BOCHCO BLUE

I found your interview with three TV producers quite disturbing in regard to their “fears” of a possible ratings system or V-chip (“Small Screen, Big Headaches,” by Brian Lowry, Sept. 15).

These people obviously think of themselves as pioneers, bravely fighting potential “censors” (i.e., parents) to push the boundaries each season with stronger doses of sex and raw language. But perhaps it is because of producers like Steven Bochco and Marta Kauffman, and the lack of good taste in their programs, that even a liberal president feels he must finally intervene.

Many of us carefully monitor what our kids watch, but what about the millions of parents who don’t care? Their children’s TV viewing is one of the greatest influences in their young lives. That is what TV producers should find scary!

We parents are frustrated by our inability to have any say with the powerful few in Hollywood who feel that basic morality is an imposition and has no place in the entertainment industry.

SUSAN HOWARD

Sherman Oaks

*

Steven Bochco is so determined to battle for his right to say s--- and f--- and other memorable words on TV, you’d think he’d invented the cure for cancer.

Are we really better off now that we can say these down-in-the-depths words, or is it a huge cop-out so that writers don’t have to use wit, only the same old boring smut?

Can anyone remember one of Bochco’s scripts’ lines that was distinctive, versatile and winning? Maybe his one, long-ago piece of dialogue: “Be careful out there.”

KAY MEERSAND

Torrance