Re: Why Canceled?

From: chance <chance_at_unix.infoserve.net>
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 1996 07:15:32 -0700

>*wince* Ow... please don't use all caps, its painful to the eyes. :) And
>Kats ain't near as violent as some stuff, not graphically, anyhow, most Kats
>weapons weren't designed to outright kill, only capture...

"Animato!" article author Mark Lungo tended to be a bit more critical of the
"violent" aspects of the Kitties than I would've been, but he does highlight
some of the scenes that parental groups might also find distasteful. There are
a number of scenes that somehow miraculously escaped the red-ink of
Broadcast Standards and Practices ("BS&P" for 'Boot fans), but others
that were excised for rather silly reasons. For example, the graphic fate of the
Mob-Boss "Katscratch" in "The Metallikats" was one of the things BS&P
normally pounce all over (remember? The grizzled, charred paw reaching for
the sky behind the packing crates?), as are any scenes that seemingly result in
'civilian' casualties which are incidental to the plot; as in the Subway car in
"Giant Bacteria", and arguably the bus in "The Deadly Pyramid".

Deaths in general are depicted in the Kats as a matter of course - something
BS&P specifically makes no allowance for. In BTAS, there was considerable
furore over an episode where one of Gotham P.D.'s blimps appeared to crash
to the tarmac with the occupants still inside. How many Enforcers escape their
choppers or APC's with any regularity? (Check out "Chaos in Crystal" and
"The Ci-Kat-a" by way of comparison). There also doesn't appear to be any
consistency between the various eps, as where Enforcers regularly bite it
in "Ci-Kat-a", H-B shied away from showing what happens when a Giant
Space Bug actually _meets_ the whirling blades of the chopper it's falling
towards.

BS&P's way (and presumably Ted Turner's), is to have a program with
"A-Team" style production values where nobody gets hurt, and the
"bad guys" learn a lesson at the end of the day (which is naturally to be
related in voice-over, should the audience not take the 22-minute hint).
Nice package, but rarely tied up with as pretty a ribbon in real-life. Which
of the two do you think would provide the audience with an unrealistic
model of the consequences arising from violent acts? (Voice-Over: "It
isn't the Kats!")




Received on Thu Jul 04 1996 - 10:36:48 PDT