TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

PBS Brings The 'Bleep' Word To Prime Time

ADVERTISEMENT

By WALT BELCHER

wbelcher@tampatrib.com

Published: November 14, 2008

Holy censors, Batman. PBS has a bleep-filled installment of "Masterpiece" that uses profanity to tell the story of a woman who crusaded against foul language.

Well, you won't actually hear the profanity because of the bleeps. Just use your imagination.

"Filth," debuting at 9 p.m. Sunday on PBS, is a satire about a real woman, Mary Whitehouse. In the 1960s, she founded Clean Up TV to rid British television of "filth, violence and degradation."

America has similar groups, including the Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association and Brent Bozell's Media Research Center.

Actress Julie Walters plays Whitehouse as a simple elderly school teacher who starts out protesting programs that depict premarital sex. Her outrage expands to include anything she deems improper, from children's programs to Beatles lyrics.

Walters is best known in the United States as Molly Weasley in the "Harry Potter" films.

Even though the story is set in the 1960s, the issue remains a hot one. A case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court has Fox seeking to get out of Federal Communications Commission fines for letting the f-word slip though twice at live events (Cher in 2002 and Nicole Ritchie in 2003).

RADIO DAZE: "Very humbling" is how WQYK radio personality Dave McKay describes his feelings after he and co-host Randy Price were honored as major market broadcast personalities of the year at the CMA Awards in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday night.

WQYK, 99.5 FM, also was named major market station of the year. The awards were announced last month, but Price says having it acknowledged on ABC national television was a thrill.

"I had chills," McKay says.

Together 12 years, Price and McKay host the station's afternoon drive show. They credited their support staff and station management for making the show work.

VIDBITS: Crystal Sierra, a marketing coordinator from Treasure Island, will be a contestant in the "Millionaire" hot seat with host Meredith Vieira, today at 7:30 p.m. on WTSP, Channel 10.

• NBC has pulled the plug on "My Own Worst Enemy" and "Lipstick Jungle" due to low ratings. "My Own Worst Enemy" stars Christian Slater as a spy with dual identities. Inspired by the "Bourne Identity" movies (but way less smart), it was the network's most expensive new series. Slater was a cold fish and the premise was ludicrous.

"Lipstick Jungle" limped into its second season and stumbled. This tale of well-heeled Manhattan women (Brooke Shields, Kim Raver and Lindsay Price) was from "Sex and the City" creator Candace Bushnell.

• Fox is dropping the Saturday late-night comedy "Madtv" after this 14th season ends. Developed as a rival to NBC's "Saturday Night Live," the skit comedy show had become too costly, according to sources at Fox.

Co-creator David Salzman says production ends in December but he is looking for another network.

CAT SHOW: Couch potatoes have been calling all week about the "Meow Mix: Think Like a Cat Show" that I wrote about in Sunday's Tribune.

At this point, it is a one-time-only special but there may be more. You can enter your cat if the Game Show Network decides to proceed.

There are no more auditions scheduled for Tampa.

You can, however, root for Ian Stich, 29, from Sarasota and his cat, Quinn, a Maine Coon. They'll be competing for $1 million.

It airs at 9 p.m. Saturday on GSN (that's channel 116 on Bright House and 184 on Verizon).

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT