That didn't take long

No sooner did Les Moonves announce that some of Showtime's successful original series may be used to plug up writers' strike-paralyzed shows on CBS (a perfectly hideous idea, if you ask me) than the Parents Television Council weighed in:

"CBS' plan is purely based on corporate greed, not what's good for families or in the public interest," said PTC President Tim Winter. "These Showtime programs contain some of the most explicit content on television, period. Yet CBS has no qualms about putting shows that make heroes of serial killers and revel in sick, graphic violence or those that condone drug use and glorify drug dealers in front of millions of children and families on broadcast television. Despite that CBS and Viacom are now 'separate,' CBS is funneling in super-raunchy Viacom-owned premium cable content onto the CBS broadcast network ... It is also another powerful example of why the rules concerning media consolidation must not be loosened."

[Note: Showtime is actually a wholly owned subsidy of CBS Corp., not Viacom. The PTC caught its error and sent a corrected release].

CBS President and CEO Les Moonves mentioned the plan at the UBS Global Media & Communications Conference in New York on Tuesday. He noted that Showtime's serial killer drama "Dexter" was considered a likely contender to lead the charge because the show fits CBS's crime-drama brand (except, of course, that CBS's crime protagonists tend to arrest murderers rather than dismember them).

"Dexter" is winning raves and breaking Showtime ratings records for its current second season. Though the crime drama has pitch black humor and is sporadically gory in a "'CSI'-gone-wild" kind of way, it likely has never been described as "super raunchy."

When I first read about this dumbass idea, it sounded like Moonves was talking about a wholesale move of Dexter to CBS, which would result in travesties like Erik King's ferocious Sgt. Doakes referring to Michael C. Hall's eponymous Dexter Morgan as "you muthaflipper".

I hate to agree with an outfit like the PTC, but in this case I have to: Dexter is just not network television fare; I don't care how much you cut it....so to speak....any more than The Sopranos is. These shows that deal with dark, deeply psychological themes don't belong on broadcast television. They are paced as cable series, written for cable, plotted for cable, and directed for cable. To "clean up" Dexter or The Tudors enough for network TV is to make them unwatchable -- and to give the religious police more ammunition to turn the airwaves even more into conduits for the kind of thin gruel dished out in the so-called "family viewing time."

I for one can't watch The Sopranos on A&E any more than I can watch Goodfellas on AMC. Gangsters curse. Cops curse. They don't say "darn" and "drat" and "flippin'" and "freakin'" and "dog". They say "damn" and "shit" and "motherfucker" and "douche."

And isn't it interesting that adult sexuality isn't regarded as suitable for network viewing, but a serial killer, however appealing and antiheroish he is; and a king who gets rid of wives who don't produce sons for him by any means necessary and beheads or banishes anyone who stands in his way, are perfectly OK.