21 letter to PBS’s top programmer, Jennifer Lawson. Virginia Fox, executive director of Kentucky ETV, praised the programs in a Jan. “It’s no fun to get beat up on.” “Most honest piece of TV” Ward Chamberlin, chairman of American Playhouse, characterized the reaction to Tales as “extraordinary” and “mostly positive.” He added, however, that he was “saddened” by the heat that politicians had turned up on some stations for airing Tales.
TALES OF THE CITY GAY SEX SCENES TV
Public TV stations in northern and western markets drew especially strong audiences, and heard both praise and disapproval from viewers. TV critics around the country praised Tales for its authenticity, characterizations and faithful adaptation of Maupin’s book, but also warned that its language, nudity and sexual content were not for the faint-hearted. “The water was wonderful, but the waterboy got shot,” Ottinger added. And the backers, he added, were calling both houses of the legislature. Calls to the Georgia network last week were up to 700, running five-to-one in support of the show.
TALES OF THE CITY GAY SEX SCENES SERIES
“Looking at the big picture, running the series was a whale of a success for us, exclusive of the beating we took,” said Ottinger. But with issues of censorship, decency and sexual mores swirling around it, Tales of the City generated quite a few tales of its own. Reactions as severe as these were by no means common in the wake of Tales. 20 appropriations hearing.Īnd in Tennessee, where three stations opted not to air the Tales, WTCI, Chattanooga, has had to respond to charges of censorship after its board to pulled the show one hour before airtime. State funding including a $20 million building project are vulnerable to cuts from legislators who publicly roasted Ottinger for airing Tales in a Jan. Last week the Georgia Senate passed a nonbinding resolution directing Georgia PTV to “cease airing it and never air it again,” said Executive Director Richard Ottinger. The Oklahoma network is one of two state nets that have drawn the ire of legislators by airing the high-profile mini-series that PBS fed in two versions to stations Jan. “It’s going to create some difficulty for us.” Oklahoma ETV’s decision to air American Playhouse‘s six-hour adaptation of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City has “stirred up quite a bit of animosity amongst a considerable number of legislators from rural areas,” said Bob Allen, general manager. Though Oklahoma ETV took what it thought was a cautious approach in scheduling an edited version of Tales of the City, a state representative offended by the mini-series’ gay content is winning support for a proposal to slash the network’s state funding in half.