‘Beavis’ Move Not Enough, Its Critics Say : Television: Some say that MTV made the decision based on fear of legal liability. MTV officials deny that allegation and also the suggestion that it was influenced by Senate hearings scheduled today on TV violence.

Children’s advocates on Tuesday applauded MTV’s decision to eliminate the 7 p.m. airing of “Beavis and Butt-head” but said that the cable network’s decision did not go far enough to answer criticisms of the controversial cartoon show.

“I applaud MTV for eliminating the earlier showing, but I have a very jaundiced view of why they’re doing it,” said Dr. Carole Lieberman, a Los Angeles psychiatrist who has been active in the movement to curb violence on television. “I think the main reason why they’re doing this is fear of legal liability rather than a real sense of responsibility to America’s children.”

MTV officials denied that allegation and also the suggestion by other critics that the decision to move “Beavis and Butt-head” to weeknights at 10:30 was influenced by Senate hearings scheduled today on TV violence. Among those scheduled to testify is U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno. A spokesman for Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), who has been leading the congressional push to reduce television violence, said the “Beavis and Butt-head” controversy is likely to come up “as a timely example” of the connection that Simon and other lawmakers believe exists between televised mayhem and real-life violence.

MTV had said last week that it was deleting all references to fire in its most popular series, about two teen-age metal-heads. Earlier this month, a 2-year-old Ohio girl was killed after her 5-year-old brother set fire to his bed with a cigarette lighter. The mother said the boy had been inspired to play with fire after watching Beavis and Butt-head having fun that way.

“We just felt that eliminating the fire references and eliminating the 7 p.m. airing was the right thing to do,” MTV senior vice president Carole Robinson said Tuesday.

“I think MTV did the right thing by eliminating all references to fire, and it certainly makes sense to put a show based on irresponsible behavior on at as late an hour as possible,” said Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children’s Television. “But this move ignores the fact that, according to Nielsen data, there are a lot of very young children watching TV till midnight.”

Supporters of the show argue that it is intended as humor for the MTV audience, most of which is in the 18-to-34 age range--and that it is, after all, a cartoon. But Charren maintains that young children are all the more susceptible to imitating the characters because of the animation.

“Beavis and Butt-head’ is obviously antisocial and outrageous on purpose, for humor,” she said. “But kids and parents have been taught by television that a cartoon is one kind of programming on TV that is intended for kids. Young children do not get the message that ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ is intended as satire.”

Charren said that she was not in favor of censoring the series, but she expressed hope that MTV and creator Mike Judge would watch for other kinds of behavior that children might copy, such as hurting animals.

Lieberman was even stronger in her criticism. “I’d be in favor of eliminating the show altogether,” she declared. “If we assume that children learn from ‘Sesame Street,’ why do we not assume they’re learning from everything else they see on TV? ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ is a ‘Sesame Street’ for psychopaths.”

MTV’s Robinson said the network had been evaluating the content of “Beavis and Butt-head” over the past several months. “By moving the show to a later time period, we believe that we can preserve it creatively and have the show watched by the audience it is intended to reach,” she said.

For the time being, videos will air at 7 p.m., she said, but MTV and Judge plan to develop ideas for a new “Beavis and Butt-head” show there “that is suitable.”