Watch Out for Children

For adults, the front-line television criticism in the U.S. is written by men like Lawrence Laurent of the Washington Post and Jack Gould of the New York Times. For children, the ultimate word on what should or should not be seen comes from an organization known --in what may be the acronym of the century--as NAFBRAT.

NAFBRAT, the National Association for Better Radio and Television, has published in the February issue of Parents' Magazine an inclusive critique of all prime-time TV, judged on its potential value, or harm, to children. "The best of the new shows," says NAFBRAT, "are Slavery's People, Many Happy Returns, Bewitched, Mr. Magoo, World War I, and Twelve O'clock High" But on the dark side, NAFBRAT looks after its own in very unmealy language. For example, NAFBRAT says that Candid Camera is a "Peeping Tom show, without taste or sincerity." The Bob Hope Theater is summarized as being just so many "bedroom backgrounds for humor and crime." The Man from U.N.C.L.E., according to NAFBRAT, is "television at its worst. This is right out of the nightmare factory." And even Flipper is called, "objectionable" for its "indiscriminate selection of story elements, which include crime and danger to children in the cast."

NAFBRAT dismisses both The Addams Family and The Munsters not for their ghoulishness but for "suggestive humor and double-meaning dialogue." Peyton Place, says NAFBRAT, is "an obvious exploitation of the sordid and tasteless elements of the Grace Metalious novel, a monument to the network's search for ratings, regardless of the social impact of unrelieved sex and sin." Wagon Train is knocked for its "extremes in sadism and brutality," and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea because it "stirs up political hatred."

One other show in NAFBRAT'S objectionable category seems to have been unfairly included. This is Broadside, which is condemned only because it is "devoid of depth." This makes little sense when set alongside NAFBRAT'S recommended category, which includes Ed Sullivan, My Favorite Martian, Lassie, Lawrence Welk, Kentucky Jones, Hollywood Palace and the Farmer's Daughter--all of which have a collective depth of just over 3/16th of an inch.

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