The Children's Hour

TV spent a good part of last week vigorously denying that it was in any way responsible for juvenile delinquency. During two days of hearings in Washington before the Senate Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee, children's TV programs were roundly damned and defended. Richard Clendenen, executive director of the committee, told New Jersey's Senator Robert Hendrickson and a jampacked hearing room that grammar-school children spend from 22 to 27 hours a week looking at TV. Then excerpts from TV films shown in an average Washington week were thrown on the screen. Some highlights in the nontelevised proceedings:

P: In River Patrol, one man was strangled, another knifed, a third bound hand-and-foot preparatory to drowning.

P: In Flame of the West, four men are shot--presumably dead--in a saloon fight.

P: In The Crimson Ghost, the gang leader had a special gimmick that enabled him to electrocute his followers by remote control (their heads disappeared in a blinding flash). Another villain was pushed out a window--his body spread-eagled for maximum shatter.

P: In Devil Riders, a stagecoach driver was burned to death and a cliff dynamited to bury alive a group at its base.

Mrs. Clara S. Logan of Los Angeles, president of the National Association for Setter Radio & Television, maintained hat "crime and violence are the dominating factors in approximately 40% of all Children's TV programs." Among the 'most objectionable'' she listed Captain Midnight, Dick Tracy, The East Side Kids and Captain Video.

An actor named Al Hodge, who plays Captain Video, was on hand to defend himself. Wearing a business suit instead of a space uniform, firm-jawed Hodge (consistently addressed by the investigators as "Captain") insisted that his program "was meticulous to the point of not even using the word 'kill.' " His Video Rangers use "stun guns" that are not even painful, and captured villains are brainwashed at a "rehabilitation center" rather than dispatched to graveyards. Questioned by Senator Hendrickson about the good taste of tromping on an enemy's hands, Captain Video explained that it would only be done in self-defense to disarm a foe.

A covey of network executives also appeared for the defense. Merle Jones, a CBS vice president, was able to boast that a CBS psychologist had concluded that "TV programs do not cause juvenile delinquency, nor do they constitute one of the several causes." One executive argued that TV shows were no more violent than fairy tales ("Mother Goose is full of acts of violence"), and ABC Vice President Robert Hinckley, who appeared out of patience with the whole idea of a hearing, said that TV "is a very young industry, while juvenile delinquency is very, very old."

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