Pacification by Attrition

Congressman Hale Boggs: How much did the sponsors of President Nixon spend at CBS in the last campaign? Would you say it was a substantial sum?

CBS President Frank Stanton: I would.

Boggs: Why do you think they spent that money?

Stanton: Because it's an effective medium to reach people.

Boggs: Well now, why is television effective in reaching people and advertising political campaigns and is not effective when it shows sadism, masochism, murder, mayhem and rape?

In this roundabout way, Boggs was trying to get Stanton to admit before the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence that TV mayhem affects the minds of susceptible viewers. But the CBS president, a Ph.D. in psychology, insisted that this proposition was unproved, and required further study. Besides, he added: "We don't yet have the methodology with which to make the study." Boggs quickly recollected congressional committee investigations that have been going on since 1954. His voice rose. "This is the study-est thing that has ever happened with no results," he said. "How long, Mr. Chairman? How long?"

Cosmetic Results. Stanton was a bit stunned. After the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the three networks themselves announced a voluntary exorcism of "excessive" violence. But it was too late to change the mood of the TV season without enormous financial sacrifice. The schedule of programs had been sold to advertisers, and in some series as many as ten weeks' episodes were already completed. Although drastic revisions were promised, the results were mainly cosmetic.

Gunsmoke Executive Producer John Mantley, who had finished ten segments before violence was de-emphasized, says that he spent the whole summer in the cutting room. But even with all of Mantley's frantic re-editing, the installment two weeks ago contained three gunshot killings, one death by trampling, two knife attacks, three fights and a threat to snap someone's neck "like a dry twig." Says Mantley: "It is difficult for me to continue making Gunsmoke. My position is that if you want to take violence off television, then you have to take drama off television."

Other producers have reached the same conclusion. Killings continue, but when possible they take place with a "less violent" weapon. In one episode of NBC's The Outsider, the script called for the hero to be threatened with a shotgun; the censor suggested a meat cleaver be substituted, apparently figuring quieter weapons are less violent.

Those who must die nowadays often do so off-camera or more quickly, and barroom brawls are also less bruising. As a result, the first victims of TV's pacification drive have been the stuntmen. Employment among the fight-and-fall corps is down 40%. "We used to have nice drag-out fights and make some good money," laments Chuck Hicks, president of the Stuntmen's Association. "Now a guy just pulls a gun and stands there. So we suffer."

Pilot Comedies. Results of this de-escalation should show more plainly next season. ABC President Leonard Goldenson told the violence commission that only one of the 30 series now under development by his network is an "adventure" show. CBS's senior programming vice president, Mike Dann, agrees that "the number of action shows is down drastically in the pilot area." His NBC counterpart, Mort Werner, also anticipates "more comedy and less action." The networks' Hollywood suppliers are, of course, reacting accordingly. Universal Studios is not making any more westerns on speculation, but is concentrating on three new doctor and two lawyer shows. Herbert Solow, the MGM-TV production chief, says, "I don't believe in any series about a man carrying a gun these days."

Still, neither the TV audience nor Congressman Boggs will be seeing all Beverly Hillbillies, and Family Affairs. It would still cost the industry too much --in ratings and program-development expenses--to beat all the swords into ploughshares. ABC's The Avengers is a festival of sado-masochism and murder (according to a Christian Science Monitor survey, the series averaged a violent incident every 31 minutes). It will undoubtedly go off after this season, but not necessarily because it is the most violent show on the air. A likelier reason: the violence it does to the network's ratings; The Avengers ranks 69th among the 73 prime-time entertainment series.

"Attrition takes care of these things," says William H. Tankersley, CBS vice president for program practices (censorship). What he means is that roughly 25% of all shows fail each season, and that this year they will be replaced mainly by variety shows and situation comedies. "It's a cyclical thing anyway," he explains. "Every four or five years the action shows build up, but every four or five years the comedy shows build up too. Violence in programming had already got to the cyclical buildup point before the Kennedy assassination."

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