Most Sitcoms Given the TV-PG Rating

NEW YORK — As they begin rating their shows for the first time, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are applying the TV-PG label to nearly every sitcom in prime time, from “Murphy Brown” to “Friends” to “Married . . . With Children.” And in the first 11 days of ratings, they’ve also given PG ratings to 60% of dramas, including ABC’s “Murder One,” CBS’ “Walker, Texas Ranger,” NBC’s “Law & Order” and Fox’s “New York Undercover.”

In the early going at least, broadcasters are making a distinction between talk about sex and implied violence and actual depictions of sex and violence in determining whether a show gets a TV-PG rating or the more restrictive TV-14. TV-PG cautions parents that a show may not be appropriate for very young children; the TV-14 means it may not be suitable for children under 14.

“To me, TV-PG indicates a show that may have dialogue about sex and some mild violence,” said Rosalyn Weinman, NBC’s vice president of standards and practices, and a member of the industry committee that devised the ratings plan. “TV-14 indicates actual sexual content and real violence.”

This distinction means that a lot of jokes and double-entendres about sex in sitcoms are getting a PG rating, as are strong suggestions of violence in some dramas.

This week, for example, NBC’s “Friends” and “Men Behaving Badly” both included humorous scenes about friends overhearing another couple noisily making love. Both were rated PG.

The industry’s ratings plan, developed at the behest of President Clinton and Congress, is modeled after the motion picture ratings and categorizes programs as to their suitability for various age groups, from TV-G (general audiences) to TV-M (not intended for viewers under 18). Supporters have touted its simplicity and similarity to an existing system, but critics have charged that it is too general and doesn’t provide parents with specific information about whether a program contains sex, violence or offensive language.

Network executives defend giving sexual humor on their shows a PG, even though many parents are offended when their kids see such references in 8 p.m. sitcoms. The executives argue that such humor is in keeping with the times.

“A large portion of the comedic universe in television is made up of double-entendre,” said Roland McFarland, vice president of standards and practices at Fox. “A show like ‘Married . . . With Children’ is familiar to audiences; it’s not an unknown quantity.”

CBS’ Altieri says that the tone and context of shows must be considered, and she maintains that young people aren’t harmed by double-entendres they don’t understand.

“ ‘The Nanny’ works on several levels, and the double-entendres are so oblique that young children probably wouldn’t understand them,” Altieri said. “I think many kids see this as a family show because there are children in it, and Fran Drescher’s character is so appealing.”

Although broadcast executives expect virtually all sitcoms to continue getting a PG rating, there will be exceptions. CBS gave “Cybill” a TV-14 this week, Altieri said, because the episode showed a bachelor party at a strip joint.

The standards executives acknowledged that broadcasters are concerned about stigmatizing a show with a TV-14 rating.

“We want to be careful not to scare people away by slapping a TV-14 on a show that doesn’t merit it,” said CBS’ Altieri.

In terms of violence, the line between what gets a TV-PG and what gets a TV-14 seems less clearly defined so far. (So far, no show on the four major networks has received a TV-M rating, a label that is expected to be used mostly for programs on pay-cable.)

ABC’s police drama “NYPD Blue” is getting a TV-14. “ ‘NYPD Blue’ has explicit sexual content, and there are situations--such as the police beating on people--that would be disturbing to young children,” said Chris Hikawa, ABC’s standards chief.

NBC’s “Homicide” also received a TV-14 this week. But its “Law & Order” received a PG last week for an episode that began with a prostitute explicitly propositioning an undercover cop.

Fox gave a TV-14 to last week’s episode of “Millennium,” its drama about a man who reads the psyches of serial killers. But the network gave a TV-PG last week to “New York Undercover,” whose music-video-style opening sequence combined a rap song with a little girl being abducted and, it was strongly suggested visually, raped by a masked man.

Fox’s McFarland said that “Millennium” has “a very dark theme and a great deal of graphic violence,” while the “New York Undercover” episode got a PG because it “was not graphically violent.”

Dale Kunkel, a communication professor at UC Santa Barbara who has conducted studies about violence on television, disagreed with the rating.

“Research evidence from many studies clearly indicates that the linking of sex and violence is the most likely kind of viewing to lead to aggressive behavior,” Kunkel said. “It hypes up the senses by arousing the viewer physiologically, and desensitizes the viewer to victims. That’s one of the problems with these ratings from the TV industry. They don’t take into account the scientific studies on TV viewing.”

Like many critics of the industry’s ratings, Kunkel favors a system that would provide parents with specific content information--sex, language or violence. Broadcasters say such a system is impractical and difficult to quantify.

“If the majority of shows are PG, and there’s no breakout of information of sex, language and violence, it becomes almost impossible to decipher why a show got a particular rating,” Kunkel said. “When the V-chip becomes available next year, parents will be faced with blocking out a huge number of shows if they have concerns about sex or violence.”

Critics of the industry system hope to press their case for more detailed information about program content when the ratings plan is reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission.