The watchdog group is urging its members to submit indecency complaints against the Fox comedy for an episode it says featured"an implied depiction of and references to semen, and references to masturbation."
PTC Blasts Jan. 14 Episode Of ‘Dads’
The Parents Television Council is calling on its members to file indecency complaints over an episode of Fox Broadcasting’s Dads, which, it says, “featured an implied depiction of and references to semen, and references to masturbation.” The episode was rated TV-14 (appropriate for children as young as 14 years old) and aired at 8 p.m. ET/7 Central on Jan. 14.
PTC listed the following as sexual scenes that were featured in this episode:
- Veronica: You don’t have a caring bone in your body.
Eli: Yes, I do. My bone cared for her twice last night. And a bendy third time.
- Warner uses a UV light to disinfect Veronica’s desk.
Warner: These things are amazing. It even lights up semen.
Warner’s dad enters, waving “Hi” to everyone. The UV light picks up traces of semen, presumably, on his hand.
- Camila tries to watch television with David and Crawford nearby.
Camila: What about that show Girls?
David: Hey, I’m trying to get erections, not lose them.
“Last year,” PTC President Tim Winter said, “the Fox Broadcast Network filed formal comments at the FCC urging the elimination of broadcast decency enforcement, and now we’re seeing why they did so. The airing of this kind of sexual content, especially during the so-called ‘family hour,’ may violate the law that Fox and other broadcasters are so eager to purge. The Supreme Court held that law in place, and today we are urging members of the public to file a formal FCC indecency complaint over this episode of Dads.
“Parents who have been told repeatedly by the entertainment industry to rely on the TV content ratings system have been fooled once again given this episode’s very low TV-14 rating. How is a semen scene appropriate for 14-year-old children?
“If parents can’t rely on the television ratings system to give them accurate and consistent information about the programs their families might be watching, then the system is worthless — serving only to give the networks cover as they continue to push the limits of what is deemed acceptable for the broadcast medium.
“We urge the FCC to investigate this ‘Dads’ episode on behalf of families across the nation,” Winter concluded.
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Comments (4)
Janet Frankston Lorin says:
January 20, 2014 at 4:33 pm
Yes, the government should decide for all of us what we should watch.
Maria Laing says:
January 20, 2014 at 5:29 pm
I can’t help but wonder what the folks at PTC would say about any and every episode of Two Broke Girls? The stuff transcribed in this article pales by comparison with some of the “snappy” dialog between the two co-stars on TBG.
dave rawson says:
January 20, 2014 at 6:44 pm
I barely saw any of that episode. I tuned in at the beginning, but had to turn it off after about four minutes due to the sequence in which one character tries to make another dry-heave by describing various forms of vomit.
Teri Keene says:
January 20, 2014 at 8:08 pm
And all of this while sexist crap like “The Bachelor” airs in the exact same time period on Monday with a homophoic bigot… give me a break!