Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
billyelliotfan123
Leading Actor Joined: 10/24/09
#1Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/5/17 at 4:30pm
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/PBS-Broadcast-of-Falsettos-Will-Feature-Minor-Lyric-Adjustments-20170105
They changed some of the lyrics for the taping of the show to "clean it up"
What does this mean for 4 Jews in a Room Bitching? Will it just be a 4 minute bleep?
#2Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/5/17 at 4:31pm
I'm guessing BWW was referring to what was said in this thread on ATC, which didn't mention 4 Jews in a Room Bitching. http://www.talkinbroadway.com/allthatchat_new/d.php?id=2360016
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#3Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/5/17 at 4:42pm
They should just clean up all of that potty talk from the beginning, and then there'd be no issue!
#4Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 3:17am
Oh good grief! We are an entire nation of children!
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#5Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 7:33am
If it's such a gift to the world, why does it have to be "cleaned up" for tv audience consumption?
If It's not not clean enough for tv, it's not clean enough for Broadway, or anywhere else.
If it's too offensive for tv, it's no less so for Broadway, or anywhere else.
Fact is, the whole show is unfit for tv, Broadway, Hollywood, or the furthest reaches of the Milky Way.
Maybe PBS should choose works that are in no need of "cleaning up." I pity the unsuspecting audiences who will tune in to this thing. Luckily, they can change the channel easily from the comfort of their easy chairs to something more culturally enriching like an infomercial, or the QVC network.
astromiami
Understudy Joined: 7/12/12
#6Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 8:07am
You may not be aware, but standards for broadcast television is very different than other media.
The lyrics in Falsettos are not anything anyone would find offensive. The changes seem to be places where characters say "s***" or "f***." (It is a little silly that we cannot even use the terms here!)
Falsetto's weakness is how hard it tries not to offend anyone, while dealing with subject matter that seems to demand a more aggressive approach. That is why these changes seem so weird.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#7Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 8:22am
"The lyrics in Falsettos are not anything anyone would find offensive."
Not true. I found many of them offensive.
"The changes seem to be places where characters say "s***" or "f***." (It is a little silly that we cannot even use the terms here!)"
Maybe you should think about the reasons why you cannot use the terms here. And then you might think as well about the propriety of using those terms anywhere. Actually, if you stop using them altogether, you would be a lot better off, as would certainly be those who wouldn't have to hear them!
#8Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 9:42am
I don't really agree that we should necessarily be protected from curse words or individual words that are stronger than pleasant ones. Mores change with time, and words that are considered too strong or offensive in one time are sometimes viewed in a more relaxed fashion in later times, while sometimes the opposite happens, and words used as slurs in one time can be abandoned in later times when more people feel that using a slur is a bad/cruel thing to do.
I remember a discussion on the Carousel movie commentary about how Oscar Hammerstein had to change some of the lyrics to Soliloquy for the movie compared to what was in the stage show, and in my opinion, it made the movie lyrics less impactful than those in the stage show. The most silly example was replacing "I'll try, by God, I'll try" with "I'll try, I'll try, I'll try". It not only made the new lyrics sound a bit repetitive, but it removes the impact that comes from the idea that this person who didn't seem particularly interested in goodness "finds God" or appeals to 'God' in trying to turn things around, so great is his resolve to try to become a decent parent. It's a more powerful sentiment than the three "I'll try"s back to back, in my opinion. And replacing "I don't give a damn what he does" with " I don't give a hang what he does" just sounds weird and unnatural, rather than like something the character would have actually been likely to say.
It would be considered perfectly fine in movies now to have the original lyric, but it wasn't 50+ years ago. The same thing may eventually happen later with Falsettos, as societies evolve to because less scared of the "s" word or the "f" word as unpleasant ways of expressing something. Sometimes people's emotions are unpleasant, and being able to express those emotions with accurate words is nothing that we as a society should be afraid of.
#9Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 9:47am
haterobics said: "They should just clean up all of that potty talk from the beginning, and then there'd be no issue!"
I figured when posting this that After Eight's non-joking version wouldn't be far behind... 
#10Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 9:49am
After Eight said: "
Fact is, the whole show is unfit for tv, Broadway, Hollywood, or the furthest reaches of the Milky Way.
"
That's not a fact, that's an opinion. You have so many of them, would think you'd know the difference. But you are you, after all.
"Broadway...I'll lick you yet!"
#11Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 9:49am
They are just words, After Eight, if you are so fragile you can't bear to hear them, then go sit in your play pen and watch TMC.
Again, you seem to want theater to aim very low, to aim to do nothing but spellbind an audience into a vague sense of well-being. At the prices Broadway now charges, I'd recommend a Xanax or two instead.
But no less an authority than Shakespeare argued that theater should "hold ... the mirror up to nature". In real life lots of people use four-letter words and did so before the advent of mass media. Some theater should reflect common usage of language, certainly.
