Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Tuesday, March 28th, 2023

Hollywood can't dodge the culture wars.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, March 28th, 2023.

HOLLYWOOD CAN'T DODGE THE CULTURE WARS, PART 253
I've written in the past that whether media companies want to recognize the problem or not, America's culture wars are only going to get more difficult for them. Ignoring critics of the media and brushing off efforts to limit distribution of content or corporate behavior seen as being "woke" won't make the criticism go away. It will only embolden critics and make it more likely the bad actors will come out in force.

You might have seen some news stories in the past day about a Florida elementary school which decided to stop showing student the Disney movie Ruby Bridges after concerns from a parent that it might be too focused on making white people look bad. Popular Information has a great piece today that tells the backstory of the move and it's both depressing and a good warning about what it is to come:

Ruby Bridges is a civil rights hero. At just six years old, Bridges was the first Black child to desegregate an all-white elementary school in New Orleans, fulfilling the promise of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. It was not easy. She faced a mob of protesters screaming racial slurs and had to be escorted by federal marshals. White parents wouldn't allow their children to share a classroom with Bridges, so she was taught alone. She could only bring food from home because federal marshals were worried that Bridges would be poisoned. 

This is not ancient history; today, Ruby Bridges is 68 years old. 

Students in Pinellas County, Florida schools had been shown the movie for years and this year parents were shown a trailer of the film and asked to sign a permission slip in order for their children to watch the film. Emily Conklin, the parent of a second grader at North Shore Elementary in Pinellas County, decided not to allow her child to watch the film earlier this year. She was one of two parents who decided no on the film. But she also decided that none of the other children should see it either and filed a complaint arguing Ruby Bridges wasn't appropriate:

According to Conklin's objection form, which was obtained by Popular Information, the "theme or purpose" of the Ruby Bridges movie is "racism." Conklin claims the result of a child watching the film would be to "teach them racial slur [sic]" and that "white people hate black people." She objects to the movie being "very aggressive" about "the anger/racism of these white people."

Conklin also admits to only watching the first 50 minutes of the movie.

According to Pinellas County School Board policy, after "a parent objects to the use of the material with other children besides their own child," the objection must be reviewed by the "School-Based Instructional Materials Review Committee," composed of parents, faculty members, community members, and a media specialist. Notably, "material in question will remain in use until the School-Based Instructional Materials Review Committee recommends a final decision." That decision can then be appealed to a district-wide materials review committee. There is no time frame for these reviews.

But as the piece notes, the school board removed the film from the elementary school before it went through the review process and Conklin was assured by school administrators the film wouldn't be shown in the school at any point this year.

This is only going to happen more often. And while pushing back against vague "woke" complaints is difficult, if Disney isn't willing to say "we think Ruby Bridges is a worthwhile movie for children," then where will they draw the line? 

And as an fyi, Ruby Bridges is available on Disney+.

WHIP MEDIA STREAMING ORIGINAL WEEKLY REPORT

IS IT STREAMING'S FAULT IT DOESN'T PRINT MONEY LIKE THE LINEAR TV BUSINESS
Andrew Rosen has a piece in The Information (subscription required) about the streaming business and it's a good example of the belief that the problem with streaming is that will never be as profitable as the old linear television business and industry executives never should have believed that it would be.

But I wanted to talk less about Andrew's piece specifically and more about the framing that I see around this issue from a number of streaming industry analysts and reporters. Their conventional wisdom is that the streaming video business broke the old linear model and Hollywood would be so much better if Netflix had never existed. Or it was mostly confined to be a video jukebox of linear television hits and older movies.

That completely misses the point. Yes, the success of Netflix certainly pushed the major media companies into launching their own streamers. But this increasingly digital future for the industry was always the fate of Hollywood. Thanks to YouTube and mobile phones and all of the other platforms that compete with television for attention, that linear bundle was destined to lose reach and as it did, begin to financially collapse. Because the massive linear television profit margins were built on a lack of choice and few competitors for attention. Once other options began to spring up, fewer people watched television and that meant that at some point the linear bundle began to be unsustainable. 

The digital television business was always going to be less profitable than the linear bundle. Because everything in entertainment is less profitable than that unicorn of a business model. So maybe instead of asking "how can we get back to the flush days of linear TV?" maybe the question the industry should be asking is "how do we ensure this new world is sustainable and profitable?"

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* Billions co-star Dan Soder said on social media today that the Showtime series will end with its upcoming seventh season. 

* The Secrets of Hillsong, a four-part documentary series based on the explosive original reporting on the megachurch’s scandals by Vanity Fair journalists Alex French and Dan Adler, premieres 

* Disney has shuttered its nascent metaverse division as part of Monday’s layoffs. I'm sure it's only a coincidence this division was a pet project of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek.

WHAT'S NEW FOR TUESDAY:

CMT Storytellers: Kane Brown (CMT)
Mae Martin: SAP (Netflix)
Renovation 911 Series Premiere (HGTV)
Restored Season Six Premiere (Magnolia)

Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.