Burn Notice on My Network

Cafe Society
1

Okay, in the US there used to be two TV networks - WB and UPN. They were trying to catch up to number 4 Fox, and struggling. Eventually, there was a merger, and the CW was formed.

In the wake of CW, they shed a bunch of stations that didn’t get taken in, stations that were competitors in the same zones as ones that did get taken and the like. These apparently formed a new network, called “My Network”. So my local formerly UPN 20 is now “My20”.

All of this is background for the point of this thread. Recently, the My Network started running Burn Notice from the beginning, including the pilot episode that I think only ran once on USA. (I have never seen it on USA, despite all the reruns of other episodes.) Yeah, Burn Notice.

But what got my attention… you know the line, where Michael and Sam are talking and Michael asks Sam about his status, and Sam replies with that euphonious line that everyone knows (say it with me now):

“You know spies a bunch of little girls.”
Wait - pause - that didn’t come out right. Let’s try that again:

“You know spies, a bunch of bitchy little girls.”

That’s right, MyNetwork decided “bitchy” is too edgy or something, they edited it out.

Watched the opening credits, edited it out again. Of course their editing sucks, because you can see Sam start to form the word bitchy before they cut away.

“You know spies, a bunch of blittle girls.”

Yeah, that’s great. :rolleyes:

Rant over, carry on.

2

I don’t think Direct TV carries My20. Do they? Never heard of it before.

A lot of the old CW Shows are hard to find on tv anymore.

Just as well if they censor the stuff they run.

3

My20 is what a local station might be called if it happened to be on channel 20. The name of the network is MyNetworkTV.

I don’t know about editing. I remember back before WWE went all PG all the time, they used to censor anyone saying ass on Smackdown’s first hour, but not on the second. I don’t remember if that’s when they were on CW or MNT or both.

It’s weird, because they’re not like the old Pax network (now rebranded as Ion) or something, trying to act all family oriented and safe or whatever, and bitch has been allowed on network TV since at least the late 80’s.

4

I remember when “bitch” wasn’t said on network TV, and the big shocker when Hawkeye (“MAS*H”) called someone (I thought it was Flagg) a son of a bitch, in the very meanest sense of the phrase.

5

Some observations…

  1. USA is technically a “cable” channel, whereas MyNetwork is, I suppose, a “broadcast TV” station. This is significant because in the US, the laws from the FCC monitoring broadcast standards and such apparently make that distinction.

  2. MyNetwork is running Burn Notice in the 7pm to 8pm and 8pm to pm (Central) time windows. Perhaps that running in the earlier “family hour” is part of what gets them flagged.

It’s still funny that in the wake of NYPD Blue, we’re still getting censors on “bitchy”. Especially on something that’s such an iconic line for the show. I mean, yeah, it was only said once, but it’s been part of the opening credits so repeated every week and just kinda screams “Burn Notice”.

“You know spies, a bunch of bitchy little girls.” “Ah, Burn Notice is on.”

6

Of course they make a distinction. It’s right there in your post: “broadcast standards.” You can protect your kids from cable by not paying for it. There is no way for an American parent to protect their kids from boradcast tv because there is no way to prevent it from entering your house. (No having a tv at all isn’t ideal because the Emergency Broadcast System is thought to have some utility.)

Most censorship is voluntary to attract advertisers. The FCC won’t care a whit about the word “bitch” in the 8pm hour, but keeping the word “bitch” in the show will reduce the pool of advertisers willing to buy spots.

7

THIS THREAD IS A ZOMBIE -
PLEASE BE AWARE OF THIS IF YOU CHOOSE TO REPLY

Sorry for raising the dead, but I just wanted to mention that I saw the opening to MyNetwork’s airing of Burn Notice the other night, and they definitely did NOT censor the word bitchy in the opening. Maybe it was a local affiliate doing the censoring? Or else MyNetwork has changed their policy. Either way, just happened to see the MN version for the first time and remembered this thread, and decided to report back.