Spielberg calls for responsible TV - CSI

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i70fd1aa5f1d41c3f3ccaf4a3390932a9
Spielberg calls for responsible TV (By Paul J. Gough )

Nov 21, 2006

NEW YORK -- Steven Spielberg urged TV networks to be mindful of what they
show on the air because of the effect it might have on children.

"Today we are needing to be as responsible as we can possibly be, not just
thinking of our own children but our friends' and neighbors' children,"
Spielberg told an audience Monday at the International Emmys board of
directors meeting here.

Spielberg decried on-air promotions for television shows like "CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation" that showed "blood and people being dissected." He also
said that his favorite TV show of the new season, NBC's "Heroes," showed
someone cut in half in the 9 p.m. hour that caused him to send his younger
children out of the room.

"I'm a parent who is very concerned," he said.

Spielberg said that the TV landscape was much more "homogenized" 20 years
ago, even seven or eight years ago. One of his shows, "ER," wouldn't have
been on the air 20 years ago because of its graphic depictions.

Two of Spielberg's movies, "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," have
generated controversy during their television airings with uncut language
and graphic depictions. But Spielberg has also made a famous edit to the DVD
release of "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," where a government agent wielded
a gun in the original film and then held a walkie-talkie in the DVD.

In a free-ranging hour of interview with former NBC News correspondent
Garrick Utley and questions from the audience, Spielberg said iPod video may
be all the rage but count his films out from tailoring his films to fit the
small screen.

"That's one medium where I have to draw the line," he said. "We'll shoot
for television and the movies and let there be a wide gap" between that and
the small 3-inch screen. He also said that he felt that people are social
animals who will choose to go out to a movie rather than watch a show on
widescreen.


"I don't think movie theaters will ever go away," Speilberg said.

But the producer-director who got his start in TV directing Joan Crawford
for a 1969 episode of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" isn't lacking for work
on screens of any kind. He's developing a 10- or 11-hour miniseries about
the U.S. war against Japan in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, part
of the 20% of his time that he estimated he worked on TV projects compared
with 80% for films.

He called working on miniseries "the most fun I have" and especially liked
the ability to develop characters. He pointed to HBO's "Band of Brothers,"
which developed characters over hours rather than the eight to 10 minutes
that he said was available in a two-hour feature film.

Another project is "On the Lot," a Mark Burnett-Speilberg TV series that
will choose one of 16 aspiring filmmakers for a development deal with
DreamWorks, Spielberg's studio. It will air on Fox. And of course there's
another film coming in the "Indiana Jones" series, which Spielberg was
relatively mum about.

"There's still life in the series," Spielberg said.

Spielberg also said he was happy with the direction DreamWorks was taking
under Viacom, which bought the company about a year ago for $1.6 billion.
He said DreamWorks chief Stacy Snider is "doing a wonderful job" and said
that he wouldn't have sold the company to Viacom if it wasn't the right
thing for the company and its investors.

"Paramount treats us as we like to see ourselves, as an independent film
company," Spielberg said.

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世事往往就像硬幣一樣，一邊是頭，一邊是字
你不能只看他一面
世界上哪有誰是全對，誰是全錯
《雷洛傳2，父子情仇》

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