DALLAS -- Officials of the ABC television affiliate in Dallas annonced Friday that the station will not carry the new series 'NYPD Blue,' scheduled to premiere in two weeks.
The program, written and produced by Steven Bochco, has been the subject of controversy since it was first seen in private showings because of its extreme violence and blatant sex.
Bochco wrote the long-running 'Hill Street Blues' as well as several other series of shorter network duration which were shown in the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
'We screened three episodes and sat down and talked with ABC officials regarding the profanity, nudity and violence contained in the program,' Cathy Creany, WFAA vice president and general manager said. 'ABC wouldn't allow us to show it in a late night period, it had to be shown in prime time.'
The WFAA studios were picketed in recent weeks by family groups demanding that the program not be shown.
Creany said the decision not to show the program was made Friday morning, and it was made public during the afternoon.
She said WFAA may be the only station in the top 25 U.S. markets to reject the show, although other, smaller stations, have turned it down.
'It's really a combination of profanity, sex, and violence, very concentrated in an hour that we feel goes a step beyone what anyone has seen on free, over-the-air television,' Creany said. 'It's just not consistent with our standards.'
She said the program was scheduled to air Tuesday at 9 p.m. CDT. Instead, the station will show in that time slot three new episodes of 'Texans -- American Portraits and Unsung Heroes.'
WFAA will air a new, local, live news hour beginning Oct. 12 in the 9 p.m. time slot.
