Standards & Practices

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For the professional wrestling tag team, see Lenny and Lodi.

In the United States, Standards and Practices (also referred to as Broadcast Standards and Practices or BS&P) is the name traditionally given to the department at a television network which is responsible for the "moral", ethical, and legal implications of the program that network airs—in the vernacular, "the censors". They also ensure fairness on television game shows, acting as an adjunct to the judges at the production company level.

1 Incidents
2 Parodies
3 Notes and references
4 External links

[edit] Incidents

Episode 97 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) has yet to be shown in the United States due to pressures from Fox Broadcast & Standards (although 4Kids Entertainment leased the time from the network and for their 4Kids TV block and aired the series, it still had to meet Fox's broadcast standards). On the official TMNT website Lloyd Goldfine states:

“

The final edited and mixed version of the notorious 'Insane in the Membrane' was deemed unsuitable for air by Fox Broadcast Standards and Practices. Apparently, in between the time the episode was written, storyboarded, animated and edited (all stages approved by Fox BS&P), and the time the show was mixed for air, there was a change of personnel in the Fox BS&P offices, and no one involved in the original approvals was still employed at Fox. Upon seeing the episode, they were said to be 'horrified' and that there was no way they could air the episode. I'm not sure I disagree with them—had there been BS&P comments earlier in the process, we certainly would have handled the show differently. But as it was approved at every stage, we went full steam ahead. In the end, I was told it was bad judgment on my part... so there you have it.

I believe this episode will eventually be available, but plans have not been finalized.^[1]

”

The final three episodes of the first season of Moral Orel were held back for various amounts of time by Standards and Practices, the episode entitled "God's Chef" being delayed for months before the Adult Swim network was able to show it.

X-Men: The Animated Series was very heavily influenced by BS&P. Unlike the comic book, characters were rarely ever in any danger and characters almost never hit each other directly. A few excerpts from BS&P on the show:

“

Page 4: It will not be acceptable for Mojo to call anyone 'numb nuts.' Also, he should not pick Spiral up by the head.

Page 11: Please substitute for Longshot's two uses of the word 'killed.' Something like 'destroyed' or 'take their lives' would be acceptable.

Page 23: It will not be acceptable for Jubilee to blast January in the face. Please revise.

Page 25: Please substitute for the boulder Rogue hurls at the two hunters, since this would injure them severely. Please incapacitate them with something less harmful.

Page 29: Caution that Slagg not backhand Wolverine in the face.

Page 32: Please show that the bounty hunters are alive after the facade falls on them.^[2]

”

Game shows are often involved in Standards and Practices violations over irregularities over game play. On The Price Is Right, contestants who have lost games because of procedural irregularties have been awarded a technical win by the executive producer. On all game shows, if an irregularity occurs during a game, and the contestant lost the game, contestants' eligibility will not be removed, and they are permitted to try out for the game again at a later date. In 1999, a contestant who lost on a Jeopardy! Teen Tournament game on a questionable ruling was ordered brought back for a 2000 College Championship.

[edit] Parodies

Many television programs (especially cartoons) have parodied the existence of Standards and Practices departments.

One episode of the Beetlejuice cartoon featured the cast being harassed by Goody Two-Shoes, a fairy godmother-like media watchdog from the "Bureau of Sweetness and Prissiness" (BS&P, a knock at ABC's Broadcast Standards and Practices) who wanted them to clean up their act. The end of the episode also brings attention the show's own censoring, as Beetlejuice's complains about the camera always cutting away to a disgusted character's reaction of him whenever he eats bugs. A later episode also referenced this practice, where Beetlejuice is forced by Lydia to discourage a young boy from acting like him.

The television show ReBoot also featured several jabs at ABC's Broadcast Standards & Practices department. In "The Quick & The Fed", Bob uses a command called "BS&P" to teleport through a window (according to the producers, Standards had nixed the idea of Bob breaking the window with a rock). "In the Belly of the Beast" featured Enzo firing a gun with the words "BS&P approved" on it that shoots rubber life rafts. "Talent Night" featured a "prog censor" named Emma Fee who kept complaining about objectionable content in the acts Dot wanted, and a group called "The Small Town Binomes" singing a song called "BS'n'P".

In the Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "Ed Overboard", Eddy is sworn in as a temporary member of Rolf's "Urban Rangers", and quips "I'd swear, but Standards won't let me."

In one episode of the anime Fushigi Yūgi, part of a test to see if main character Miaka is worthy of receiving a magical artifact requires her to take her clothes off. She strips down to a one-piece undergarment, and explains she cannot take it off because "This is the limit of what the broadcast code allows."

In the Adult Swim series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, during the episode "Gee Whiz", the show makes reference to CN's Standards & Practices department, referring to it as "A vital link in keeping good and funny ideas away from you, the television viewer." It then demonstrates its purpose with a series of otherwise offensive material and places it into context against humorously inoffensive material (for example, showing a nun being decapitated with blood gushing out as unacceptable, but that same nun being decapitated with a rainbow coming out as acceptable). They are also not allowed say Jesus, but are to use "Gee Whiz" instead.

In the South Park episode "It Hits the Fan", the frozen knights enlisted to prevent the uttering of the "words of Curse" are called the Knights of Standards and Practices.

In Sealab 2021, one fourth-wall breaking episode has the characters all engaging in incredibly dangerous or deplorable activities. In one scene, a character flashes a series of helicopters, causing another helicopter to appear, claiming that it is from Turner Standards and Practices. It tells her to "put your breasts back in your shirt, you dirty whore!" even though her breasts are blurred out.

On Adult Swim, one bump calls Standards and Practices "where funny goes to die".

In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Wrath of the Spider Queen, when the alien is cutting the web off Mindy, she says, "Hey, Hey!" "Are you nuts?" and the alien stands there and Mindy says "Duh! Standards and Practices."

In the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers episode "Trick or Treat", Kimberly and Skull compete on a fictional game show entitled "Trick or Treat", where Bulk helps Skull win by cheating. Later, at the end, when they are seen riding in the game show's prize, a "brand-new car", a representative from network standards and practices comes along to report that they reviewed their episode of "Trick or Treat" and discovered that Bulk and Skull were cheating and takes the car back to the network station.