While real-life situations are often used as original inspiration for fictionalized programming story lines, it is a long-standing, industrywide practice not to use real people or actual events," ABC spokesman Kevin Brockman said in a statement.

Kelley spokeswoman Stacey Luchs said: "We did make some changes to the script per ABC's request but managed to tell the same story in what we believe is an even more subversive and provocative way."

She said Kelley was unavailable to comment.

The flap highlighted an intriguing corporate coincidence. "Boston Legal" is co-produced by David E. Kelley Productions and Twentieth Century Fox Television, a sister company to Fox News Channel. A Fox studio spokesman declined to comment, as did a representative for Fox News Channel.

ABC also rejected an ad for the DVD version of "Outfoxed," an anti-Fox News documentary released last year. The distributor wanted to run the ad during "Boston Legal," partly because the documentary is mentioned during Sunday's episode. Brockman said the ad contained unacceptable content.





Thoughts?

[Ozzymandias]

There is a story that Rod Serling wrote a script in the early days of TV about factory workers. The network censors took out the word "strike." Serling was miffed, but was really mad when he found out that they also deleted the word "lucky." When it came down to the reasons, the cigarette company that sponsored the show objected to the competition being mentioned.

[peter johnson]

But, as you so astutely figured out, it was indeed about Fox and Outfoxed.
Sometimes omission brings things into sharper focus -- If you purposely do NOT mention a thing, then the unmentioned is brought into sharp relief --
Frankly, I can't imagine anyone watching that episode & not know what was being talked about, so in this case the attempt at "censorship" backfired --
Thanks for the update, though, & glad you're watching the show -- out here, our late-night network affiliate is already showing reruns of the first episodes at 11:30 on Saturday nights -- this can't be a syndication deal already, just folks liking it --
I would love to see it stay on the air --
peter johnson/DENNY CRANE!!

[Mr_Vindictive]

Peter,

You are quite true.  It had to have been obvious to anyone watching that it was about the Fox news network, and that's what makes the whole situation stupid.  I just can't grasp why they blocked Kelly from saying "Fox" in the script when it was so obvious throughout the episode.  They even let him mention "fair and balanced" and Outfoxed.  

The cuts they did make ended up being inconsequential, but it's just that they censored an episode about censorship.

[trekgeezer]

I was just glad the judge ended up ruling against the school. Censorship is really a pet peeve of mine (don't believe me ask my two now grown kids, they heard plenty of ranting while they were growing up).

The only thing I've seen Fox News doing is getting on tangent about something and not letting it go.  I personally look at Hannity and O'Reilly the same way I look at Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken, they're all pecker heads. But, they shouldn't be censored because that is one of the founding principles of our country. The price of this freedom is having pecker heads and a***oles express themselves in public venues.

I think it ironic that Denny Crane is a Republican and a Trial Lawyer! Aren't trial lawyers supposed to be the spawn of the devil according to Republicans?

[peter johnson]

Denny Crane is not a real Republican --
It's like in the Doonesbury cartoon when Ford asked if Duke was a Republican:
"No sir, he's a maniac . . ."
Denny Crane is a Maniac first and a Republican second --
peter johnson/denny crane