Showtime!
Cable television presents
R-rated movies at home
By HARRY ESTEVE
Of the Emerald
Sex has always played a
leading role in the entertain
ment business, and in the case
of today’s TV programming you
get what you pay for.
The advent of subscription
cable services has added a new
dimension to family television
viewing — namely nudity and
explicit lovemaking scenes.
Last fall, Teleprompter of
Oregon showed a series of un
edited movies on a Eugene
commercial cable channel as
part of an advertising campaign
for Showtime, its adverti
sement-free subscription ser
vice. One of the movies shown
was “10," a film that won fame
for fledgling actress Bo Derek
with a long scene of her in the
buff.
“10" contained several
shorter nude scenes — most of
them filmed through leading
actor Dudley Moore's tele
scope.
Eugene's response to the
programming was “pre
dictable," says Tele
prompter’s marketing director
George Thorry. After the cam
paign, requests for new sub
scriptions soared, while com
plaints were “minimal."
Subscribers are undoubtedly
attracted to Showtime’s uncut
and uninterrupted R-rated
movies — not necessarily their
sexual content — because
Graphic by Souix Anderson
“most of the good movies
produced are R-rated," Thorry
says.
Teleprompter never screens
the movies it shows, Thorry
says.
“We don’t preview them first.
We pay Showtime for that
product and run what they give
us.”
Complaints usually concern
the time certain movies are
shown, rather than their con
tent, Thorry says.
“We try to show adult R-rated
movies later in the evening," he
explains, "but we can't go too
late."
Most complaints have been
from parents with children who
are worried that their kids may
be viewing "adult entertain
ment” at too young an age.
"Lock-out” devices that
some parents install to insure
the living room TV remains off at
certain hours can be purchased
at electronics stores.
“For as many complaints as
we get for unsuitable material,
we have an equal amount of
requests for heavier stuff."
That does not mean televised
X-rated features are on their
way, Thorry says.
The movie-rating system has
become more liberal about what
it allows in an R-rated produc
tion, but Teleprompter's “mid
dle-of-the-road" may not be
everybody’s idea of suitable
family entertainment.
Last year, the showing of
"Coming Home,” a movie about
a crippled Vietnam war veteran,
caught flak for its graphic
lovemaking scenes. On this
month’s Showtime schedule is a
movie called "Sex on the Run”,
a grade-B box-office flop that
features countless nude
scenes, including a lesbian
love-scene between three nuns.
According to a brochure
published by the Federal Com
munications Commission, sub
scription television services
such as Showtime are free to
transmit any previously-shown
movies. The Eugene Cable
Television Commission, the
local regulatory body, also has
little control over Showtime’s
content.
"We are mainly a complaint
handling agency,” says com
mission chairer Carol Baker.
"Regulating television con
tent begins to get fuzzy,” Baker
says. "Especially where the
First Amendment is con
cerned."
According to Baker, the com
mission has received only one
programming complaint in
recent months, that over the
showing of "Apocalypse Now,"
an award-winning movie about
the Vietnam war. The complaint
concerned the graphic violence
depicted in some scenes.
There have been no recent
complaints over sexual content,
she says.
OSU warehouse will store genetic plant material
CORVALLIS (AP) - A $1.8
million building that will store
genetic material cloned from
fruits, nuts and other crops is
scheduled to open during
dedication ceremonies Wed
nesday, said U S. Agriculture
Department officials.
THOM McAN
IS TALKING
OPPORTUNITY!!
Thom McAn, leader in the field of footwear merchandising offers
excellent opportunities for graduates interested in the field of
retail management.
We've built an ever-expanding organization of over 1200
stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Our plans
are to add 300 more stores over the next three years. This
planned growth along with our present need for talented people
spells OPPORTUNITY—
• to enter our management training program
• to receive promotions based entirely on performance
• to receive an excellent earnings and benefit package.
To find out more about our nationwide opportunities to enter
our "Fast Track” management training program contact your
placement office or send resume to:
DAN WOOD
1213 S. VAN NESS
SANTA ANA, CA 92707
A company representative will be interviewing on campus:
APRIL 28, 1981
'flvcmvVh5:AY\_
A Division of Melville Corp.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer
The $1.8 million Northwest
Plant Germplasm Repository,
the first of 12 such facilities to
be built, will be used to collect
and distribute germplasm, a
genetic material taken from
other plants and used to grow
new ones.
Horticulturist Otto Jahn,
repository curator, said plants
such as fruit and nut trees are
grown from other plants, not
from seeds, to make sure they
have the same combination of
genes.
The germplasm is obtained
from crop plants that are
produced, or cloned, from other
plants using techniques like
grafting or tissue culturing,
Jahn said.
In Corvallis, the repository will
be a national storehouse for
small fruits such as strawberries
and raspberries and for pears,
filberts, hops and mint.
The Corvallis repository was
built with Agriculture Depart
ment funds on land owned by
the Oregon Agricultural Exper
iment Station, which conducts
research for Oregon State
University’s agricultural school.
It is located two miles south
east of Corvallis on the
university’s Lewis-Brown Farm.
Ceremonies will begin at 1:30
p.m. and will include a tour of
the repository.
ASUO candidates to address forum
The candidates in this week’s
student government elections
will address students’ concerns
in a candidates’ forum in EMU,
Room 167 at 12:30 p.m. today.
The emphasis of the forum
will be the problems of the
ASUO programs, according to
ASUO vice president Peg Peo
ples, who is coordinating this
week's elections.
“There has been a lot of em
MARKETING ASSISTANT
RETAIL & FOODSERVICE
Due to expansion, Ore-lda Foods, Inc., one of the
nation’s largest and fastest growing frozen food
companies, has excellent opportunities for Mar
keting Assistants at our Company headquarters in
Boise, Idaho. These positions involve training in all
aspects of marketing. We are looking for MBA’s
with up to two years of related work experience in
either retail or foodservice marketing. We will con
sider individuals with a permanent resident visa.
Competitive salary, liberal benefits, and paid reloca
tion provided. Send resume (including salary histo
ry) to RUDY SANTOS, EMPLOYMENT MANAGER,
ORE-IDA FOODS, INC., P.O. BOX 10, BOISE, IDAHO
83707.
An Equal Opportunity
Employer M/F/H/V
phasis put on funding prob
lems” during the campaign so
far, Peoples says. However, she
says the new ASUO administra
tion will spend very little of its
term of office dealing with the
Legislature, which is expected
to end its session early next fall.
Candidates for ASUO pre
sident, the Incidental Fee Com
mittee, the Student University
Affairs Board, the EMU Board
and the Oregon Student Public
Interest Group s local board of
directors are expected to ad
dress the forum, Peoples says.
University of California,
Santa Cruz
JOIN A WILDLANDS
RESEARCH TEAM
In the Mountain West or Canada
• Wildlife Research
• Wildlands Research
SUMMER 1981
Field Courses, 5 Units
FALL 1981
Field Quarter, 15 Units
Phone (408) 429-2822 or write:
WILDLANDS
RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Cardiff House
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064