English 100

10 May 2001

Surfing through channel after channel of the mindless dribble and the obtuse propaganda which is often aired on television today one begins to realize the world of entertainment has become more of a contest to find something decent to watch than a night of leisure enjoyment. If people aren't being starved on Survivor or murdered on CSI they're debating whom to kill in a movie of the week. On any given night, one can find a colorful assortment of television shows, made for TV movies and theatrical movie's either on Pay-Per-View, Video On Demand, or network television. But along with the large variety of entertainment comes the realization that at the same time an adult accesses the large assortment, so can children and teenagers. The violence shown on TV and in movies, even with censorship, has shown similar to the actions of real life events and one begins to wonder the justification of networks trying to keep 'real life' out of the story line of our fictitious entertainment.

Slasher movies have always had a special cult following to which Wes Craven and John Carpenter have become famous for and names like Freddie and Jason have become synonymous with murder, death and carnage. On December 20, 1996, Wes Craven teamed up with writing genius Kevin Williamson to release into theaters the horror-genre-altering phenomenon Scream (Craven). Scream took the same elements of the classic horror movie and spiced up a few common horror movie clichés. Instead of clearly identifying the killer, one was left wondering whodunit in a pool of characters the audience had already identified with (Scream Movie Series Reviews). Obviously, the viewer is aware they are watching a movie, and Scream suggests more than once that the characters are also aware of their silver screen performance with sarcastic side comments and remarks (Scream). Several times, characters are conversing "But this is life, this isn't a movie." to which one replies, "Yes it is, it's all just one great big movie." (Scream). One character in particular, Randy Meeks, outlines these rules throughout the Scream trilogy. "One must abide by [the horror movie rules] to successfully survive" such as not drinking and doing drugs, not having sex, and never saying 'I'll be right back' (Scream). In the second installment, Randy explains there will always be a bigger body count, more blood and more gore in a sequel (Scream 2). The Scream Trilogy in itself pokes fun at the entire horror movie genera by pointing out the generic idea of what a horror movie consists of. People can further identify with the characters due to the new vision the audience is given when the characters refer to popular horror movies by "Wes Carpenter" (Scream). The horror satire and parody theme throughout the movie made it an instant hit; though controversy soon began arising due to the unprecedented popularity of Scream. Censors feared real life murders would follow in the wake of Scream, in an attempt to mimic the popular Hollywood stars. Though, perhaps the one who coined it best was the killer of the original Scream, "Don't blame the movies! Movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative." (Scream). If a person is disturbed enough to kill someone in cold blood, watching a movie will hardy damage their already insane psyche. However, the approach Craven and Williamson took when creating Scream produced a movie where the audience can relate to the characters and see themselves in their place.

Television has always tried to capture reality at it's best (or perhaps worse, depending how you look at it) with such shows as C.O.P.S. and then there are the shows everyone knows are in no way real. These are the shows, which perhaps come across as being the biggest real life violence threat to adults and censors. In February 1999 the popular television, series Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired the episode "Bad Girls" in which Buffy and her fellow Slayer Faith goes on a rampage of crime (Much Ado). After stealing knives and knocking out a police officer, the rouge Slayers get into one of many fights, common practice when you're trying to rid the earth of the vampiric kind. As Faith is about to stake their opponent, (the traditional way for the Slayers to kill their demonic foe), Buffy realizes they aren't fighting a vampire, though it's only after Faith stakes the innocent human and bright red blood oozes from his fatal wound does she realize the truth. At the end of "Bad Girls" Faith is unremorsful about the tragic events:

Faith: "Okay, this is the last time we're gonna have this conversation, and we're not even having it now, you understand me? There is no body. I took it, weighted it, and dumped it. The body doesn't exist."

Buffy: "Getting rid of the evidence doesn't make the problem go away."

Faith: "It does for me."

Buffy: "Faith, you don't get it. You killed a man."

Faith: "No, you don't get it. I don't care!"

