On the other hand, as an artist, this kind of thing aggravates me to no end. Some of you may have heard of a little box called a TV Guardian. The TV Guardian is a computer that, when plugged into your TV, recognizes adult language and filters it out.
This might not be so bad if it didn't replace the missing dialogue with closed captions. Now, I know it's a valid question to ask what else could they replace it with. I know they don't have the actors' voices recorded on the box. My best friend's mom had one of these growing up. We watched The Usual Suspects, on one occasion, and I remember listening to silence for the majority of the movie. I'm sorry, but this thing can definitely ruin some seriously good shows and movies. I remember it even filtered out "darn". How Puritanical can you get?Just look at how the TV Guardian would take a wonderful, hilarious movie like Snatch, and shoot arguably it's best scene to pieces:
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Bullet Tooth Tony: So, you are obviously the big [jerk]. The men on the side of ya are your [jerks]. There are two types of [jerks]. There are big brave [jerks], and there are little mincey [stupid] [jerks]
Vinny: These are your last words, so make them a prayer.
Bullet Tooth Tony: Now, [jerks] have drive and clarity of vision, but they are not clever. They smell [coward] and they want a piece of the action. And you thought you smelled some good old [coward], and have brought your two small mincey [stupid] [jerks] along for a good old time. But you've got your parties mangled up. There's no [coward] here, just a dose that'll make you wish you were born a woman. Like a [jerk], you are having second thoughts. You are shrinking, and your two little [jerks] are shrinking with you. And the fact that you've got "Replica" written down the side of your gun...
[Zooms in on Vinny's gun, which reads 'REPLICA' in bold letters down the side]
And the fact that I've got "Desert Eagle point five O"...
[Places his gun on the table, which reads 'DESERT EAGLE .50']
Written down the side of mine...should precipitate your [jerks] into shrinking, along with your presence. Now... [gosh] off!
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Admittedly, my language is colorful from time to time, so it's almost a given that I would be against something like this. But, honestly, sometimes a character just isn't the same when you take away the language they use, rough though it might be. That's one reason that unsaved characters in Christian movies and books are never believable. They always seem like Christians acting like non-Christians, or caricatures from the Evangelical point of view.
Our job is to monitor what our kids watch, not to spend a hundred dollars on a glorified baby-sitter to do it for us.
However, since I am a magnanimous fellow, if you'd like to purchase one of these devices, you may do so here:
Family Christian Stores - TV Guardian 201 Series
