Talk Shows - Pushing the Limit essays

Talk Shows - Pushing the Limit essays Im 13... Ill do anything to have a baby. I thought this was a parents worst nightmare, but I was not surprised when I saw it was the subject of a very entertaining talk show. It was never the main goal of television to make its audience uncomfortable or to push the boundaries of what is acceptable in American Culture, which is illustrated in cases such as when network censors forced Lucy and Ricky Ricardo to sleep in twin beds and I Dream of Jeannie's Barbara Eden to cover her belly button with flesh-colored putty (Matheson). These days, however, are gone and television has become more offensive since the talk show came on to the screen. Steven D. Stark makes this same point in his article, The Oprah Winfrey Show and the Talk-Show Furor. Stark says that talk shows are pushing the boundaries of what the American culture says is acceptable. He also notes that women are the primary audience of the talk show genre (Stark). I am in agreement with Stark on his view of talk shows. E ver since their creation, which was in the late 1960s with Phil Donahue, talk shows have changed the shape of the American culture and have helped broaden the American peoples acceptance of vulgarities, sex and many other taboos. Three examples of talk shows that do just that are The Maury Povich Show, The Tonight Show and The Jerry Springer Show. The Maury Povich Show which airs at noon time was the talk show with the thirteen year olds who aspired to be mothers as soon as possible. His show contained vulgar words and needless to say, copious sexual content. The show started out by showcasing young girls in skimpy clothing telling the studio audience and America that they were having sex numerous times per day in order to get pregnant. Two of these girls, in fact, were successful in their attempts, but later both had miscarriages. These young girls not only talked about their sexual behav...