When I was a young boy, one of my favorite cartoons was about a roadrunner and a stupid coyote who chased him all over the desert trying to eat him for breakfast. He didn't just try to run him down, but instead used elaborate traps/stunts/gadgets to try and capture his meal. It was a wacky and fun show, adored by a couple of generations of adults and kids alike. In fact, the show is still on to this very day, after a fashion. Unfortunately it has been changed quite a bit and is nowhere near as good or funny as it used to be. It seems that parents and censors of today insisted that the giant boulders and other things falling onto Wile E. Coyote's head and squashing him flat or turning him into an accordian were too violent to be shown to children, thus the violence had to be toned down, and the boulders could no longer be shown squishing him flat.
AND JOSS WHEDON WONDERS WHY HIS BUFFY CARTOON WON'T FLY WITH THOSE SAME PARENTS/CENSORS/PRODUCERS???????
Is the man insane, or what? No, I mean really. If he cannot see that those same people do not want him making a kiddie cartoon, then he needs professional help. They decided that a cartoon coyote having rocks dropped on his head and making him into an accordian was too violent for kids to see. I'm sure they took one look at his shows and decided that the violence, gore, and misogyny were too much to even be on television in an adult show, much less a cartoon.
I mean, let's take a look at the cast of characters that those potential buyers saw last season, and this one, and examine a few things about each.
Buffy: The "Hero" of the show... she sleeps with a vampire who is evil and tried to rape her, doing so doggie-style against the railing in a club while she watches her friends dance and also against a trash dumpster (not to mention knocking a house down by violent sex/oral sex,etc)... She is a thoroughly depressing person who is actually imagining the whole series as she sits in an insane asylum... in addition, she tries to kill all of her friends by allowing a demon to tear them to shreds.
Willow: Best friend of hero. She's a witch who loves another woman, which was a beautiful thing, but, in all fairness, is not likely to push a parents button when it comes to cartoon making time.... Additionally, she becomes a drug addicted character whose behavior becomes so reprehensible and damaging to those around her that her lover leaves her... Just when it seems that she's gained control over her problem, her lover returns only to be gunned down in one of the most disturbingly violent scenes that I have ever witnessed on television... to be fair, the extremely intimate scenes of W/T preceeding the death scene most likely did not turn most parents on either... after her lover's death, Willow goes on a murderous rampage, killing one man and then another, skinning him alive in the process.... she then attacks her friends, tries to kill them, and then attempts to destroy the entire world.
Xander: The guy who, uhhh... well... ok. So he serves no purpose. Anyway. He leads a woman on for years, taking advantage of her obviously fantastic sexual abilities, but when it comes time to be a man and marry her, he walks away, leaving her actually standing at the altar...
Anya: An innocent, if perhaps a bit too honest, woman who is left at the altar by her boyfriend....Oh yeah, she used to be a demon and becomes one again after her betrayal, whereby she proceeds to cause the bloody death of a dozen men and makes terrible things happen to others.
Tara: The sweetest, most beloved, and innocent character of them all... Willow's girlfriend... She dies in a bloody, horrific, and unecessary manner, shot through the heart in front of her lover, who is covered in her blood...
I think that's enough about Buffy. Of course, we could get into Angel and how bloody, depressing, and terrible that show is, but I don't watch it so I'll just have to skip it. But now we have "Firefly" which, aside from being a dud in the ratings, is also a violent, misogynistic nightmare, full of abused/insane women, space hookers, and all manner of things that I doubt parents would like to know their kids are seeing. In additon, this show, like Buffy and Angel, tends to focus on gloom, doom, and the worst sides of human nature. Firefly shows a future where most hope is lost, men are brutal thugs for the most part, and women are either weak, insane, or glorified prostitutes.
Depression. Hate. Futility. Abuse. Inequality. Fear. Addiction. Sexual Deviance. Prejudice. Rape. Murder. Revenge. Misogyny. Hopelessness. Despair. Death...
When one looks at the overall themes that Joss Whedon has pushed on us in the last year or so, how can any rational and sane person NOT see why he wouldn't be trusted to produce a kiddy cartoon? If Whedon truly cannot fathom this, then he needs professional, psychological help. Hell, with a mindset like his, I wouldn't want him getting within 500 yards of one of my kids on the street - much less have him making cartoons for my kid to watch! The man is deranged and has totally lost touch with reality if he truly doesn't understand why his cartoon cannot find sponsors. All of his shows continue to prove that his mind is full of hate, violence (esp against women), misogyny, sexual deviance, and all manner of terrible things that I listed above, that kids should not be exposed to.
Silly Joss, Tricks ARE for kids... but not the kind that Buffy was turning for Spike last season.
FuBard
Edited by: FuBard at: 10/30/02 10:47:03 am
Spice 
Poor, poor Jossie.
at: 12/17/02 5:54:39 pm