Again a return to 1968 after the murder of Bobby Kennedy.
I remember hearing this discussed over fifty three years ago.
Back then TV shows were so safe it was called “The national baby sitter.”
Movies were under the Hays Code and most were so safe for kids you could drop them off and not worry.
Then Bobby Kennedy was murdered by a Palestinian immigrant and the media went berserk!
They blamed “violent TV shows, pulp fiction, toy guns and movies which “glorified violence!”
So to keep Federal interference away the TV shows dumbed down to kiddie shows.
Pulp fiction changed their covers, toy guns disappeared from stores,
Movies shown on TV were butchered to remove scenes of “violence”.
But the movie industry got a pass when they said they would replace the Hays Code with a ratings system. “G,M,R,X” was the first.
So with the Hays Code gone, movie makers re-shot scenes adding more blood, gore, guts, and lots of sex to get the now coveted “R” and “X” rating.
It got worse through out the 1970s. Also at this time the mental institutions were closed down, porn was legalized so comic book publishers began to publish violent porn comics “for adults only” but the kids were reading them.
In the 1980s movies were deluged with serial killer movies hacking young teens. The camera giving us closeups of the most brutal murders, with lots of spurting blood.
Also in the 1980s cable TV made a big comeback and bypassed the FCC rules showing many of these uncut brutal movies all the time.
By the 1990s came the Internet and ultra-violent video games.
I recently saw about ten minutes of an ultra-violent movie for adults but aimed at kids. Dozens of the most violent deaths that would have never been allowed under the Hays Code.
Since those days we have released onto society a whole generation steeped in blood and gore with no moral guidance, who think shooting up a school or night club or church is no different than a video game. Fun!
As I said, fifty three years the TV and movies were blamed. Not a word about the ultra-violent TV and movies today from the news channels today. They only blame guns.
Sounds like the Hays Code was a damned good thing. People with more modern sensibilities might find that boring, but at least the stuff that came out didn’t warp people’s brains.