Gun, Gat & Rod

Many parents retreat from the living room when the children's TV shows come on. A group of-dedicated San Francisco mothers did just the reverse: they cooked their family suppers early, then sat down for four uninterrupted hours of watching TV moppet shows. In Washington last week, the FCC published the results. The outraged mothers saw: 13 murders and assorted killings, 14 sluggings, six kidnapings, five holdups, three explosions, three instances of blackmail and extortion, three thefts, two armed robberies, two cases of arson, one lynching, one torture scene and one miscarriage. One mother clocked 104 gunshots during a half-hour serial; another found sudden death "shudderingly described" 14 times in 20 minutes.

The mothers concluded: "The gun, the gat, the rod, the six-shooter is the prime motivator of most children's TV programs. Life ... is cheaper than a cigarette butt in a gutter. Not one episode, not one character, not one emotion did we see evoked that the children might emulate to their gain." Their recommendation: "If we had our way, we would make it compulsory for every TV official to sit down and take four hours of the punishment we have just taken, but every week!"

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