SHORT TAKES : Steve Allen Lashes TV Trend
Veteran comedian Steve Allen doesn’t find anything funny about television’s trend toward stronger language and adult-oriented themes.
Allen lashed out at current television trends in an opinion piece published in Monday’s Los Angeles Times.
The “flow is carrying us all along right into the sewer,” he wrote.
“The very sort of language parents forbid their children to use is now being encouraged not only by anything-goes cable entrepreneurs but the once high-minded networks,” said Allen, host of the 1950s comedy-variety series “The Steve Allen Show.”
Shows that depict children and others using vulgar language only point up the collapse of the American family, he said.
Allen applauded NBC’s censoring of some remarks by comedian Andrew Dice Clay on a recent “Saturday Night Live” episode. He called Clay “the prince of filth.”
“The best humor, when it is not simply purely playful, says something witty and wise about the issues it confronts,” Allen said.
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