By MONROE ROARK
mroark@thecitizennews.com

This story owes its existence to my rabbit-ears television antenna.

Allow me to explain. In my new house, in a new subdivision, cable is not available. Since I'm weary of cable's unreliability anyway, I opted for a satellite dish. I chose to install a single receiver in the living room to save six or seven dollars a month, figuring that Kelly and I would seldom watch in our bedroom aside from local news. So that set has a $30 antenna from Radio Shack and picks up about eight channels.

After breakfast last Friday morning, when it was way too cold to go outside, Samuel said he would like to watch Barney in the living room, so I gave up "SportsCenter" for a day and went to the back to get some local news. I tuned into the "Today" show for the first time in several weeks, where Katie was all giddy broadcasting live from Hollywood on the final weekday before the Oscars, while Matt held down the fort in New York.

If I still have your interest at this point, you need a hobby. Seriously, one of Katie's guests was noted director Rob Reiner, and the subject was his strong advocacy of actors not smoking in motion pictures. He pointed out that he felt young people could definitely be influenced by the behavior of performers on the silver screen, so he wanted to speak out about the smoking issue.

At this point, he had my undivided attention. This was not due to the smoking issue alone, although on that score Reiner certainly has a point worth emphasizing. But the whole idea of people, especially young people, being influenced to behave according to how they see actors behave in movies is one that needs to catch on and spread throughout Hollywood, although I'm not holding my breath.

To cite a couple of specific examples in this story, Katie showed a clip of Alicia Silverstone chain-smoking in a recent film of hers, and Reiner mentioned "Proof of Life," a product of his own Castle Rock Entertainment, where Meg Ryan smoked frequently. He said that he didn't see the point in the story that made her smoking habit necessary.

He's right. And when he pointed out that having a character smoke would occasionally be needed for an accurate portrayal or to make the story line realistic, he was again correct.

I am in total support of Reiner's efforts in this regard. Whereas Hollywood, and much of America, smoked frequently in past decades, there is now irrefutable evidence of its health risks and it is irresponsible to have a movie star light up onscreen simply because it looks cool. The motion picture industry is to be commended for its members who have already taken steps to crack down on this problem, to the point where some period films have no characters who smoke, even though the time period in which the story takes place would suggest otherwise.

But while we're at it, could we take a look at a few other things in Hollywood that are bugging me? Here's a short list:

Why do the characters on dozens of network sitcoms sleep around indiscriminately with little or no mention of the possible consequences? Could this influence young viewers?

Why do many theatrical films use the f-word more than 100 times? Why do even network television shows use language that would not have been thought of a few years ago? Could this influence young viewers?

Why do motion pictures and television programs include nude scenes that obviously contribute nothing to the story line and are only present to titillate? Could this influence young viewers?

Why do so many motion pictures portray religious people, especially Christians, as everything from mildly eccentric to extremely psychotic, or create an entire fictitious world with no sign of religion whatsoever? Could this influence young viewers?

I could go on about more subtle influences from the entertainment industry, but we need to take baby steps first and tackle the most obvious problems. I guess smoking's a good start. Maybe Rob will get a chance to tackle some of these other topics, but I won't hold my breath.

I guess just having a rabbit-ears antenna isn't such a bad idea after all.

[Monroe Roark can be reached at mroark@thecitizennews.com.]

Back to the Opinion Home Page | Back to the top of the page