I just thought that I would mention that MTV is owned by the SAME outfit which ALSO owns TV Land AND such children's programming vehicles as NOGGIN. TV Land bills itself as the 'home' of 'classic' television - and, when we paid the extra bucks to add TV Land to our programming package - TV Land was running commercials for ANDY GRIFFITH and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER which claimed that 'ANDY and BEAVER will ALWAYS have a home as long as there is a TV Land.' Nowadays, of course, you have to be up at 3 A.M. to catch EITHER ANDY or the BEAVER on TV Land! At the SAME time that TV Land has relegated the few shows remaining on TV Land which ARE family friendly to the wee small hours of the graveyard shift, TV Land goes into panic mode whenever visitors to the TV Land message boards suggest that the time has come for 'a la carte' broadcasting! When I called a different service provider because they were advertising a special 'family tier' of programming, and asked them WHICH channels they considered to be 'family' oriented - the answer was TV Land, several different 'Nick" channels, PBS Kids Sprout, Boom and Toon cartoon channels and three Disney channels. When I told them that I already HAD those channels with my current service provider and I was hard put to find any actual 'family' programming on any of them - the sales representative was mystified. One of the 'Nick' offerings which we ALREADY had was NOGGIN. NOGGIN has advertised itself as 'pre-school on TV." When we added the extra money to include NOGGIN in our programming package, the advertising claim was that NOGGIN provided '24 hours of commercial free programming for children from 2 to 12.' However, one Memorial weekend, we tuned in at 5 PM and discovered that NOGGIN was running an R RATED MOVIE about a single woman who found herself pregnant and who asked her homosexual friend to move in with her to help her through her pregnancy! (We had Direct TV and, since we were expecting the grandchildren during the weekend, we had set Direct TV's supposedly fool proof 'locks and limits' to EXCLUDE ALL R RATED fare while the grandchildren were there! Imagine our total surprise when the grandchildren arrived and tuned in to NOGGIN - home of their favorite DORA THE EXPLORER and - and landed in the middle of NOGGIN'S R RATED MOVIE! We ended up putting the entire NOGGIN channel under LOCKS AND LIMITS - because we did NOT want to be around on the day that DORA THE EXPLORER became a vehicle for instructing pre-school age kids in the finer points of the 'alternative' gay lifestyle.
Likewise, during one of the promotions for one of TV Land's 'original' programming attempts (I think it was something about 'gay TV Land') - someone from TV Land went around to all of the TV Land message boards for Western shows (Currently - only Gunsmoke and Bonanza) - and tried to con Westerns fans into supporting the notion that The Lone Ranger and Tonto had a 'special' relationship going on for years. To begin with, the Lone Ranger and LASSIE were owned by the WRATHER corporation - and the WRATHER family tended to be conservative in both their politics and their religious philosophies. The WRATHER children put in appearances on BOTH The Lone Ranger AND the Lassie programs. BONITA GRANVILLE WRATHER was the original NANCY DREW of the movies and took an active part in the development of BOTH the LONE RANGER and the LASSIE series. Bonita Granville Wrather served in various producing capacities during the duration of the LASSIE series. AND Bonita Granville Wrather starred in one of the LONE RANGER movies. So it was HIGHLY unlikely that there was ever any intention by ANY member of the WRATHER family to imply that the Lone Ranger and Tonto were 'doing it' together when they were NOT on the screen! PLLUS, of course, BOTH Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger) and Jay Silverheels (Tonto) were married men. BOTH MOORE and SILVERHEELS left written commentary about their years as The Lone Ranger and Tonto and NEITHER of them ever hinted (even obliquely) that either of them believed that Tonto and the Lone Ranger were engaged in any hanky-panky when they camped out at night! The TV Land 'researcher' (I use the term loosely) seemed to be fixated on the symbolism of the ring which Tonto apparently gave 'Reid' after 'Reid' saved Tonto's life while they were youngsters. According to the TV Land 'researcher,' the symbolism on the ring were 'famous' gay rights symbols. However, one of the Westerns fans who responded to the TV Land 'message' from the 'researcher' pointed out that the symbols on the ring which Tonto gave to 'Reid' when they were youngsters was the SAME symbol used for 'Camp Kemo Sabe' - a camp which was situated not far from the place where most of the originators of the Lone Ranger concept lived! In fact, ONE of the early writers for The Lone Ranger came right out and said that the reason why The Lone Ranger and Tonto never developed any in-depth relationships with any women was because the PURPOSE of the series was to appeal to TWELVE YEAR OLD BOYS - and twelve year boys would NEVER tune in consistently to a radio program which featured a couple of heroes who were interested in girls! Strangely enough, the local, independent television channel which has featured such series as The Lone Ranger, Lassie and Daniel Boone as part of their after-school program have CONSISTENTLY won that time period in the LOCAL ratings race for several years now. In fact - although no one is willing to admit this - one of the LOCAL Network affiliates was running the Jerry Springer show in a time slot opposite The Lone Ranger. THE LONE RANGER consistently won that time period in the ratings race - so the local Network Affiliate moved Jerry Springer to a DIFFERENT time slot! (See WHT TV for current schedule for The Lone Ranger, Daniel Boone, etc.) The moral of this story is that the PRIZED twelve year old viewer of 2008 enjoys the SAME kind of TV programming which the twelve-year-old viewer of 1949 enjoyed! Too bad the average TV programmer of today is NOT smart enough to figure that out! Just for the record - during the FIRST year that Nielsen ratings for Television were posted, THE LONE RANGER was the ONLY program which ABC had which CONSISTENTLY performed in the TOP TEN of the ratings! Although the Lone Ranger was originally filmed for 12-year-old viewers who ONLY had access to 5-inch, black and white screens - when the WRATHER family took over THE LONE RANGER - EVERY show was filmed ON LOCATION and IN COLOR! Today, the scenery of the average color episode of the Lone Ranger looks just as good on a 55-inch home theater screen as any other color TV show or movie!
At any rate, I DID want to let you know that I am NOT surprised to learn that MTV is, once again, pushing the 'gay' envelope in their programming. What most people do not realize is that the organization which promotes MTV has many OTHER interests as well - and is just as eager to push the 'gay' envelope in THOSE venues as well - and they do NOT seem to care whether they are pushing the gay envelope on NOGGIN - in programming being billed as 'pre-school on TV' or with spurious 'factoids' being offered on TV Land in supposedly 'original' programming featuring 'gay TV Land.' It seems to me that MORE people should begin to learn that what happens on MTV does NOT stay on MTV! NOGGIN channel has been under locks and limits at our house ever since the grandchildren tuned in to 'pre-school on TV' and ran into an R-RATED MOVIE instead of DORA THE EXPLORER! TV Land is on locks and limits EXCEPT for the time periods when Andy Griffith and Leave it to Beaver are being aired - and even then - the ONLY family programming which TV Land DOES actually offer -- are often cut short so TV Land can advertise many of TV Land's OTHER gay-centered programming efforts!
Keep up the good work! Sincerely, Heather