Teen sex in ‘Secret Life’ births debate over ABC Family values

The TV series “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” opens with a 15-year-old girl coming home from band practice, reaching into her French horn case and pulling out a home pregnancy test. Her horrified look confirms the results.

No less startled are some parents whose children watch the ABC Family cable program that revolves around the sex lives of high school students. The titillating themes, in their view, are out of place on a channel with the word “family” in its name -- especially given the chaste image of its owner, Walt Disney Co.

But “Secret Life” has become ABC Family’s biggest hit and one of the most popular shows on cable, drawing an average 3.8 million viewers an episode. With depictions of teens rolling out of bed, a father peppering his daughters with questions about their sex lives at the dinner table, and a troubled boy revealing that he had been molested by his father, “Secret Life” represents a coming of age for a channel founded by evangelist Pat Robertson to spread the Gospel.

Welcome to Disney’s new take on the American family.

Along with shows such as “Greek,” set in the belly-shots-and-wet-T-shirts world of college fraternities and sororities, and “Lincoln Heights,” a drama about growing up fast in a crime-ridden Los Angeles neighborhood, Disney says it has reshaped ABC Family into a channel more in sync with the realities and anxieties facing many American families and teenagers.

The programming ethos will take another twist next month, when ABC Family debuts “Sophie,” a comedy series featuring a young woman who has everything she wanted, including a loving boyfriend and a baby on the way. That is, until the guy dumps her.

ABC Family’s strategy casts a new light on the traditional Disney brand, which historically has mined such tales of youthful innocence as “The Little Mermaid” and “The Parent Trap” to win over generations of viewers. The approach has paid off. ABC Family’s ad revenue and ratings have been on the rise, making 2008 its best year.

“The best way to resonate with your audience is to be authentic,” said Anne Sweeney, president of Disney-ABC Television Group. “And you’re only authentic if you are holding up a mirror to your audience and saying, ‘I see you.’ ”

Disney’s quest for authenticity, however, has sparked debate over what constitutes “family programming,” and how far the most influential family entertainment company can push boundaries when it comes to sex, underage drinking, absentee parents and the challenges of growing up today.

Disney executives have wrestled for years to find the right formula that is faithful to its “family” name but also appeals to younger viewers who have outgrown the perky adolescent worlds depicted in standard teen-targeted shows like “Hannah Montana” and “Wizards of Waverly Place.”

An internal ABC Family study that surveyed the attitudes of so-called Millennials -- viewers ages 12 to 30 -- found that they craved strong relationships with their families and friends. Those results partly influenced the decision by the channel’s management team to recast the cable network as “a new kind of family.”

“We set out to make the modern family in all its passion and dysfunction, and reclaim that word for what it really is for our audience,” said ABC Family President Paul Lee.

Although ABC Family targets the 18- to 34-year-old demographic, a third of “Secret Life” viewers are 12 to 17. The programming makeover has left some parents worried that ABC Family is sending younger viewers mixed messages about healthy behavior -- and inadvertently encouraging teen sex and underage drinking.

“I thought it was going to be more like Disney Channel, a little more grown-up but less provocative,” said Mary Alden, a Pasadena mother of 14-year-old twins. She became alarmed when she heard dialogue from characters in “Secret Life” who were discussing whether one of them should end her pregnancy. “I didn’t think that would be on a Disney channel,” she said.

Michele MacNeal, a mother of three who lives in La Crescenta and heads a local branch of the powerful watchdog group Parents Television Council, agreed.

“It’s kind of a misnomer to call ABC Family a family channel,” she said. “When you call something ‘family,’ it gives the impression that it’s safe for all members of the family, even young children.”

Originally launched as part of Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, the channel still airs “The 700 Club,” a Christian-perspective news and talk show. Redubbed “The Family Channel” a decade later, the name struck a chord in the “family values” political campaigns of the 1980s.

In 2001, former Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner, looking to expand aggressively in cable television, agreed to pay $5.3 billion for the channel. Disney quickly suffered a case of buyer’s remorse. A weak lineup of old B-movies and TV reruns pushed down ratings, leading many to dismiss the deal as a fiasco.

Sweeney, who had been running the Disney Channel, was put in charge of ABC Family in 2003. Her first priority was to differentiate the channel’s programming so that ABC Family and Disney Channel each had a defined audience and didn’t poach the other’s viewers. She reached outside the close-knit Disney organization to find a day-to-day manager of ABC Family and picked Lee, a former executive at BBC America, which gained attention for importing the British version of NBC’s popular series “The Office.”

Although ABC Family’s staple reruns of teen dramas “Gilmore Girls” and “7th Heaven” remained popular with viewers, Lee was intrigued by the study commissioned by the channel that showed Millennials were more optimistic and less cynical than teens who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s.

That study led ABC Family to develop dramas and comedies that would appeal to the present-day teen audience by weaving in messages of hope and acceptance.

“Paul saw that here was an opportunity with [for] a channel named ‘Family,’ that ‘family’ was not a bad word with these young people,” said Jack MacKenzie, an executive with strategic media firm Frank N. Magid Associates who conducted the study for Disney.

Disney executives defend their soap-opera-like shows for young adults. They say classic feel-good shows such as “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” and “The Mickey Mouse Club,” with their saccharine sprinkles to life’s problems, would lack credibility in today’s world.

“We’ve continued to evolve our [stories] because we want to maintain a strong connection with our audience,” Sweeney said.

ABC Family executives, aware of the potential controversy that “Secret Life” would create, toned down the program’s original title, “Sex Lives of the American Teenager.” Each episode ends with an advisory that encourages parents and children to talk before it’s too late.

Viewers who think “Secret Life” is simply a bid for higher ratings are misinterpreting the show, said Brenda Hampton, who created the series. She said she has long wanted to tell a story about how a “nice” girl -- a so-called band geek -- would cope with the consequences of having sex with a boy she barely knew. “People feel that this could have happened to them or the people they know,” she said.

Big-name advertisers, including cautious marketers such as Procter & Gamble and Target, are embracing ABC Family’s edgier approach.

“I’d love for these shows to be ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ but that isn’t going to happen. Family programming is all about bringing families together to watch shows so that they can dialogue about these sensitive topics,” said Pat Gentile, a top ad buyer for P&G; and co-chairman of the Alliance for Family Entertainment, a coalition of major advertisers that advocates for family programming.

Families may be talking about ABC Family’s programming. But that doesn’t mean they are in agreement about it.

After screening several episodes of “Secret Life,” Alden, the Pasadena mother, eventually relented and let her twin daughters watch the show because it gave her an opening to discuss awkward topics with them. Her two teens, however, have opposing views of the show.

Katie is a big fan and analyzes episodes with friends. She thinks it’s all about the sex lives of the characters.

“It kind of seems as if they are promoting sex,” Katie said.

No, it’s not, said Annie, her sister. “The main character, her world is turned upside down because she’s having a child. . . . More than anything, the show is preaching abstinence.”

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meg.james@latimes.com

dawn.chmielewski@ latimes.com