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NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Steven Spielberg urged TV networks to be mindful of what they show on the air because of the effect it might have on children, and said programs like "CSI" and "Heroes" were too gruesome.

"Today we are needing to be as responsible as we can possibly be, not just thinking of our own children but our friends' and neighbors' children," Spielberg told an audience Monday at the International Emmys board of directors meeting here.

Spielberg decried on-air promotions for television shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" that showed "blood and people being dissected." He also said that when his favorite TV show of the new season, NBC's "Heroes," showed someone cut in half in the 9 p.m. hour, he sent his younger children out of the room.

"I'm a parent who is very concerned," he said.

Spielberg said that the TV landscape was much more "homogenized" 20 years ago, even seven or eight years ago. One of his shows, "ER," wouldn't have been on the air 20 years ago because of its graphic depictions.

Two of Spielberg's movies, "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," have generated controversy during their television airings with uncut language and graphic depictions. But Spielberg has also made a famous edit to the DVD release of "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," where a government agent wielded a gun in the original film and then held a walkie-talkie in the DVD.

In a free-ranging hour of interview with former NBC News correspondent Garrick Utley and questions from the audience, Spielberg said iPod video may be all the rage but count his films out from tailoring his films to fit the small screen.

"That's one medium where I have to draw the line," he said. "We'll shoot for television and the movies and let there be a wide gap" between that and the small 3-inch screen. He also said that he felt that people are social animals who will choose to go out to a movie rather than watch a show on widescreen.

"I don't think movie theaters will ever go away," Spielberg said.

But the producer-director who got his start in TV directing Joan Crawford for a 1969 episode of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" isn't lacking for work on screens of any kind. He's developing a 10- or 11-hour miniseries about the U.S. war against Japan in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, part of the 20% of his time that he estimated he worked on TV projects compared with 80% for films.

He called working on miniseries "the most fun I have" and especially liked the ability to develop characters. He pointed to HBO's "Band of Brothers," which developed characters over hours rather than the eight to 10 minutes that he said was available in a two-hour feature film.

Another project is "On the Lot," a Mark Burnett-Spielberg TV series that will choose one of 16 aspiring filmmakers for a development deal with DreamWorks, Spielberg's studio. It will air on Fox. And of course there's another film coming in the "Indiana Jones" series, which Spielberg was relatively mum about.

"There's still life in the series," Spielberg said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

scootch · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:31 pm Post subject:

o god. i just read the first paragraph...scanned through the article. theres a reason why the show is on primetime. jeez. watch your kids. im not a father, but i wouldnt mind at all that my kid were to watch this type of stuff. its the parents job to help the kid realize what the hell is real and what the hell is fiction. they show this kind of stuff on the news all the time. and theres a dam parental control button on virtually all the cable boxes out there anyway.

Erden · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:34 pm Post subject:

Is it me or was that a tad bit hypocritical? I understand that it's adressing TV and not movies but still...and honestly...I'm 17 and have seen every sort of violent media out there (some of which I had not seen), I was 6 months old and saw Terminator 2, it was either 6 months old or a year and six months...can't remember. I've been playing violent video games forever...This violent and gruesome stuff influencing kids is a total load of bollocks.

gmgo · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:42 am Post subject:

Good idea, Spielberg. I wholeheartedly agree. Children today shouldnt see guns and violence and nudity and.....shock horror THE 6 O'CLOCK NEWS.
Thanks, by the way, for 'photoshopping' those Assault weapons into walkee-talkees in E.T. and realising the errors of your ways...
Perhaps Jaws: Redux could be a splashy, playful porpoise, Indy holsters a 'Dairy Whip', and Saving Private Ryan could be re-scripted so his parents V-chip Fox News.
Gee-golly, thanks Mr. Spielberg.
Vomits.....

gmgo · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:48 am Post subject:

Hey, my reputation level just hit 1.0.
Yata!!!!!!!

oxigen · Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 2:45 pm Post subject:

When i was about 10, a was watching and really loved X-files... i think i'm normal, with healty soul...

but that was a long time ago, nowadays tv is really full of aggression and false values
my sister grew up on channel Romantica... i doubt she's sane...

once i'll have kids, i'll make sure they wont be so tv-dependent