#12Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 10:00am
I understand the need for censoring on PBS, but why make "boring as ****" to "flat as a lake"? Who says that? Why not just "boring as hell"?
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#13Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 10:12am
I assume these lyric changes are ultimately a reflex of FCC controls on broadcast content. Those controls are and always have been a blatant assault on the First Amendment, and need to be killed by the Supreme Court.
#14Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 10:13am
I guess they remembered how dumb it sounded to bleep Sweeney Todd.
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#15Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 10:17am
Falsettos has already been bleeped on the radio broadcast in the early 2000s and it sounded ridiculous.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#16Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 10:38am
"Mores change with time, and words that are considered too strong or offensive in one time are sometimes viewed in a more relaxed fashion in later times"
Obviously, at least as of today, mores haven't changed to the extent that these words are considered acceptable. Otherwise, they wouldn't be be expunging them for tv, nor would asterisks and dashes be used instead of letters when printing them.
Let's avoid them entirely, and do what little we can to prevent our already-coarsened world to be even coarser still.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#18Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 10:42am
Once upon a time, PBS didn't censor programming. Naughty language was broadcast as is. And then the GOP got all huffy and puffy over TALES OF THE CITY because "ewwwwwww, faggots!" and that was the end of that.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#19Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 11:04am
After Eight said: "...Obviously, at least as of today, mores haven't changed to the extent that these words are considered acceptable. Otherwise, they wouldn't be be expunging them for tv, nor would asterisks and dashes be used instead of letters when printing them.
Let's avoid them entirely, and do what little we can to prevent our already-coarsened world to be even coarser still.
"
Oh, mores HAVE changed, which is one reason so much of the TV audience is watching HBO or SHOWTIME where such arbitrary restrictions aren't in effect.
Broadcast standards are dominated by a relatively small number of complainants, who pretend to represent large numbers of viewers. The current restrictions represent political pressure, not general mores.
That certain words are blanked out here is also the decision of a relative few, who no doubt want the boards to appeal to the widest possible audience. (I mean that in a good way: they want to be inclusive; I'm not suggesting the decision is a commercial one.)
Children under 12 probably shouldn't be watching FALSETTOS anyway, unless they are very precocious; adolescents over 12 already know the word s*** and f***.
As for theater in general, how about we embrace language of all kinds, high and low, sacred and vulgar? The result can only be a richer art form.
#20Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 11:06am
GavestonPS said: "Broadcast standards are dominated by a relatively small number of complainants, who pretend to represent large numbers of viewers. "
I suspect you're talking to one of them right now.
AfterEight offers such a fantastic catch-22: if the words weren't vulgar, they wouldn't be censored. But they're vulgar, so they should be censored.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
Updated On: 1/6/17 at 11:06 AM
#21Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 11:08am
"Oh, mores HAVE changed, which is one reason so much of the TV audience is watching HBO or SHOWTIME where such arbitrary restrictions aren't in effect."
Yes, and why younger people often don't even HAVE a TV service and just plug in their Netflix/HBOGo/Amazon.
Don't know who is being protected by changing several words in this show.
#22Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 11:09am
If the lyric changes are the necessary compromises to get the piece aired on national television, I don't have a problem with it. I would hope they would have done a second take with the original lyrics however, in the event the show is ever re-broadcast on cable or made available for home purchase.
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
#23Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 11:11am
Kad said: "GavestonPS said: "Broadcast standards are dominated by a relatively small number of complainants, who pretend to represent large numbers of viewers. "
I suspect you're talking to one of them right now.
AfterEight offers such a fantastic catch-22: if the words weren't vulgar, they wouldn't be censored. But they're vulgar, so they should be censored.
"
Can see AfterEight (in my mind sort of a conservative Quentin Crisp, if you can imagine such a person) typing those To Whom It May Concern at NBC letters on a Smith-Corona Super Silent with a glass bowl full of hard candies that have been stuck together since 1987 nearby.
#24Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 11:15am
Kad said: "I understand the need for censoring on PBS, but why make "boring as ****" to "flat as a lake"? Who says that? Why not just "boring as hell"?
"
My guess is Finn wanted to rhyme with "Please, God, don't let me make the same mistake." a few lines later.
After Eight
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
#25Falsettos Lyric Changes For PBS
Posted: 1/6/17 at 11:16am
"Oh, mores HAVE changed...
As for theater in general, how about we embrace language of all kinds, high and low, sacred and vulgar?"
If they've changed so much, then why do you still make the distinction between "high and low," language, and still deem some language "vulgar?" Ultimately, the corrosive, corrupt elites would like to eradicate all such distinctions. Thankfully, good sense still prevails, however precariously. You can talk until you're blue in the face, but vulgar words are vulgar; respectable people don't use them; respectable people are rightfully offended by having to hear them; and respectability and respect for others are concepts that still exist, should always exist, and must always exist if we're to have any kind of a decent civilization.
