TheEveningStar
13-03-04, 17:11
By Joal Ryan
A computer-animated butt appears to be the latest victim of Janet Jackson's right breast.
The cheeky cheeks have been excised from Wednesday's premiere episode of the UPN CGI-comedy Game Over.
Carsey-Warner-Mandabach, the powerhouse production company behind the series, confirmed the cut, and other unspecified changes to the pilot. A spokesman did not know how many total tweaks were made.
Monday's Los Angeles Times reported producers were ordered back to the edit bay by skin-shy network execs.
UPN is owned by media giant Viacom, which also owns CBS, which came under federal scrutiny when Jackson bared a solar-shaped nipple shield during January's Super Bowl telecast.
Game Over is a half-hour comedy starring the voices of Lucy Liu, Seinfeld's Patrick Warburton and Howard Stern regular Artie Lange.
Ostensibly a family sitcom (Liu and Warburton give voices to the patriarchs), Game Over is billed as prime time's first CGI-animated comedy--provided the billing only applies to broadcast networks. Newsday has pointed out that Sci-Fi Channel's Tripping the Rift beat Game Over to the pioneering CGI punch last week.
The Smashenburns, the nuclear unit of Game Over, exist within a videogame universe that apparently isn't too different from the real world's randy sitcom universe.
"There's one scene when the a family 'pet,' a cigar-chomping, foul-mouthed thief, drills a hole into the shower so we can see Mrs. Smashenburn shower. And just when you think, 'No, they won't,' they do--a glimpse of Mrs. Smashenburn's perfectly animated butt," San Francisco Chronicle critic Tim Goodman wrote in Tuesday's edition.
But, in lieu of an uncensored DVD release, TV critics will be the only channel surfers to take note of the posterior of Liu's animated alter ego, with the two-second shot having been removed since review copies were sent out.
The Times said producers were "angered" by the ordered cuts, including the deletion of "a mild scatalogical epithet." The Carsey-Warner-Mandabach rep did not know if Lange, the bad-word-spewing, peephole-viewing pet, had to rerecord dialogue, as the newspaper suggested he might be asked to do.
UPN declined comment Tuesday. It noted only that Wednesday's episode would carry a "TV-PG-L" rating for "infrequent coarse language."
Like many broadcasters, post-Jackson, UPN has been busy guarding against further wardrobe malfunctions.
Last week, the network's official Website did a modesty recrop on photos of its catwalking aspirants from America's Next Top Model.
During the February sweeps, NBC ordered ER to cover up a shot of an elderly patient's breasts.
In post-Jackson radioland, Stern's show has been pulled from six Clear Channel-owned stations; a popular, Florida-based disc jockey has been fired (also by Clear Channel); and live newsmaker interviews have been suspended at Viacom's two Los Angeles news radio stations. Yahooo.com
A computer-animated butt appears to be the latest victim of Janet Jackson's right breast.
The cheeky cheeks have been excised from Wednesday's premiere episode of the UPN CGI-comedy Game Over.
Carsey-Warner-Mandabach, the powerhouse production company behind the series, confirmed the cut, and other unspecified changes to the pilot. A spokesman did not know how many total tweaks were made.
Monday's Los Angeles Times reported producers were ordered back to the edit bay by skin-shy network execs.
UPN is owned by media giant Viacom, which also owns CBS, which came under federal scrutiny when Jackson bared a solar-shaped nipple shield during January's Super Bowl telecast.
Game Over is a half-hour comedy starring the voices of Lucy Liu, Seinfeld's Patrick Warburton and Howard Stern regular Artie Lange.
Ostensibly a family sitcom (Liu and Warburton give voices to the patriarchs), Game Over is billed as prime time's first CGI-animated comedy--provided the billing only applies to broadcast networks. Newsday has pointed out that Sci-Fi Channel's Tripping the Rift beat Game Over to the pioneering CGI punch last week.
The Smashenburns, the nuclear unit of Game Over, exist within a videogame universe that apparently isn't too different from the real world's randy sitcom universe.
"There's one scene when the a family 'pet,' a cigar-chomping, foul-mouthed thief, drills a hole into the shower so we can see Mrs. Smashenburn shower. And just when you think, 'No, they won't,' they do--a glimpse of Mrs. Smashenburn's perfectly animated butt," San Francisco Chronicle critic Tim Goodman wrote in Tuesday's edition.
But, in lieu of an uncensored DVD release, TV critics will be the only channel surfers to take note of the posterior of Liu's animated alter ego, with the two-second shot having been removed since review copies were sent out.
The Times said producers were "angered" by the ordered cuts, including the deletion of "a mild scatalogical epithet." The Carsey-Warner-Mandabach rep did not know if Lange, the bad-word-spewing, peephole-viewing pet, had to rerecord dialogue, as the newspaper suggested he might be asked to do.
UPN declined comment Tuesday. It noted only that Wednesday's episode would carry a "TV-PG-L" rating for "infrequent coarse language."
Like many broadcasters, post-Jackson, UPN has been busy guarding against further wardrobe malfunctions.
Last week, the network's official Website did a modesty recrop on photos of its catwalking aspirants from America's Next Top Model.
During the February sweeps, NBC ordered ER to cover up a shot of an elderly patient's breasts.
In post-Jackson radioland, Stern's show has been pulled from six Clear Channel-owned stations; a popular, Florida-based disc jockey has been fired (also by Clear Channel); and live newsmaker interviews have been suspended at Viacom's two Los Angeles news radio stations. Yahooo.com