HOME / the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Tim Carvell and David Shayne

the breakfast table:
entries

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Shasta McCrackhead and Other Lost TV Shows

By David Shayne
Posted Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2000, at 11:01 AM ET

Tim--

RSS

In an editorial on its editorial page this morning, the New York Times editorial board editorializes about an important editorial issue; according to Salon magazine, for about the last two years television networks have been secretly submitting scripts to the White House's drug czar, who awarded credit for anti-drug messages in the shows. Each dollar a network receives in credit means one more dollar's worth of public-service time it doesn't have to give to the government for free and can instead sell to advertisers. Salon gave examples of several shows that added anti-drug themes in exchange for credit. The Times, of course, is critical of the policy, noting that it could eventually lead to government censorship and/or "state sponsored propaganda."

Well, I've spent the morning doing some research and have uncovered thousands of pages of evidence that reveal that the Times' worst fears have already come true, with the government's propaganda campaign in effect for at least three decades, and with a far greater reach than Salon originally reported.

To wit:

1965: One of my favorite episodes of Gilligan's Island is the one where the castaways get superpowers after consuming irradiated vegetables. You know what those vegetables were in the original, pre-censored draft of the script? Methamphetamines.

1984: Everyone remembers the famous episode of Diff'rent Strokes where Nancy Reagan teaches Arnold to "Just Say No." But few know that government censors insisted on the removal of two lines of dialogue that they found to be not only pro-drug but a potential embarrassment to the administration--

WILLIS: "C'mon, Arnold, let's go snort a couple of lines of blow, just like Vice President Bush's son!"

ARNOLD: "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

1992: The producers of Full House agree to change an episode in which little Michelle (portrayed by various Olsen twins) discovers and uses older sister D.J.'s bong into a more benign story in which Michelle discovers and reads D.J.'s diary.

1999: UPN's potential breakout hit, Shasta McCrackhead, is tamed into the disastrously dull Shasta McNasty. Look where it is in the ratings now.

And that's just what I was able to uncover since 7:30 this morning. You may want to put your investigative reporter skills to work on this one, Tim.

the breakfast table:
entries