Posted in: TV | Tagged: one million moms, teachers, tv land

Will The One Million Moms Give Teachers A Third Season?

Published Thu, 16 Nov 2017 22:15:31 -0600

The perpetual FCC headache that is One Million Moms has found its new target, and it's TV Land original programming. Specifically, it's Teachers, a raunchy comedy about a group of teachers who don't always appear to be up to the task of molding young minds.

Thankfully, One Million Moms is here to stand up for teachers. What are they doing? Are they pushing for better pay, education reform, or anything that will actually make the lives of real teachers better? Nope, they just want TV Land to take Teachers off the air because it's "vile" and its advertisements are "vulgar."

The show debuted on TV Land in 2016 after a successful run as a web series by an improv group called The Katydids. Season 1 had some borderline ratings, but Season 2 had a significantly stronger debut and in fact was arguably helped along by the publicity the show received over the Million Mom's first boycott in January of this year.

Here is the full PR sent out by said large amount of moms.

TV Land continues to air the vile program "Teachers" on Tuesday evenings at 10:00 p.m. ET/9:00 p.m. CT with a TV-14 L rating, but the previews air much earlier in the evening when children are likely watching TV. The vulgar advertisements for "Teachers" are airing during shows such as the "Andy Griffith Show" and other family-friendly programs. The previews alone are disgusting, and that is extremely disturbing since it involves a young cast. If the promos are this bad, then obviously the show is not suitable for TV.

It is almost impossible to describe the depth of depravity found in the TV Land sitcom "Teachers." Every scene is filled with sexual innuendos, implications, or encounters.

Teaching is an honorable profession, but oftentimes a thankless job. 1MM wants to support and encourage educators, not belittle, mock, or bring them down as TV Land is doing.

TV Land is encouraging crude dialogue, offensive gestures at school, teachers being cruel to young children, and questioning authority. "Teachers" is irresponsible and an insult to women and teachers.

Take Action

Please use the information we have provided to contact ACT Mouthwash (owned by Chattem/Sanofi) and ask that they pull their financial support from "Teachers."

Like Moms everywhere, the Million Moms have made the classic mom mistake of thinking that telling us something is bad for us will decrease our interest in that thing. Most of us love our moms dearly I'm quite sure, but we all know that this is a well-established Mom blind spot. Telling us something is "filled with sexual innuendos, implications, or encounters" will not make us want to avoid watching this show, Mom. That's just not how it works.

The original Teachers website describes its genesis like this:

I happened upon a few online articles about teachers—studies that cited teaching as one of the most adulterous and most gossip-ridden professions—and yet also one of the most admired professions. I thought that was an interesting juxtaposition. And that led to the concept for TEACHERS: a show about the small and often wildly inappropriate conversations teachers have with each other in the course of their workday.

The Katydids loved the idea and we began working on the scripts in early 2012. Over the course of six months or so The Katydids generated scripts and we interviewed teachers and students alike.

That seems like an interesting take to me, and not particularly disrespectful. It is worth mentioning that the trailer for season two takes a potshot at Common Core, so it does have some good ideas.

Needless to say, this isn't the first Million Moms crusade against a television series. If you've heard of them before, it's because you're privy to one of their numerous assaults on an unsuspecting television program. They've gone after a Disney Channel series over the presence of a gay character. They think the (in my head canon) Always Sunny in Philadelphia spin-off, The Mick, hates senior citizens.

But as we've told you, when Moms tell us that something is bad for us, that often has the opposite effect that they intend for it to have. Teachers almost didn't come back for a second season. It drew very low ratings from its first season, but when the show returned for season 2, the first Mom boycott of the series arguably gave it a little boost in viewership.

One Million Moms did convince Eggland's Best to pull its sponsorship during its first boycott early this year, and despite a noteworthy improvement over season 1, the current season still isn't doing particularly well. It's in the midst of a slow ratings climb again, and one could imagine that a sustained controversy about its content may draw more curious eyes to the series. Those same curious eyes could even like what they see and stick around.

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