Code of Manners & Morals

Before the government got around to it, television men last week made a stab at drawing up a good-conduct code of their own. The 28-page document, presented at a Chicago meeting of the National Association of Radio & Television Broadcasters, began by congratulating the industry on making "available to the eyes and ears of the American people the finest programs of information, education, culture and entertainment." Then it came out foursquare against "profanity, obscenity, smut and vulgarity."

The code specifically bans a number of words and phrases, among them: bat (applied to a woman); nuts (except when meaning crazy); razzberry (the sound); torn cat (applied to a man). Also banned: jokes about traveling salesmen and farmers' daughters; suicide or divorce as an answer to human problems; fortunetelling, astrology, phrenology, palm-reading and numerology, if shown in a way that might "foster superstition or excite interest or belief."

Edging up to TV's responsibility toward children, the code argued that "crime, violence and sex are a part of the world they will be called upon to meet and a certain amount of proper presentation of such is helpful in orienting the child to his social surroundings." But it frowned on shows that are "excessively" violent or might cause "morbid" suspense.

TV men also learned that they should avoid "such views of performers as emphasize anatomical details indecently," and got an obscure warning that "the use of locations closely associated with sexual life or with sexual sin must be governed by good taste and delicacy." Wrestling with the problems of advertising, the code suggested that six or seven minutes was long enough for the commercial on a 60-minute show, and hoped that the sponsor's name would only be shown "fleetingly" on the TV screen.

The code was endorsed by 59 of the nation's 108 TV stations and by two of the four networks (NBC and Du Mont). Other TV men have until the first of the year to sign up or stay out, whichever they prefer.

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