Laff Riot

Tyrannical television

The new airport security regime has a friend in ABC. The TV network threatened in March to ax a planned episode of The Drew Carey Show. In it, the show's two resident idiots -- who also happen to be Drew's best friends -- take jobs as airport checkers, and find that they fit right in.

In a request more hilarious than the show itself, the network asked that at least one security worker be portrayed as "competent," reports the Los Angeles Times. Drew Carey's producers ultimately complied, and a revised version broadcast in late March.

The Times quoted a "network source" as saying that it would be irresponsible to portray all the security workers as incompetent. Never mind that this is a TV show which, at its most serious, has featured a 300-pound woman in clown make-up wearing vibrating underwear. And as Carey himself told the Times, "If you can't satirize authority figures, what's the point?"

ABC is hopefully underestimating its advertisers' sense of humor. In any case, their concern appears misplaced given a statistic that should pose a much greater threat to advertising: The network's 23-percent audience loss over the season to date.

But fear not. ABC has a plan for boosting ratings (besides mucking with its shows' scripts). A network spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter that the overall message to ad buyers now will be "how we lost our way," and that the station will be featuring more family sitcoms and fanciful dramas. His example of the golden-age television that the network will seek to revisit? Fantasy Island.