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Desperate Housewives, Adult Escapism By Kevin Fobbs May 2, 2005 First Lady, Laura Bush, speaking before the White House Correspondents Dinner this past weekend, elevated a highly popular nighttime television soap opera Desperate Housewives to another level of popularity, when she humorously referred to it in her remarks. She said if those desperate housewives who make up the fictional make up of the neighborhood portrayed on Desperate Housewives think their desperate housewives.... well she really is a desperate housewife. When you think about it, this hit television show offers many of the same creature comforts that its 1960's counterpart offered...

LOS ANGELES — ABC's first choice for the infamous "Monday Night Football" dropped towel episode wasn't Terrell Owens — it was announcer John Madden. For reasons that are unclear, Madden couldn't find the time to perform for the skit. Owens, the Philadelphia Eagles receiver, filled in for him in the steamy sketch that drew viewer protests and a network apology, said ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson on Sunday.

British Muslim activists have stepped up a campaign to deface or rip down advertising billboards featuring scantily-clad women in communities with large numbers of Muslims, the media reported. Sky television news reported from the English city of Birmingham on Saturday that the campaign has achieved some of its goals as there were now few such billboards close to mosques. The Advertising Standards Authority said that increasing numbers of posters were being torn down or painted over in predominantly Islamic areas, the Times newspaper reported. Ads for perfume, hair dye, bras and television programmes are among those that have been attacked,...

ABC's hit anti-suburbia series, "Desperate Housewives," continued its winning ways on Jan. 16 at the Golden Globes, where it picked up an award for best comedy, and star Teri Hatcher was named best actress in a comedy. Since its premiere in October, "Desperate Housewives" has hit the 24.6 million viewer mark in a single night and provoked national controversy with its Nicollette Sheridan/Terrell Owens sex ad. It has also triggered massive conservative consternation. American Decency Association president Bill Johnson calls the show "nasty and destructive to the American family ... cultural-rotting programming." Parents Television Council founder L. Brent Bozell III...

Get ready for another impassioned censorship crusade by the "let's-censor-television-to-protect-the-children" crowd. The latest Nielsen TV ratings are out, and they reveal that in addition to being the most popular show among adults, ABC's smash-hit "Desperate Housewives" is also the most popular broadcast-network TV show with kids ages 9-12. No doubt, the relentless censorship advocates at the Parents Television Council are already firing up the engines at their automated complaint factory to bombard Federal Communications Commission regulators with letters. Recent Freedom of Information Act requests to the FCC have revealed the PTC has been responsible for more than 98 percent of...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - Shortly before becoming chairman of the Federal Communications Commission nearly four years ago, Michael K. Powell said it was time to eliminate the double standard that allowed the government to subject broadcasters, unlike their competitors in cable and satellite television, to indecency and other speech regulations. At the time, Mr. Powell received a Freedom of Speech Award for advancing what broadcasters and civil liberties groups viewed as a courageously principled position. Now, he is being harshly criticized for significantly expanding the indecency rules. He blames a quest for higher ratings for the "increasing coarseness" of programming...

Mommy, have I done something wrong?            Andrea Yates was the mother of five beautiful, innocent children. She drowned them all in a bathtub and we are supposed to feel sorry for her. When her seven year old son saw his baby sister lying lifeless on the floor of the bathroom, he asked if she was all right, to which Andrea answered, “get in the tub”, Noah ran, but not far enough or fast enough. The last words he spoke just before his mother drowned him in the bathtub was: “Mother, have I done something wrong?”          I say we are...

(Snip)Last month's controversy—when advertisers pulled their ads because they thought the show was too risqué—only made more people desperate to see "Housewives." "Yeah, I have some women wearing some skimpy stuff and a gardener that takes off his shirt, but I also know that I'm well within my rights to do so under the heading of soap opera," says Marc Cherry, the show's creator, who is actually a somewhat CONSERVATIVE, GAY REPUBLICAN. "The stuff that goes on in daytime is far more racy."

Three Wives Attempt Suicide After Argument TEHRAN (Reuters) - All three wives of a 67-year-old Iranian man took overdoses in an unsuccessful triple suicide attempt after the youngest wife bought an expensive pair of boots, a news agency reported on Sunday. "My two other wives were very jealous after my 27-year-old wife bought a pair of boots for $450," the husband was quoted as saying by the ISNA student news agency. "After they had an argument about the price, they all attempted suicide together," he added. All three women, now in stable condition in the hospital, have separate apartments and...

There is more to life than the road-weary, ever-despairing form of Nicolette Sheridan as the lead-in to "Monday Night Football." There is the predictable shock and wailing following another joint production starring the corporate NFL and envelope-pushing Hollywood, which equates being over the top with high art. There also is the right breast of Janet Jackson, busting out on national television before posing as the seminal mome