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Show Television Must Help Families Television has unique potential po-tential for communicating between parents and children but current programming doesn't fulfill that potential, says Fred Rogers, host of the long running children's TV series "Mr. Rogers' Neigh-'borhood." Neigh-'borhood." "THOSE OF us on TV who reach families on a regular basis must consider ourselves as part of the extended family." Mr. Rogers told a recent professional symposium on The Family - Can It Be Saved?, sponsored by the Pediatric Service Institute of Johnson and Johnson Baby Products Company. "THE WAY we television relatives solve our problems on the screen sometimes influences the way our viewers approach their problems," he noted. "But TV programming has an unfortunate un-fortunate tendency to take things out of context. Sex and violence particularly par-ticularly are too often presented as momentary incidents, in-cidents, totally ignoring their ramifications on the participants par-ticipants and those surrounding surround-ing them." MR. ROGERS said it's unfortunate un-fortunate that TV perpetuates this fragmenting view of human experience and affiliation, af-filiation, which influences the stabilityof the family. AS ONE example, Mr. Rogers cited a closed circuit TV project that explains to children and parents what to expect during a hospital stay. "Even when it shows an operating room, television can help families come a little closer just by 'talking about it' in a human context," he noted. |