Pee-wee's Playhouse has been rated a full PG on Cartoon Network.
Other than the fact that Paul Reubens got busted you've got to wonder why a show that aired for children would get that.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurasic Park)
Are we just talking the CBS series or the HBO as well? The show was rife with double entrendes<sp?>.. and these days PG isn't all that bad. Alien vs Predator was only rated PG13
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11:36 PM
Wichita Member
Posts: 20658 From: Wichita, Kansas Registered: Jun 2002
I am of the firm belief that Pee Wee's Playhouse was created by and for acidheads. (This from a friend of mine who was in a position to make such a statement.)
[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 07-11-2006).]
The current rating, as shown on CN tonight, was PG.
The show was bloody wierd. It was also made 20 years ago and aired as a childrens show on most stations. The Copryright on tonight's ep was 1986. I don't know if it came out on HBO or what originally. I didn't see anything in it any worse than what is on just about any saturday morning, which includes some pretty high levels of violence, even double meanings, but almost never rates over Y something.
Regardless of what Reubens did off camera, the show was gound breaking and even today there is nothing close on a creative level. We've been stuck with F'ing Pokemon for 10 years now. At least half of what is on CN is imports or reruns of WB sat morning shows.
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12:05 AM
DtheC Member
Posts: 3395 From: Newton Iowa, USA Registered: Sep 2005
I guess I'm showing my age here, but when the movie MASH came out, in the early days of the MPAA, it was rated X. I was in High School at the time and was a projectionist at the local Movie theatre. My parents made me find a substitute projectionist. With the exception of Holihan's shower scene, breif nip-le from 50 ft, I think it'd make PG13 today. Compare this with the Sorority house bedroom scene from Animal House about 10 years later, no X there, even though the scene was blatently voyeuristic. Understandably this was the early days of the ratings system, but 'mores' do change. Consider how these two productions actualy intended to stretch the limits of the ratings system. Looking back and seeing the changes, I'd have to agree with Martha Stewart, 'It's a Good Thing'.
[This message has been edited by DtheC (edited 07-11-2006).]
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04:30 AM
F-I-E-R-O Member
Posts: 8410 From: Endwell, NY Registered: Jan 2005
Originally posted by DtheC: I guess I'm showing my age here, but when the movie MASH came out, in the early days of the MPAA, it was rated X...
"By ROGER GREENSPUN Published: January 26, 1970
To my knowledge Robert Altman's M*A*S*H is the first major American movie openly to ridicule belief in God—not phony belief; real belief. It is also one of the few (though by no means the first) American screen comedies openly to admit the cruelty of its humor. "
1970: M*A*S*H is the first mainstream movie to use ****, narrowly avoiding an X rating. This is what I found on the MPAA website for M*A*S*H:
Title: M.A.S.H. (1973) Rating: PG Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Alternate Titles: Mash Other: Edited for re-rating Previously rated (R) in (1970).
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05:07 AM
DtheC Member
Posts: 3395 From: Newton Iowa, USA Registered: Sep 2005
Title: M.A.S.H. (1973) Rating: PG Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Alternate Titles: Mash Other: Edited for re-rating Previously rated (R) in (1970).
Internet Movie Data base says the edited version released in 1970 was rated R. Later edited to PG. It was Rated X when it showed here.
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06:17 AM
moleman_in_a_FieroGT Member
Posts: 792 From: Houston, TX, USA Registered: Apr 2006
A show that came out on The Science Channel, a part of Discovery, named Wild and weird rockets is rated MA. I haven't seen it in about a year, but I doubt that there's anything in there that makes it deserve that rating. Maybe the name, but nothing more..
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07:15 AM
Toddster Member
Posts: 20871 From: Roswell, Georgia Registered: May 2001
The current rating, as shown on CN tonight, was PG.
The show was bloody wierd. It was also made 20 years ago and aired as a childrens show on most stations. The Copryright on tonight's ep was 1986. I don't know if it came out on HBO or what originally. I didn't see anything in it any worse than what is on just about any saturday morning, which includes some pretty high levels of violence, even double meanings, but almost never rates over Y something.
Regardless of what Reubens did off camera, the show was gound breaking and even today there is nothing close on a creative level. We've been stuck with F'ing Pokemon for 10 years now. At least half of what is on CN is imports or reruns of WB sat morning shows.
Nicely said. As weird as he was, I enjoyed the heck outta him! Give me weirdness over "Collect a bunch of cards and attack each other for no reason" shows like Pokemon, YugiYo, and those other ones... Not that card games are so bad, it's just that the shows are painfully weak, imo. (oh well, If I was a kid during the times these shows were popular, maybe I'd like them too, who knows? GiJoe and Battle of the Planets andTransformers and other shows were equally pointless, I suppose)
quote
Compare this with the Sorority house bedroom scene from Animal House about 10 years later, no X there, even though the scene was blatently voyeuristic.
Man, That was one of my FAVORITE scenes when I was a kid... Boobies! And him fallin' backwards... lol as "naughty" as it may be, it seems less nasty then some of the "drink the spoo beer" stuff of today...
Wow, I can actually FEEL myself gettin' older as I type this!
Think about it tho... Pee-wee's is now rated PG. The rating went up if anything. CN only shows it late as part of Adult Swim. 20 years ago it was on Broadcast TV, in the daytime, specifically as a childrens show. It makes no sense. Not that Ratings ever do but this is a perfect example of arbitrary and meaningless.
Pokemon and all the other infomercials for card games are extremely violent. They are about nothing but fighting. There's not even a GvE element in a bunch of them. The WB saturday morning lineup... (Not in order)
Xiaolin Showdown The Batman Pokemon Yugi Oh Loonatics Unleashed Spider Riders Johnny Test Viewtiful Joe
Only Johnny Test isn't constantly showing fights but still has some violence in a bunch of episodes.
Most broadcast networks don't even have much on sat mornings any more. Fox does but I haven't looked at them lately.
Over on CN, plenty of shows are some kind of constant fighting. Even in the kid show hours. Ed, Edd and Eddy, are constatnly beating the hell out of each other plus getting/giving beatings with most other characters. Totally Spies, Billy and Mandy, My Gym Partner is a Monkey, run plenty of violence. None rate over a Y something.
Some people go back and look at old cartoons and say that cartoons have always been violent etc. They leave out that many of those cartoons were never written for children. The target audience for Bugs Bunny, Betty Boop, and most other cartoons thru at least the 50's was adults and teens. One of the big names in old cartoons, is on record saying they weren't made for kids. I don't remember which one. If it wasn't Tex Avery, it was someone at his level. I've seen that interview but it's been a long time.
I don't normally buy into all the BS screaming about violence in cartoons but it's gotten to where the violent cartoon, often a vehicle for selling more violence in toys, is almost every show. This can't be a good thing when allot of kids are surrounded by inner city violence, and if we are to believe the claims, bullies everywhere.
I can think why a show about rockets, assuming it is the show I think it is, would get an MA... Same reason we've labotomized just about all middle and HS science programs. Liability. They don't want to be seen even remotely proposing to minors that they should build anything that might hurt them.
