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Heroes Wins Somewhat Controversial ‘Family Friendly’ Award

by Debbie

TVi.jpgSome are criticizing the Family Friendly Programming Forum’s choices for best drama and best comedy this year. Heroes was the drama winner while ABC’s Ugly Betty got the nod for best comedy. The awards were handed out on November 29 and the ceremony aired last week on the CW.

Some have criticized Heroes as a “family-friendly” choice given it’s dark themes and disturbing images but Ugly Betty is catching even more heat. The Parents Television Council is fed up with the choice. Their analysts counted 205 instances of sexual content and 154 examples of foul language in just the first season alone. Up against that, I guess Heroes does look like a family friendly show!

Other awards were presented to the Discovery Channel’s Planet Earth, Disney’s High School Musical 2, ABC’s Pushing Daisies“, ABC Family’s Kyle XY and Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. Actors taking honors were Kyle Chandler of Friday Night Lights, America Ferrera of Ugly Betty, Zac Efron of High School Musical and Zachary Levi of Chuck.

Source 1

Source 2


4 Responses to “Heroes Wins Somewhat Controversial ‘Family Friendly’ Award”

  1. Heroes ganhou o controverso Prêmio “Programa Familiar” « HeroesBrasil Says:

    […] Fonte: WhatchingHeroes […]

  2. Margie Says:

    The second source really pins down the objections to Ugly Betty … it features a “sympathetic Mexican-American” which is just scandalous. And it has sympathetic gay characters too, which clearly “advances the gay agenda.” Scandalous!

  3. Debbie Says:

    Thanks for your comment Margie. While I agree that Ugly Betty is not really a family friendly show, I don’t agree with all of the reasons given in that article.

    I’ll play devil’s advocate for a minute though because I think he was actually citing the sympathetic Mexican-American as a good point and a reason the show might be considered family friendly though. He goes on in the next paragraph to cite the reasons that it might not be. I felt his “gay” digs were a little much. Gay characters don’t keep me from letting my kids watch a show. Have you seen High School Musical? LOL

    Ugly Betty is definitely not a show I feel I can watch with my 8 and 11 year olds though.

    My choice for family-friendly comedy would be Chuck. While it has sexual innuendo at times, it’s one of the shows I don’t worry too much about my boys watching.

  4. Margie Says:

    Good points, Debbie … sexual content is a good reason for people to worry about kids watching a show. Simply having a gay character is not, and it is good to make the distinction. And I totally agree about Chuck … I know I am supposed to say Bionic Woman was my favorite NBC show since I blog about it, but it was really Chuck!

    Btw, I love your new Company Profile feature!

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Watching Heroes is a site devoted to NBC's hit epic drama, Heroes, which chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities. We bring you episode recaps, casting news, gossip and more. We enjoy speculation, so feel free to drop us a comment with your observations and theories on the current storylines.

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