Petition ABC Family to Cancel "Greek"

[KyleMcGuire1983]

Originally Posted by macallan25

Haha, does it really upset you that much?

Well I just bumped into the petition and figured people would want to sign it. Honestly it kind of does offend me and somebody I was talking about it on Facebook brought up an interesting point.

Would society put up with an ABC Family show portraying people of a certain race, gender, or sexual orientation indulging in ridiculous stereotypes? I doubt it....because it's WRONG!

and what the hell is ABC "Family" doing advertising a show to kids about drunk frat boy date rapists and bulemic sororstitutes. HORRIBLE example to the kids out there....

The entire situation is a huge embarassment for everybody involved.

[SigKapCoug]

ABC family is NOT a family channel ("a new kind of family")

Its some sort of weird contract thing where they have to keep the family name even though they are not.

And lets be serious. ABC Family is NOT MTV. How many people actually WATCH ABC family? Who is actually going to be swayed by a dumb tv show?

[Drolefille]

Name me one internet petition that's done jack crap. The other recent petitions on that site are:
Jail Paris Hilton
Don't Free Paris Hilton
Stop WBC/Phelps from protesting at VT funerals
Free Paris Hilton
Draft Al Gore: Gore for President 2008

Yeah, they're gonna do some good.

[KyleMcGuire1983]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Name me one internet petition that's done jack crap. The other recent petitions on that site are:
Jail Paris Hilton
Don't Free Paris Hilton
Stop WBC/Phelps from protesting at VT funerals
Free Paris Hilton
Draft Al Gore: Gore for President 2008

Yeah, they're gonna do some good.

It was these kind of petitions that caused CBS to bring Jericho back for season 2 when they cancelled it. If there was BIGTIME outpour it could have an effect.

p.s. I hope Al Gore runs for president on a third party green ticket....SPOILER!

[James]

Its just free publicity for them . .

Originally Posted by KyleMcGuire1983

It was these kind of petitions that caused CBS to bring Jericho back for season 2 when they cancelled it. If there was BIGTIME outpour it could have an effect.

p.s. I hope Al Gore runs for president on a third party green ticket....SPOILER!

[KyleMcGuire1983]

Originally Posted by James

Its just free publicity for them . .

eh who knows, then again when you think about it we don't bitch and whine about Animal House and Old School we have theme parties based on them (Toga Parties were supposedly extremely rare pre-Animal House and everyone at my school has at least one a year)

[James]

The problem with toga parties is that most people don't have the bodies for it

Originally Posted by KyleMcGuire1983

eh who knows, then again when you think about it we don't bitch and whine about Animal House and Old School we have theme parties based on them (Toga Parties were supposedly extremely rare pre-Animal House and everyone at my school has at least one a year)

[dekeguy]

Originally Posted by KyleMcGuire1983

(Toga Parties were supposedly extremely rare pre-Animal House and everyone at my school has at least one a year)

========================

My Dad tells me that Toga Parties were a long established tradition with DKE when he was an undergrad in the 1960's. There were several other houses that had them as well during his time there. That suggests to me Toga Parties were a regular thing more than 40 years ago.
While negative stereotypes are annoying we do have to admit that Greek Life is not ALL about philanthropy and being ever so nice-nice. In all honesty while it is primarily about brotherhood and sisterhood not all brothers are valiant and not all sisters are virtuous, to use an old fashioned phrase. A house is an extended family and we all have some bad boy/bad girl members. Frankly, if we didn't we would be a pretty boring lot. We all have stories and memories of the things that we or our fellow members got up to. In large part these are the sources of our sometimes embarassing stereotypes. So long as certain obvious limits are not crossed I think its not such a bad thing to be a bit outrageous now and then. It was, afterall, our last chance before facing the real world. The transition to solid citizen is pretty much inevitable but not totally lacking in a few "last hurrahs", nor should it be.
My Grandmother says that in her day, in her house (Pi Phi) the "received wisdom" was that DEKEs made the worst boys but the best men. Depending on your house that could probably apply to many orgs. I don't think that is such a bad rep. Do you?

[exlurker]

More Episodes Ordered

Variety reports that ABC Family has ordered 10 more episodes, in addition to the 10 originally ordered. The short article also mentions the show's demographics.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

Originally Posted by James

Its just free publicity for them . .

Ditto. If you actually think those petitions work, ha! Think again.

If you want to do something more effective, write to the companies who buy ad time during the episodes. Or don't watch at all. If people don't watch, they'll (hopefully) pull out, and no more TV show.

The networks don't care about some silly online petition.

[kathykd2005]

Originally Posted by OTW

Ditto. If you actually think those petitions work, ha! Think again.

If you want to do something more effective, write to the companies who buy ad time during the episodes. Or don't watch at all. If people don't watch, they'll (hopefully) pull out, and no more TV show.

The networks don't care about some silly online petition.

True. Online petitions are silly, most of the time. Not watching it or writing to the company, or someone else in your local, state, or federal government would be much more effective.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by OTW

If people don't watch, they'll (hopefully) pull out, and no more TV show.

That's the way it really works.

Some things to note:

First, the "government," through The Federal Communications Commission cannot censor broadcast programming. The Communications Act of 1934 as amended by the Telecom Act of 1996 does not allow censorship. What the Commission CAN do is punish broadcast stations for breaking rules pertaining to language and other social issues. Censorship (at least to me) implies stopping something BEFORE it is distributed. That's not the case in broadcasting.

Second, it's questionable whether the FCC (government) could do anything in this case anyway because ABC Family is NOT an on-air network. It is a cable channel and does not use the "public airwaves" and the FCC has considerably less power. Most of the Act(s) regarding cable pertain to franchise issues and how many public access channels a system must provide, etc.

Third, a quick word on "ratings." There is a big difference between a programs rating (PG, etc) and ratings as what affects whether a show survives. The first is something to supposedly give people an advance idea of whether the content of a program is something they want to watch. The second, and most important one in this situation, is a supposedly scientific measurement of how many people actually watched the show. That's the thing that advertisers and network executives look at when deciding whether a show survives or not.

Finally, regarding use of language in records (pertaining only to broadcast -- not sale in stores), a radio or TV station itself may choose to censor what is played on the air -- including the deletion of offending words, etc. In fact, it is in the stations best interest to do that or it's likely to lose it's license or face heavy fines -- the "punishment" I alluded to above.

In reality, though, OTW hit the nail on the proverbial head. If people don't watch, it will go away. If people do watch, it won't.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by KyleMcGuire1983

It was these kind of petitions that caused CBS to bring Jericho back for season 2 when they cancelled it.

No, that was the 20 tons of peanuts that got sent to CBS.

[KyleMcGuire1983]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

No, that was the 20 tons of peanuts that got sent to CBS.

let's send 20 tons of empty solo cups to ABC Family!

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by KyleMcGuire1983

let's send 20 tons of empty solo cups to ABC Family!

That could be a rather good idea-get rid of the "extras" after Friday and Saturday parties