Adult Films on TV Have City Officials Seeing Red : Pornography: Council members protest the shows, but the city attorney says the cable company has a First Amendment right to air the programming.

It was three days before the city’s new cable company planned to begin offering subscribers such porn flicks as “License to Thrill” and “Girls in the Hood,” and Long Beach officials were steaming.

Mayor Ernie Kell and several City Council members blasted Cablevision Industries’ plans to add the Spice Channel to its selection of pay-per-view programming.

“We have a problem right here in Long Beach and it’s called pornography,” Councilman Warren Harwood said at Tuesday’s council meeting.

In the end, frustrated council members discovered that they couldn’t prevent the Spice Channel from debuting Friday in Long Beach and Signal Hill. So they did the next best thing: They authorized a study of whether the cable operator is living up to its contract.

Until last August, cable pornography was not available in the area because Simmons Communications Inc., the company that had a contract to provide cable service, did not offer adult programming. Then Cablevision Industries bought Simmons and decided to offer Spice.

Vice Mayor Jeffrey A. Kellogg said he was angry that the company moved ahead with plans to offer Spice when the council indicated its opposition several months ago. So he put the issue on the council agenda.

Several council members threatened to take the city’s cable business elsewhere when the company’s contract comes up for renewal in 1997.

“I question whether this is an issue that’s going to be worth it for (Cablevision Industries) in the long run,” Councilman Les Robbins said.

Councilman Doug Drummond also said he will remember Spice when negotiations begin for a new contract. “(Cablevision Industries) is doing something wrong,” he said. But the council could do nothing to stop the programming. City Atty. John Calhoun said the company has a First Amendment right to air the adult shows as long as they do not violate obscenity laws.

The Supreme Court has held that material is obscene when it appeals primarily to prurient interests, is patently offensive and is entirely lacking in artistic, literary or social values.

Some council members acknowledged the company’s right to show adult programming, but most of the discussion echoed concerns of a handful of residents who wrote letters or protested at the meeting. Opponents said they worry that the channel will show movies that exploit women and children, promote violence, and lead to moral decay.

Frank McNellis, the cable company’s general manager and vice president, said politicians find it difficult to support pornography but that, among customers, adult television is the programming asked for most often.

A poll of 300 Long Beach residents found that 47% would pay extra to see the movies, he said. About 66,000 residents of Long Beach and Signal Hill subscribe to the service.

The Long Beach council is not alone in its protest.

In Signal Hill, Mayor Richard Ceccia, said the council asked the cable company to separate the franchise tax money it gets from the Spice Channel so the city can donate it to a battered women’s shelter.

In Cerritos, opposition from some City Council members prompted Apollo Cablevision Inc. to drop its plans earlier this year to introduce the Playboy Channel, Mayor Sherman Kappe said.

McNellis pointed out that a number of cities in the area, including Norwalk, Downey and Pico Rivera carry adult entertainment channels.

“We’re not blazing new ground,” he said.

But Long Beach council members said they are not interested in whether other cities have such programming.

“I don’t think here in the city of Long Beach we need that,” Kell said.

In an interview, McNellis said that the movies are not X-rated and are considered soft pornography. As for the films’ content, he said: “They are real sex acts, edited for television, to appear simulated.”

Cable customers who do not have converter boxes--even those who have not ordered the shows-- may see some scrambled sex scenes. They may ask Cablevision Industries to block the programming altogether, said Steve RohanCQ, the company’s marketing and sales director.

Those with converter boxes may only see a movie by calling to request it.

Viewers who occasionally want to watch a film but want to ensure that their children can’t order one, may request a code that restricts access, cable officials said.

The Washington-based National Cable Television Assn. reported that 57 million households carry cable and that about 5 million of them receive adult programming. The Spice Channel, which is owned by New York-based Graff Pay-Per-View Inc., has more than 4.5 million subscribers spokeswoman Carol Vernon said.

Leland Nolan, one of Graff’s owners, said adult entertainment is not usually an issue unless residents complain to elected officials.

“Anything sexual is difficult to defend once it’s raised,” Nolan said. “If somebody complains, it’s hard to be for pornography or for erotica. It’s like protecting communists or something.”