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TV watchdog Parents Television Council already targeted NBC’s new drama The Playboy Club during the pilot stage, blasting parent Comcast over nudity clauses in the actors’ contracts. Now, following a Mormon Church-owned Utah NBC affiliate’s decision not to carry the show, the PTC is urging more stations to follow suit and preempt the drama set in the 1960s at the first Playboy Club in Chicago. The PTC mocks the official series description, “a sophisticated series about the transitional times of the early 1960s and the complex lives of a group of working-class women.” “Putting a veneer of sophistication on an industry that exploits women and destroys families is not laudable, it is disgraceful,” PTC president Tim Winter wrote in letters sent out to NBC stations around the country. “In what manner does such the airing of such material reconcile with your public interest obligations as a broadcast licensee?”
The letter quotes Shelley Lubben, founder of the Pink Cross Foundation, described as “an organization dedicated to helping victims of the pornography industry,” who claims that “NBC is breaking the law with this show. They’re not meeting FCC standards.” The letter features both a plea with station owners/managers not to air Playboy Club and a threat of possible FCC fines if they do. ”If you proceed with plans to air this series in your community, be assured that the Parents Television Council will be carefully reviewing every episode and will urge its members to file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission about any content that may be in violation of broadcast decency laws.” Additionally, PTC demands that stations stop airing promos for the show before 10 PM. The Playboy Club is undergoing retooling with about 30% of the pilot being reshot. But sources say that the reshoots are driven by the network’s desire to pump up the action and move the plot faster, not by complaints by watch groups.
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Thank you Mormons. You have made me want to see the show even more AND buy the DVD.
I love jugs!
Why do you give these idiots the attention they so desperately crave?
I agree. The PTC would be a toothless organization of uptight prudes if we stopped giving them attention. They email action items to their network of over-protective parents and shut in retirees with links to file FCC claims so that people who have never even seen the “offensive” material can abuse the system. They’re an immoral and dishonest bunch of hypocrites that somehow think they’re the sole occupants of the moral high ground and they don’t deserve the wasted press. Let the market decide which shows are successful, not Ma and Pa Kettle.
My prediction is that The Playboy Club, Up All Night and Smash become big hits. Why? Because Playboy is a huge brand associated with sex and all the PTC is doing is making more people interested in it. Up All Night and Smash are family oriented shows that will appeal to Middle America.
I agree with you on Smash. But the other two? No. For one thing, The Playboy Club is on a network and not HBO or Showtime. I don’t think I need to go into details just how watered down this “sexy” show is going to be. It will be a huge disappointment. And quite boring.
The same with “Up All Night”. The premise in the ads is already old. And not funny.
I actually think these two shows will be the among the first to be canceled.
My youngest isn’t allowed up that late. My oldest would rather watch “The Walking Dead”. And the Parents Television Council should worry more about what liquor store their own kids are robbing rather than trying to raise mine; I’m doing fine, thanks. #BlameCanada!
why does anyone give these clowns any attention?
Everybody wants a Mad Men or Boardwalk Empire show. This is NBC’s attempt. It will be the new Las Vegas in a sense but probably without any of the charm.
“be assured that the Parents Television Council will be carefully reviewing every episode” – Something tells me their members will be ‘single-handedly’ reviewing them.
“…be assured that the Parents Television Council will be carefully reviewing every episode…”
Oh yes, I’m sure they WILL be “carefully reviewing every episode.” Hot DAMN, do they have ANY idea how HIGH-larous that is? That’s going to be my catchphrase for the MONTH.
“I’ll be carefully reviewing each episode for perversion and indecency!” Say it with a British accent and it’s even funnier!
These fools MUST be aware they are ONLY attracting attention to this show. Now I HAVE to watch it. The Utah “Parents Television Council” MUST be, in part, somehow subsidized by NBC, I’ll bet. Or perhaps much like the Helena Rubenstein Foundation is to PBS.
“be assured that the Parents Television Council will be carefully reviewing every episode” — Yeah, members will be “single-handedly” reviewing each episode. You know. To protect us.
More hypocrisy, Utah (70% LDS) has the highest per capita porn consumption in the US and yet they can’t have a PG show on television. What a joke.
Honestly, I don’t have any interest in watching this series. I feel like I’m given a plate of exotic dishes, but end up eating plastic. off-topic: It still amazes me how half America is hardcore conservative and the other half is way too liberal. And none of them hold the truth, but they all behave like they do.
Actually only conservatives believe they’ve found the truth. And they believe they found it 6000 years ago. You know, when the universe was created.
PTC – on the cutting edge of cultural controversy: Playboy.
Do they think that since “PLAYBOY” is in the title that the show is porn? It’s shiny-uniformed waitresses in the 1960s who show less skin than Olympic Beach Volleyball. Would the PTC have even noticed this pilot if it were called “MEMBERS ONLY” instead?
Nikke, stop giving these guys attention. PTC is a tiny group with a copier, an email account and a really guilty conscience. Enough with these dopes.
Agreed.
Lame groups like the PTC make me want to watch this show just to give it ratings so the Networks and FCC stop being such pussies… even though I think it’s gonna be a piece of crap.
Newsflash – the PTC isnt a mormon organization, they are located in LA, and these are the same zealots who tried to get Married With Children yanked in the 80′s…
all they care about is a press-release…
I’m only watching it for David Krumholtz, to be honest.
Same here, Would not evern care about this show is DK wasn’t in it.
I really hate how every time some maniac censorship media watchdog organization declares themselves the guardians of morality, the media slavishly responds with tons of coverage. Sadly even the mighty Deadline is not immune.
Stories like this only give these evil people some power…which in reality they do not have. Please do not cover them. They are NOT news. And if you ignore them they will go where they need to go…AWAY.
I am now convinced the PTC was the creation of publicists trying to get attention for shows that might otherwise fizzle without them.
How exactly were families destroyed by the Playboy Clubs of the ’60′s? What a presumptuous thing to say. I would think inflexible language like that does more to destroy families than the presence of a night night club that plays jazz.
As an aside, I recall the Playboy club in New Orleans broke down racial segregation barriers by putting a black comedian on the stage when they were previously prohibited from doing so. It seems to me that organization did a lot of good and creating an entertainment show with the clubs as a backdrop sounds like a freakin’ good idea.
I’ve seen PLAYBOY and they should be watching it for the bad writing and dumbed down plotline – it was a good idea gone awry. So much to work with so little in the pilot. Watch the Hugh Hefner documentary.
As for SMASH, they’re gonna hate that, too – too New York! and we know what that is code for ( well, if you watched West Wing you do)and way too gay. It was one helluva pilot imho – remarkable in every way.
I’m confused. Just because the actors have nudity clauses in their contracts that doesn’t mean there will be visible nudity on the show, right?
They have stated many times that the “nudity clause” is for cable syndication or “unrated” DVDs. The PTC keeps ignoring that fact though.
If you don’t like it – THEN DON’T WATCH IT! Don’t dictate what others can or can’t watch
The hysteria… sigh*
Violence in TV and video games? No problem. A gun store on every corner? Please, yes! But women’s bodies …
Boobies are bad! bad! bad!
Wait a minute…didn’t God create boobies?
Does that make God……?????
they’re all just pieces of meat anyways…
wait… aren’t they?