This episode aired with no controversy however after the tragic events at Columbine High School in April of 1999 an episode entitled "Earshot" was scheduled to air. In this episode, Buffy receives the gift of clairvoyance and is able to hear the thoughts of her fellow students (Much Ado). She accidentally stumbles upon a plot of someone planning to kill all the students at her high school. In light of the recent events at Columbine, the WB postponed "Earshot" indefinitely. Buffy fans were outraged, especially when they found the WB affiliate in Canada had aired the episode as scheduled and soon bootlegged copies of the episode found their way onto U.S. soil (Fans Stake). "Earshot" brings back into the show, an on again off again cast member, who is the accused shooter is, Jonathan the classic high school geek: picked on and teased at school, taunted and ridiculed on a regular basis by peers who barely knew him. The constant hardship finally drove Jonathan to desperate measures in "Earshot." In addition, with the media capitalizing on the high school shootings of late, the act of a school shooting is veering along trendy to teenagers who have had enough teasing (2nd Canceled). After the hoopla stopped and the dust settled around "Earshot" it's amazingly convenient how the media left out the fact that Jonathan was only trying to shoot himself in a botched suicide attempt-it was the lunch lady who tried to place rat poison in the school's food.

Later in May 1999, the second part of the Buffy season finale was also postponed, due to the violent nature of the episode where the senior class arrive at graduation totting hand pistols, machine guns, knives and other non graduation like items with the purpose of slaying the mayor who was a guest speaker at the ceremony (No Diploma). The mayor transforms into a huge 60-foot demonic snake like creature with the intent on making the graduating class his dinner. The episode ends in which Buffy is forced to blow up the entire high school to kill the demon. Again fans were outraged and censors were tightlipped at the delay in the graphic and controversial episode's uncertain fate.

Dozens upon dozens of petitions, flyers, and Internet web sites soon popped up across America protesting to "stick it to the WB" (Fans Stand). Buffy watchers all across America wanted to proclaim their support of Buffy creator Joss Whedon and the show, their idea was to discourage the WB from trying to stifle Whedon's creative vision for the show. (Fans Stake). Whedon has always been a responsible writer when penning Buffy episodes. Throughout episodes of Buffy, when staked Whedon has all vampires explode into dust for showing they are evil monsters. He didn't want a high school girl killing people each week (Whedon). In addition, in one scene where Angelus, an evil vampire kills a regular cast member, the decision was made to have Angelus use his vampire face, rather than a human face for Whedon feared it would be two disturbing to have a human kill (Whedon).

Joss Whedon is certifiable member of the horror following had a vision for Buffy, which was based on the stereotypical character of a horror movie: "That blonde girl who always got herself killed. I started feeling bad for her. I thought it was time for her to take back the night...and so the idea for Buffy came from the very simple thought of just a beautiful blonde girl who walks into an alley and not only ready for him, she trounces him" (Whedon). Since the beginning, Buffy has stood for the underdog. Through out the seasons, Buffy has saved the helpless, and the not so helpless, saved those who cannot save themselves. The high school Buffy attended from her sophomore to senior year, Sunndydale High is the depiction of every high school in America. While normal teenagers go about their lives dreading Monday morning and the test to come, Buffy worries about the upcoming apocalypse, which occurs many times each season. The confusion and the alienation of high school are taken to such great lengths that on Buffy it becomes demonic (Whedon). Fans soon got what they wanted and as always, the dust soon settled, and people will begin accusing something else and perhaps the only people who lost from this was the WB network. Fans now do not trust the extremely popular network after they failed to support one of their highest rated shows, and apparently, neither does Buffy's creator and crew. Look for Buffy the Vampire Slayer on UPN this coming fall (Much Ado).

Teenagers and adults alike understand the pain Buffy et al are put through each week. When Buffy came under fire for the two controversial episodes, fans rallied together to get the lost episodes aired soon after they were pulled. These fans understood what had happened. The WB feared possible backlash at the seemingly uncaring episodes and pulled them to avoid conflict. But in doing so they cause even more press and bad publicity then they could have dreamed. The idea of delaying the episodes to prevent bad press backfired right in their faces and they lost the faith of the only people that really mattered, the fans (When Story). These are the very people who understand the events of Buffy do not occur in real life that everything is completely in the realm of fantasy-mayors do not transform into demonic snakes, Inca mummies don't catch trains into town and a human sized mantas do not devour hormonal teenage boys (Buffy Won't). Just as people will watch Friends each week, but will hardly consider marrying their brother's best friend.

Author's Note: A work cited list and outline is available upon request. This paper has yet to be graded by my professor.