Film Advisory Board

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since November 2006.

The Film Advisory Board, Inc. (FAB) is a member-supported organization founded in 1975 by Elayne Blythe (1919 - 2005). The FAB's "Award of Excelence" was developed to award quality family-oriented and children's entertainment in both print and electronic media.

The second division of FAB is the FAB Ratings System. Originally developed by Elayne Blythe in four categories ("L", "V", "N" and "S", for (respectively) Language, Violence, Nudity and Sex), the present system was developed in 1988 at the request of independent film makers and distributors as an alternative to the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system. The FAB ratings system is intended to be less costly and more informative than the MPAA's system. The ratings fee is based on the film's running time instead of negative cost, and the ratings are based on the level of maturity of the material's intended audience, rather than the film's content.

While the FAB ratings system is not as recognized or well-known as the MPAA's rating system, it is in use by a number of commercial video distributors for direct-to-video releases that would have been impractical to submit to the MPAA.

[edit] Film Advisory Board Rating System

The Film Advisory Board has six ratings categories. Each includes a brief description as to the rating's explanation, such as "Violence in Battle Scenes", "Substance Abuse" or "Brief Nudity".

Image	Text
	Children Ages 10 and under.
	Family All ages. Equivalent to MPAA's G rating.
	Parental Discretion Content description implies age suitability. Formerly M (Mature); equivalent to MPAA's PG rating.
	Parental Discretion-Mature Ages 13 and over. Formerly VM (Very Mature); equivalent to MPAA's PG-13 rating.
	Extremely Mature Ages 17 and over. Equivalent to MPAA's R or NC-17 ratings, depending on content description.
	Adults Only Ages 18 and over. Equivalent to X-rated since March 2003; previously equivalent to MPAA's NC-17 rating.