Television Programming
The most immediate impact to television was the loss of David Angell, a co-creator and co-executive producer from the NBC show Frasier, who was among the passengers on American Airlines Flight 11.
In the United States, the start of the 2001-2002 television season was put on hold due to the extensive news coverage (several series, such as NBC's Crossing Jordan, were originally scheduled to debut on September 11), with mid-September premieres delayed until later in the month. Late night talk shows such as The Tonight Show and Late Show with David Letterman were also off the air. Even after regular programming resumed, several talk shows remained off the air for several more days as writers and hosts determined how best to approach the sensitive situation. David Letterman was quoted on CNN as questioning whether he would even continue hosting his show. Ultimately, Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and other talk show hosts based in New York and Los Angeles returned to the airwaves with emotional initial broadcasts, with Letterman breaking network language guidelines by asking his audience how the attacks "made any goddamn sense."
Several TV series, most notably The West Wing and Third Watch, produced special episodes addressing the attacks. Law & Order began its fall season premiere with a tribute to the victims. Shows such as the military based JAG and Third Watch (a series about New York City first responders) made major changes to their ongoing storylines in order to incorporate the event's aftermath.
On Politically Incorrect's September 17, 2001 show, Maher's guest Dinesh D'Souza disputed President Bush's label of the terrosists being "cowards", saying the terrorists were warriors. Maher agreed, and according to a transcript replied "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly". The show was canceled the following June, which Maher and many others saw as a result of the controversy, although ABC denied that the controversy was a factor, and said the program was canceled due to declining ratings. Maher said that the show struggled for advertisers in its final months.
Read more about this topic: List Of Entertainment Affected By The September 11 Attacks
Famous quotes containing the words television programming, television and/or programming:
“Television programming for children need not be saccharine or insipid in order to give to violence its proper balance in the scheme of things.... But as an endless diet for the sake of excitement and sensation in stories whose plots are vehicles for killing and torture and little more, it is not healthy for young children. Unfamiliar as yet with the full story of human response, they are being misled when they are offered perversion before they have fully learned what is sound.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)