# Perspectives in Scripted Entertainment. Or, Writers are writers. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 6, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perspectives-in-scripted-entertainment-or-writers-are-writers/673251 "2013-11-06T16:02:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perspectives-in-scripted-entertainment-or-writers-are-writers/673251/21 "2013-11-14T02:56:37Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Maybe the perspective isn’t as narrow as it once was. Around here, hunting used to be virtually a rite of passage when boys reached their teens. Nowadays, the wildlife population is increasing because there are fewer people taking up hunting. So a bias against hunting on TV might be a reflection of the majority opinion. Exactly. If you see something being common on multiple shows with multiple or diverse demographics, it isn’t the opinion of the writers that causes it. Television does shape audience minds, but audience minds much more shape television. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perspectives-in-scripted-entertainment-or-writers-are-writers/673251/22 "2013-11-14T12:58:15Z")
I’ll give you a show that had family closeness, religious values, a positive view of hunting & guns, and an easy-going conservatism that took on the nonsense from the Left & the Right… King of the Hill. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perspectives-in-scripted-entertainment-or-writers-are-writers/673251/23 "2013-11-14T13:28:36Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Maybe the perspective isn’t as narrow as it once was. Around here, hunting used to be virtually a rite of passage when boys reached their teens. Nowadays, the wildlife population is increasing because there are fewer people taking up hunting. So a bias against hunting on TV might be a reflection of the majority opinion. > [@BigT](#): > > Exactly. If you see something being common on multiple shows with multiple or diverse demographics, it isn’t the opinion of the writers that causes it. Television does shape audience minds, but audience minds much more shape television. That’s sort of a chicken-or-the-egg issue - is hunting depicted negatively because people aren’t hunting as much, or are people not hunting as much because it’s depicted negatively? > [@FriarTed](#): > > I’ll give you a show that had family closeness, religious values, a positive view of hunting & guns, and an easy-going conservatism that took on the nonsense from the Left & the Right… King of the Hill. I almost mentioned KotH’s hunting episode in the OP as a counter-example. That show does represent a different perspective, a populist one, and rejects most of the tropes I mentioned in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Orwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/dfb087/32.png) [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perspectives-in-scripted-entertainment-or-writers-are-writers/673251/24 "2013-11-14T14:16:56Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s sort of a chicken-or-the-egg issue - is hunting depicted negatively because people aren’t hunting as much, or are people not hunting as much because it’s depicted negatively? Well, to answer your question, there is no doubt that fewer people hunt, but it’s still thriving in rural areas. But, as hypothesized in this thread, it’s clear that people with rural backgrounds are under-represented in the “creative community”. I live in a rural area where a lot of people hunt (including myself) and most people have guns in their house. But I realize that’s not true everywhere, particularly in urban areas. And, yes, it’s obvious that most TV and movie writers (and actors, needless to say) have an urban, left-leaning background that is ignorant of hunting culture, at best, but more often blatantly antagonistic toward toward hunting. I usually cringe when I see a “hunting” storyline in a TV show. The clothes are wrong, the verbiage is wrong, the tactics are wrong and the firearm handling is unsafe (and wrong). It’s obvious that the writers and actors have no idea about the subject. On a related note, I also cringe every time I see a character (it happens with both “good guys” and “bad guys”) holding a striker-fired pistol like a Glock, point it at someone and then hear a “cocking” sound when they get “serious” about shooting someone. Arrggh! There is no hammer to pull back on a Glock! If you want that sound to be accurate, they need to be holding a revolver with a hammer that is cocked back. It happens on almost every show and drives me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perspectives-in-scripted-entertainment-or-writers-are-writers/673251/25 "2013-11-14T17:03:04Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > That’s sort of a chicken-or-the-egg issue - is hunting depicted negatively because people aren’t hunting as much, or are people not hunting as much because it’s depicted negatively? In the case of hunting, I think more people are swayed by practical reasons than moral considerations. IMO, the decline of hunting has more to do with the ick factor (for lack of a better term) of shooting an animal and dealing with the blood and guts, rather than any moral stance portrayed on TV. It’s so much easier and cleaner to just go to the grocery store. For the same reason, a job at a slaughterhouse is never a priority for high school grads, not out of moral considerations but more because of the ick factor. ---
**Author:** ![sundog66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@sundog66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sundog66)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perspectives-in-scripted-entertainment-or-writers-are-writers/673251/26 "2013-11-15T02:38:59Z")
Does anyone remember the early 90s puppet sitcom [Dinosaurs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs_(TV_series))? It has got to be one of the most heavy-handed examples of “perspective”: every episode was a thinly veiled allegorical indictment of some stance on a social issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perspectives-in-scripted-entertainment-or-writers-are-writers/673251.md?page=1)