c life-portrayal. In the early 80's, limits were pushed with dramas such as Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere, which offered frank sex talk, brief nudity, and scatological humor. All along, the shows that push the violence, language and sex the furthest are the most widely viewed. (Levin). Violent shows train children to be violent. If Americans would wake up to what causes violence around the country, they would probably ban violent television shows and boycott sponsors of such programs. Although the Columbine High School tragedy in Colorado woke people up to the effects of violence on TV, current shows that glorify violence still show high ratings. Professional wrestling is at the head of the line of increasing violence in programming. Using chairs, tables, garbage cans, barbed wire to fight is hardly the sport of wrestling. Rather Smith 4 than the old myth of good and evil, we now see just the evil. The "Buried Alive" match where one wrestler shovels dirt onto his opponent who was wacked in the head with a sledgehammer pretty much says it all. It’s not really wrestling, it’s a brawl. (Graydon) A network news feature recently showed a back-yard videotape of 14- and 15- year old boys staging their own matches, exfoliating each other’s faces with cheese graters, smashing one another with baseball bats and jumping off garage roofs onto folding tables. TV writers contend that rude language on TV is not any worse than one might hear in day-to-day life. Networks have pushed toward a new freedom to use formerly taboo words and phrases such as "ass", "sucks", "piss off" and "get laid" and "screw you", along with the traditional "damn" and "hell". A recent premiere on Fox TV opened with a character using the F-word six times in the first minute (bleeped, of course). Bleeps don't even try hard to...
