Bisexual actress Amber Heard’s new television series, NBC’s The Playboy Club, is under attack before it even premieres — and not just in Utah.
The Parents Television Council (whose Children of the Corn-esque tagline is “Because Our Children Are Watching") wants “to assure that no minor in America will ever lay eyes on the shocking sight of a woman in a satin swimsuit outfit and bunny ears,” according to TV.com.
"Putting a veneer of sophistication on an industry that exploits women and destroys families is not laudable, it is disgraceful," PTC president Tim Winter wrote in a letter delivered to numerous NBC affiliates. "In what manner does the airing of such material reconcile with your public interest obligations as a broadcast licensee?
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At least one station agrees. KSL, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City, has already banned the show, telling reporters the series did not match the station’s own mission.
“The Playboy brand is known internationally," Mark Willes, KSL President and CEO, said in a statement. "Everyone is clear what it stands for. We want to be sure everyone is clear what the KSL brand stands for, which is completely inconsistent with the Playboy brand. We would be helping to build a brand that stands for pornography. For us, that's just untenable."
Willes also threatens the affiliates with fines and other repercussions: “NBC is breaking the law with this show. They're not meeting FCC standards.”
KSL already airs Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (which often shows women raped, murdered, and mutilated), Dateline: To Catch a Predator (where sex offenders are caught trying to be tweens), and plans to air the remake of Prime Suspect as well as Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea (based on Chelsea Handler’s riotous, drunken, and not-appropriate-for-kids memoir).
No word on why KSL thinks murdered women are better than orgasmic ones, but PTC has long protested from a puritanical bent. Last year they called MTV’s decision to put LGBT-friendly Skins on the air “a programming failure of cataclysmic proportions.”
The watchdog group has been behind the record FCC fines lobbied against the major networks in recent years and shows with LGBT characters are often in their crosshairs.
The Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography, a coalition of more than 70 smaller groups (which includes Focus on the Family, Morality In Media, the Family Research Council and Concerned Women For America) told Deseret News that “NBC is now contributing to and encouraging a highly dangerous sexualized culture as they stoop further into the gutter for programming and profits.”
According to the Florida Family Association — the group that flew a banner warning people about Gay Day at Disney World last month, also joined the war against NBC over the show, according to ChristianPost.com. The group said it will document all the advertisers of the show and publicize the names of those companies online and in emails to supporters.
So far, NBC has stood its ground and many pundits say the bunny haters are just adding to the show’s early buzz. Either way, fans hope Heard makes it to little screen long enough to show us her bunny tail.
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