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Heather Thomas
Mrs. Gohanna
English 101
October 12, 2010
As a sales representative at Channel 31, I sold air. My job was to sell airtime to local businesses. Now this air must deliver eyeballs for the clients to advertise with me. To gain eyeballs, the television directors’ and producers ‘job was to attract and entertain these coveted eyeballs. Since sex sells it is a guaranteed element of any primetime show. The loudest most provocative shows are created to attract viewers. As a result, television shows have progressively become tasteless and vulgar.
For example, the show Desperate Housewives on ABC is defiantly vulgar. The setting takes place in a well manicured neighborhood on Wisteria Lane and follows a group of bombshell beauties through the eyes if a dead friend and neighbor of theirs that has committed suicide. The plot of this show is a weekly series of dysfunctional marriages that result in adultery or even murder to eliminate a spouse, murders to keep secrets a “true” secret, stealing, and blackmail. This lifestyle is portrayed and glorified and deemed enjoyable by millions worldwide. All of these taboo acts take place in primetime hours. This means viewership is at its peak and the age of some viewership may be inappropriate. Now, it is no secret that significant amount of people
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like watching Desperate Housewives. The numbers speak for themselves. But, this show is glamorized vulgarity and tasteless hype.
The second example is MTV’s reality series “Teen Mom.” This show targets viewers as young as 12 years old. This show gives the viewer an extended glimpse of the hardships of being a teen mother. “Teen Mom” may produce a top of mind awareness of the consequences of having premarital sex, however rest assured the producers and directors want to keep their jobs and so therefore drama is encouraged. Most recently a teen mother on the show, Amber Portwood kicked,...