REALITY TV FINED $1,183,000 FOR INDECENCY

WASHINGTON- Federal regulators proposed a record indecency fine of nearly $1.2 million US Tuesday against Fox Broadcasting Co. for an episode of its reality series Married by America that included graphic scenes from bachelor and bachelorette parties. The Federal Communications Commission said the material, which featured male and female Las Vegas strippers in a variety of sexual situations, was indecent and patently offensive, intended to "pander to and titillate the audience." FCC commissioners voted unanimously to fine each of the 169 Fox TV stations that aired the program $7,000. Fox has 30 days to appeal the fines, which total $1,183,000. The fine is the most ever for a television broadcaster. The previous record of $550,000 was levied against CBS last month for the Super Bowl halftime show last February that included a racy duet in which singer Janet Jackson's breast was briefly exposed. It's also the first indecency fine against a reality television show, though other complaints are being investigated, the FCC said. A spokesman for Fox Broadcasting Co., Joe Earley, would not say whether the network planned to appeal. "We disagree with the FCC's decision and believe the content is not indecent," he said. The six-episode Married by America, which got dismal ratings, introduced a cast of single men and women and allowed viewers to match them up by popular vote. Five matched couples then went through some of the rituals of dating. None actually got married. The episode in question, which aired April 7, 2003, featured explicitly sexual scenes from their bachelor and bachelorette parties. "Even with Fox's editing, the episode includes scenes in which partygoers lick whipped cream from strippers' bodies in a sexually suggestive manner," the FCC said. "Another scene features a man on all fours in his underwear as two female strippers spank him. Although the episode electronically obscures any nudity, the sexual nature of the scenes is inescapable." Following the broadcast, the commission received 159 complaints. "Although the nudity was pixilated, even a child would have known that the strippers were topless and that sexual activity was being shown," the FCC said. Federal law bars radio and non-cable television stations from airing references to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., the hours when children are more likely to be watching television. The Fox show aired at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., depending on the city. The FCC has stepped up enforcement of the statute in recent years as complaints mounted about a coarsening of public airwaves. Critics, notably radio host Howard Stern, claim the FCC is seeking to stifle free speech. Stern has been repeatedly fined by the FCC. He announced last week that in 2006 he would move his show to satellite radio, which is not subject to federal indecency rules. The Jackson incident prompted Congress to consider raising the maximum indecency fine from $32,500 to as much as $500,000 per incident. The House of Representatives and Senate passed different versions of an indecency measure but negotiators couldn't reach agreement on a final plan. Supporters have vowed to try again.-Laura Mecker.

 

 BROADWAY, THE FOLLIES, THE PBS AND YOU

NEW YORK -- Broadway: The American Musical begins in 1893, with the arrival of a five-year-old Russian boy born Israel Baline. He would adopt the United States as his homeland and Irving Berlin as his name, and help forge an as-yet-unimagined art form around an as-yet-unchristened Times Square. That same year, a young promoter named Florenz Ziegfeld arrived from Chicago to conquer New York. The first great impresario of the American musical, he would found the Ziegfeld Follies, eye-popping revues whose trademark was dozens of glamorous showgirls. After such an overture, a documentary on musicals could have charted the 20th century with six hours' worth of names, faces and performances - That's Entertainment from the Great White Way. But Broadway does far more. Airing on PBS from Tuesday through Thursday (check local listings), this magnificent miniseries connects Broadway's onstage evolution to the shifting scenery on a much larger stage: the country itself. America's culture, politics and heart have always starred on Broadway. Immigration, race relations, ethnic assimilation, the labour movement, Prohibition, world wars, the Depression; the arrival of movies, radio and TV; most recently, the civil rights movement and Vietnam, AIDS and globalization - Broadway missed none of it. Nor does Broadway: The American Musical. The goal, says producer Michael Kantor, was "to integrate the people, the art form, the place into one big series that helps tell us who we are as Americans." And (he might have added) tells us who we were as Americans each step of the way. "You can't just show a clip," Kantor says. "You have to consider what the audience brought to each of these shows: If we'd gone there, who would WE have been? Because theatre is not just what's on stage, it's an interaction between the performers and the audience." With a treasure trove of archival footage and photos, as well as on-camera interviews with more than 80 celebrated Broadwayites, this miniseries spins an epic tale with a century of pop songs as its soundtrack. (In addition, there's a jam-packed Broadway web site; a companion book and two different CD sets.) Kantor, who spent eight years on the project, cites as inspiration a quote by Yip Harburg, among whose songs is the Depression era lament, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? "Songs," declared Harburg, "are the pulse of a nation's heart; a fever chart of its health." With its songs, Broadway has always issued reports on current conditions. But it also expresses a country's hopes for the future. "The Broadway musical has sung the promise of America," says series host Julie Andrews. As Broadway begins, we find Andrews on the stage of the New Amsterdam Theater.

Restored from near ruin by the Walt Disney Co., this is now the home of The Lion King, a big-budget crowd-pleaser adapted from Disney's animated feature film. But a century ago, the New Amsterdam was the home of the Ziegfeld Follies, which the film revisits not only with newly uncovered colour footage from the 1920s, but also through sharp recollections from centenarian Doris Eaton, a Ziegfeld Girl from 1918 to '20, who then shows her stuff with some hoofing on the New Amsterdam stage. The first hour also introduces us to Jewish comedienne Fanny Brice and black singer Bert Williams, America's first "crossover" artists. Hour two covers the Roaring '20s and the emergence of the Gershwin brothers, Al Jolson and an innovative black composer, Eubie Blake. Hour three: the Depression years, with Cole Porter and the team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Then the fourth hour finds Rodgers and his new partner, Oscar Hammerstein II, changing the face of Broadway theatre with Oklahoma! This golden age of musicals also included Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady and Kiss Me, Kate. Spanning 1957 to '79, the fifth hour starts with West Side Story and traces an era of social upheaval, ending with other groundbreaking musicals such as A Chorus Line and Sweeney Todd.

The final chapter chronicles an era of British imports such as Cats, the old-fashioned smash The Producers, and the recent hit Wicked, a musical backed by entertainment giant Universal Pictures. In putting together the series, Kantor kept his focus on Broadway as the centre of the entertainment firmament. For instance, Liza Minnelli is the leading lady most identified with Cabaret, but that's thanks to her turn as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film; instead, the documentary scrupulously opts for Jill Haworth (who in 1966 created the role on Broadway) singing the title song. On the other hand: Two years after Fred Astaire performed Night and Day at the Shubert Theatre, he sang it in his first starring film. "Throughout, we tried to be true to Broadway, and use TV and Hollywood as a reflection of it," says Kantor. "So we used that clip of Astaire, because it's true to what he did on Broadway." Meanwhile, the truth of Broadway is a fascinating musical crash course in America.- F. Moor.

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