Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 18, 1995 TAG: 9509180115
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBIN DOUGHERTY KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's no longer a surprise to see nudity on the networks in prime time. There's gratuitous violence across the dial. TV's ``family hour'' is history. Networks are no longer programming the 8-to-9 p.m. time slot with kids' sensibilities in mind.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hunt is so agitated by all this and by what he's seen of the new TV season that he's been speaking out against the television networks. He's pressing the FCC to demand that stations program a minimum number of hours of children's programming or face the loss of their licenses.
Parents could get the idea that TV doesn't have much to offer their kids anymore.
Actually, there is plenty of good stuff on the tube for kids and their families. You just have to look for it.
Here are some suggestions for family viewing, culled from the new fall shows and some returning ones you may have overlooked:
``Brotherly Love'' (NBC - WSLS, Channel 10) isn't going to break any new creative ground. But with its realistic views about life, death and divorce, it validates nontraditional families.
Starring Joey (``Blossom'') Lawrence, the show is about a twentysomething guy who visits his two younger stepbrothers and his father's second wife just after his father has died. He's planning on just passing through. But he decides to stick around when he realizes his stepbrothers share his loss and some of his conflicted feelings about family life.
``Dweebs'' (debuts Friday at 8 p.m. on CBS - WDBJ, Channel 7) is about a woman who becomes an office manager for a small software company owned by Peter Scolari (``Newhart''). One problem: She doesn't know a mouse from a modem. What she does possess are some basic social skills that her pocket-protector-wearing office mates don't. Your kids will identify with the computer whizzes; you'll identify with Carey, who has managed to live her life till now without a 486.
``The Nanny'' (Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBS) isn't a new show, but in case you haven't discovered it yet, let me give you a nudge in the direction of the hilarious Fran Drescher, who plays a Brooklyn-born Mary Poppins to a group of motherless rich kids. The show's humor is sophisticated enough for grown-ups but broad enough for kids. A warning: Even though the basic message here is that family is central and that kids deserve self-esteem, there is a sexual undercurrent to the show and some parents might not feel comfortable with that.
Despite Bart Simpson's reputation as the bad boy of television, ``The Simpsons'' (Sunday at 8 p.m. on Fox) remains one of the few shows on the air not only aimed at grade-school kids, but also taking aim at serious issues that affect their lives, including public education, censorship and violence on TV.
``Clarissa Explains It All'' to you and to your preadolescents (weeknights at 7:30 p.m. on Nickelodeon). This show, now in reruns but still worth watching, features one of the most wholesome families on television. It highlights the life of 13-year-old Clarissa, whose interactions with her parents and younger brother are presented with spunk, not sentimentality.
``Roseanne'' (Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC - WSET, Channel 13), now in its eighth season, remains one of the most provocative, inventive shows on the air. Each week, the writers tackle issues ranging from racism and poverty to honesty within families, drug use, birth control and parenting - all with humor and insight. Because the show deals with sophisticated subjects, you may want to watch this with your kids, so you can talk about it with them.
Popular children's author Maurice Sendak provides the illustrations for ``Maurice Sendak's Little Bear,'' a new show for preschoolers based on the books written by Else Holmelund Minarik, that begins in November on Nickelodeon.
by CNB