CENSORS SAY THE DUMBEST THINGS

CENSORS SAY THE DUMBEST THINGS

LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) – Need proof that humans are dumber than ever? Don’t look at test scores, look at memos from TV censors. That’s the advice of TV executive Leonard Stern, who claims he’s received countless idiotic memos in his 40 years in showbiz. He’s compiled some of the most bizarre memos in a new book, A Martian Wouldn’t Say That: Memos TV Execs Wish They Hadn’t Written (Tallfellow Press). Stern says he received one memo from a clueless censor who asked him, “Can we make the rabbi less Jewish?” Another demanded the word “doo doo” be used in a script in place of “ca ca,” which he deemed “unacceptable.” Then there’s the idiotic memo from the nervous nellie who wanted to eliminate any references to child abuse and homosexuality from a script because those things are “...no longer popular with the audience.”

Tue 04-17-01