Parents Television Council - Houston Texas Chapter

The members of the PTC's Houston chapter have recently seen extraordinary success in their efforts to get local advertisers to stop associating with the foul content on Fox's Family Guy. No fewer than FOUR local businesses have pledged to stop supporting the raunchy cartoon show with their advertising dollars!

Texas' largest furniture retailer Star Furniture, the furnishing giant Room Store, the steak restaurant chain Golden Corral, and all 5,812 restaurants in the Whataburger chain have all pulled their advertising from Family Guy, and have told the Houston chapter that they would no longer support the program.

► To read examples of content from Family Guy. click here. WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT!

The 11 year old son of Carolyn Severs, a member of our Houston chapter, turned on the TV at 6:15am on March 29^th and tuned to local Channel 61,KZJL. He did not, however, encounter what most stations air at this time of day, usually early morning cartoons or news, he came across a Girls Gone Wild infomercial and immediately got his mother's attention.

Carolyn was aghast at what her child was being exposed to and contacted channel 61 and their parent company Liberman Broadcasting.

Carolyn said, "I wrote a fairly lengthy e-mail about the graphic sexual content and most importantly, the time the ad was airing. I mentioned in my letter that I had encountered the Girls Gone Wild infomercials before, in the late evening hours on cable television. I explained how shocking it was to find it on (beginning) at 6:00 am, on network television.

I informed them that I had e-mailed Kevin Martin at the FCC and had also filed a Formal Complaint. I said that I was a member of the Parents Television Council and that I had notified the PTC about the program and would be getting the Houston Chapter involved."

Fortunately, getting the rest of the chapter involved was not necessary since the mere threat of a coordinated response by the local chapter was enough to get the show replaced the following morning by a Chuck Norris Exercise infomercial. The Girls Gone Wild infomercial has not aired since.

Greetings. I'm George Hall, the chapter director for the Houston PTC Chapter. Our main activities thus far have comprised responding to PTC Headquarters initiatives with emails to affiliates, sponsors, the FCC, and cable television providers.

It has become evident that to be an effective advocate for appropriate television programming for families, and particularly for children, we must expand our membership and establish regional membership and activity coordinators. The geographical magnitude of the Houston metropolitan area requires this concept.

The Houston chapter is immediately embarking on a membership drive combined with solicitation for volunteers to assist as regional coordinators. As members and volunteers join in the effort, a more formalized organizational structure will be established.

Starting immediately, and expanding as the organization evolves, we will reach out to churches, PTAs, and other organizations to spread the word of the PTC. This will be accomplished through meetings, speaking engagements, and literature distribution.

Please join us in our efforts to bring about changes in television programming to reflect our community standards and protect our children from sex, violence and profanity in entertainment!