I work for a local ABC affiliate here in Texas, and we ended up showing Leathal Weapon. I find that highly ironic.
But the reason we didn’t show the film is because the FCC was threatening incredibly high fines for each swear word (big ones for the F-bomb), and if ABC edited out the film, Spielburgh retained the right to sue ABC and all the affiliates that showed the dumbed down version of it for tampering with his film. So, it was either not show it, or pay out the ass in order to show it.
We chose not to show it.
We also got a HUGE number of phone calls and emails telling us we should be ashamed of ourselves for being so unpatriotic and cowards. I agree with everything they said (well, not everything, because some people are rather crazy, but for the most part, I believe it was stupid for us not to air it).
We’re a medium market station with a small budget, there’s no way in hell we could have handled being fined, but still, I can’t see what the fucking point was.
I remember just a few years ago, at least once, they aired Schindler’s List completely unedited, with no commercial breaks, only the occassional ten minute intermission. This was back in Beaumont that I saw it, which is much more repressed than Austin, so I’m curious as to why things weren’t such a big fucking deal back then but it is now.
The reason the FCC wouldn’t make a ruling ahead of time on this one is that it would be construed as censorship.
Rev Wildmon’s watchdog group issued a statement in advance (sorry, don’t have a cite, but I know I saw/heard it) saying that they would not complain about the unedited version of the movie, because none of the violence or profanity was ‘gratuitous.’
And as stated previously in this thread, the FCC only reacts when someone complains.
Okay, ABC agreed to cover any fees levied against the station by the FCC, but what ABC wouldn’t do is pay to fight any claims that we had violated our broadcasting license, which again, would be a hell of a lot of money, and if enough people filed them and they ended up winning, we would no longer be able to air, well…anything. So, even if we didn’t go bankrupt, we’d lose our license, and be out of a job.
Elvis, thanks for the clarification. I do sympathize; I wouldn’t have your job for anything.
But I hate to see TV stations having to concern themselves with a community outcry (or even a single-nutcase outcry) over programming a movie like this.
