Too Candid Camera?

The television networks are becoming less skittish about dealing with "adult" subjects. But what about audiences? The question was raised most recently by Born Innocent, a made-for-TV movie that NBC telecast in the new season's first week. A chilling exposition of life in a juvenile detention home, the two-hour-long show featured a powerful performance by Actress Linda Blair, playing a nubile 14-year-old girl who is destroyed by an inhumane system. It was harsh, realistic drama, and the climax was as raw as anything yet seen on network TV--a scene in a shower, where Linda is raped with a broom handle by her fellow inmates.

Though the reaction was not as strong as it might have been a few years ago, there was a surge of complaints. NBC stations in New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago have received more than 3,000 calls and letters, and they have been running about 20-to-l against the movie. Upset about the response, some NBC affiliates went out of their way to chide the network. In Nashville, which takes justifiable pride in its sophistication, WSM-TV received 70 calls protesting the rape scene in the first hour after the show; this prompted one station official to tell a local reporter that NBC was solely to blame for the "filthy, disgusting, degrading" show. In fact, final decisions about running network shows always rest with the individual stations.

Minor Cuts. NBC shrugged off the criticism. The movie had been screened by the network's Standards and Practices Department, which ordered only two minor cuts in the rape scene. (After seeing the cut version, however, several sponsors withdrew from the show.) NBC executives say that all the affiliates saw Born Innocent well in advance. "TV's not all Make Room for Daddy now," says one network spokesman. "I'm sure we're going to be bothering those people in Nashville again."

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