Shatner Response To PTC Boycott Campaign
2 min readLast week, the Parents Television Council (PTC) called for a boycott of $#*! My Dad Says, but the star of the show, William Shatner, thinks that too much is being made of the bleeped out profanity.
PTC President Tim Winter is upset over the profanity, even though the profanity is not even being used in the title of the show, being replaced by $#*! instead. “Parents really do care about profanity when their kids are watching TV,” said Winter. “All parents? No, but something like eighty or ninety percent of parents. Putting an expletive in the title of a show is crossing new territory, and we can’t allow that to happen on our watch.”
Winter himself uses the profanity multiple times in his letter to companies when asking them not to advertise with the show. “When you advertise on television, do you want your customers to associate your product with shit?” he wrote.
But Shatner, who will play the profane father on $#*! My Dad Says, thinks Winter is making a big deal out of nothing and if he had his way, “$#*!” would become “shit.” “Do you know what I wish?” he said. “I wish they would call it shit…
“I’ve got grandchildren. I brought up three girls. They’ve all got kids. OK? And you say, ‘Boopy-doo-doo, you’ve got to make poo-poo. Come on. Make poo-poo in the toilet.’ Eventually, poo-poo becomes shit. ‘Go take a shit, you’ll feel better.’ You say that to your kids. The word shit is around us. It isn’t a terrible term. It’s a natural function. Why are we pussyfooting?”
PTC’s Winter plans on challenging the broadcast license of CBS stations that air $#*! My Dad Says. He claims that a dozen or so advertisers (all of whom requested anonymity) agree with his boycott. “It’s follow the money,” he said. “Even though we are absolutely fighting with every ounce of power, we have to preserve the broadcast decency laws, we don’t know if they’re going to be good anymore. We don’t know if they’re going to be around much longer.”
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