Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/PBS-Broadcast-of-Falsettos-Will-Feature-Minor-Lyric-Adjustments-20170105

They changed some of the lyrics for the taping of the show to "clean it up"

What does this mean for 4 Jews in a Room Bitching? Will it just be a 4 minute bleep?

They should just clean up all of that potty talk from the beginning, and then there'd be no issue!

If it's such a gift to the world, why does it have to be "cleaned up" for tv audience consumption?

If It's not not clean enough for tv, it's not clean enough for Broadway, or anywhere else.

If it's too offensive for tv, it's no less so for Broadway, or anywhere else.

Fact is, the whole show is unfit for tv, Broadway, Hollywood, or the furthest reaches of the Milky Way.

Maybe PBS should choose works that are in no need of "cleaning up." I pity the unsuspecting audiences who will tune in to this thing. Luckily, they can change the channel easily from the comfort of their easy chairs to something more culturally enriching like an infomercial, or the QVC network.

"The lyrics in Falsettos are not anything anyone would find offensive."

Not true. I found many of them offensive.

"The changes seem to be places where characters say "s***" or "f***." (It is a little silly that we cannot even use the terms here!)"

Maybe you should think about the reasons why you cannot use the terms here. And then you might think as well about the propriety of using those terms anywhere. Actually, if you stop using them altogether, you would be a lot better off, as would certainly be those who wouldn't have to hear them!

haterobics said: "They should just clean up all of that potty talk from the beginning, and then there'd be no issue!"

I figured when posting this that After Eight's non-joking version wouldn't be far behind...

They are just words, After Eight, if you are so fragile you can't bear to hear them, then go sit in your play pen and watch TMC.

Again, you seem to want theater to aim very low, to aim to do nothing but spellbind an audience into a vague sense of well-being. At the prices Broadway now charges, I'd recommend a Xanax or two instead.

But no less an authority than Shakespeare argued that theater should "hold ... the mirror up to nature". In real life lots of people use four-letter words and did so before the advent of mass media. Some theater should reflect common usage of language, certainly.

I assume these lyric changes are ultimately a reflex of FCC controls on broadcast content. Those controls are and always have been a blatant assault on the First Amendment, and need to be killed by the Supreme Court.

Falsettos has already been bleeped on the radio broadcast in the early 2000s and it sounded ridiculous.

Updated On: 1/6/17 at 10:38 AM

After Eight said: "...Obviously, at least as of today, mores haven't changed to the extent that these words are considered acceptable. Otherwise, they wouldn't be be expunging them for tv, nor would asterisks and dashes be used instead of letters when printing them.

Let's avoid them entirely, and do what little we can to prevent our already-coarsened world to be even coarser still.



"

Oh, mores HAVE changed, which is one reason so much of the TV audience is watching HBO or SHOWTIME where such arbitrary restrictions aren't in effect.

Broadcast standards are dominated by a relatively small number of complainants, who pretend to represent large numbers of viewers. The current restrictions represent political pressure, not general mores.

That certain words are blanked out here is also the decision of a relative few, who no doubt want the boards to appeal to the widest possible audience. (I mean that in a good way: they want to be inclusive; I'm not suggesting the decision is a commercial one.)

Children under 12 probably shouldn't be watching FALSETTOS anyway, unless they are very precocious; adolescents over 12 already know the word s*** and f***.

As for theater in general, how about we embrace language of all kinds, high and low, sacred and vulgar? The result can only be a richer art form.

"Oh, mores HAVE changed, which is one reason so much of the TV audience is watching HBO or SHOWTIME where such arbitrary restrictions aren't in effect."

Yes, and why younger people often don't even HAVE a TV service and just plug in their Netflix/HBOGo/Amazon.



Don't know who is being protected by changing several words in this show.

Kad said: "GavestonPS said: "Broadcast standards are dominated by a relatively small number of complainants, who pretend to represent large numbers of viewers. "

I suspect you're talking to one of them right now.

AfterEight offers such a fantastic catch-22: if the words weren't vulgar, they wouldn't be censored. But they're vulgar, so they should be censored.




"

Can see AfterEight (in my mind sort of a conservative Quentin Crisp, if you can imagine such a person) typing those To Whom It May Concern at NBC letters on a Smith-Corona Super Silent with a glass bowl full of hard candies that have been stuck together since 1987 nearby.

"Oh, mores HAVE changed...

As for theater in general, how about we embrace language of all kinds, high and low, sacred and vulgar?"



If they've changed so much, then why do you still make the distinction between "high and low," language, and still deem some language "vulgar?" Ultimately, the corrosive, corrupt elites would like to eradicate all such distinctions. Thankfully, good sense still prevails, however precariously. You can talk until you're blue in the face, but vulgar words are vulgar; respectable people don't use them; respectable people are rightfully offended by having to hear them; and respectability and respect for others are concepts that still exist, should always exist, and must always exist if we're to have any kind of a decent civilization.

Updated On: 1/6/17 at 11:16 AM