Aaron Barnhart's TVBARN.COM

Hello, V-chip — and goodbye

Whatever happened to the V-chip?

Ushered into the world in 1996 by an act of Congress, it was immediately hailed by a host of pro-family advocates and Vice President Al Gore. Behold, they said, a $3 gizmo that will let parents block any TV shows that exceed their personal thresholds for sex, violence and adult language. Set it once and walk away — the V-chip does the rest.

Not everyone was overjoyed by this technical miracle mandated by Uncle Sam. Hollywood cried censorship, while the makers of TVs grumbled about having to install something that actually prevented people from watching TV.

Now, four years later, it looks like the naysayers are having their way. Somehow, the V-chip has become the red-headed stepchild of the television business, ignored and overlooked despite being built into every new TV set sold in the United States.

Read my story in Thursday's Kansas City Star

ALSO:

Not talking, either.

The latest poop on Pets.com v. Triumph

E! Online's Mark Armstrong had a useful insight Wednesday into the lawsuit filed earlier this month — news of which was reported here Tuesday — against comedy writer Robert Smigel by Pets.com on behalf of its annoying Sock Puppet. Armstrong noted that three years ago, the makers of Barney went after The Famous Chicken (aka the San Diego Chicken) for a sketch that mocked the foamy purple dinosaur. A court threw that out, noting that the bit was pure parody, which is constitutionally protected, thank you Luther Campbell. Based on that, argues Armstrong, Pets.com doesn't stand a chance in court.

So why did Pets.com sue? That's still the great unknown. Smigel hasn't commented on the case, and Pets.com's legal eagles aren't answering their voice mail, so it looks like we won't know for a while what was in that letter Smigel sent to the floundering Internet pet-supply concern that was deemed worthy of a litigious rebuttal.

Meanwhile, "Late Night" executive producer Jeff Ross told TV Barn that NBC's lawyers were "still absorbing all this" and hadn't decided whether it was OK for his show to start poking fun at Pets.com v. Triumph. Of course, doing so might lead to another lawsuit, this time against NBC. But Ross said, "We'd welcome it, actually."

EARLIER:

Pick To Click: How Sweep It Is

Got videotape? It's that time of the TV season: the year-ending May ratings "sweep," brimming with blockbusters, "special episodes" of your favorite shows and so many other goodies you'll exclaim, "why don't they put stuff like this on TV all the time?" And despite the coming of "Jesus" to CBS next month, be warned that sweeps are not for the meek or lowly. The networks have shelved series with unsteady ratings in favor of specials or reruns of more popular shows. Hence tonight, ABC brings back its Thursday night edition of "20/20" (ABC, 10 p.m.), having pulled the plug on "Wonderland." NBC has filled its 8:30 p.m. time slot — home to recent dud "Battery Park" — with a "Frasier" repeat. And in a sweeps-month tradition, Fox proudly presents two all-new hours of schlock, "Ghosts: Best Evidence Caught on Tape" and "UFOs: Best Evidence Caught on Tape," starting at 8 p.m.

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The daily digest ... for April 27, 2000: Not sure what to make of this: UPN simultaneously pulled "The Beat" off its Tuesday-night schedule and supplied TV critics with fresh preview cassettes of episodes the network said would be airing in May. The Hollywood Reporter has news of the Tom Fontana-Barry Levinson show's demise. We can only assume that "The Beat" is still part of UPN's "I Dare You!" summer schedule, wherein the network dares to show all unseen episodes of the series it cancelled this season ... Speaking of unseen episodes, "Action" is going to be allowed to die with dignity: Cable's FX network, fresh from picking up another cancelled Fox show — Chris Carter's "Harsh Realm" — announced it will show all 13 episodes of the foul-mouthed insiderish comedy starring Jay Mohr ...

And speaking of insiderish, Rob Feder's column in today's Chicago Sun-Times is dedicated to a Chicago newsreader's thinly-veiled attack on a print journalist — presumably Feder's counterpart at the Chicago Tribune, Jim Kirk — for daring to inquire when said anchor's contract was up. WMAQ's Warner Saunders (pictured), who is 65, thought this smacked of "ageism," so with permission from NBC's newly-appointed diversity chief Deborah Madison, he called back the unnamed print reporter and blasted him. Saunders recounted the incident on Monday at Northwestern's Medill School, prompting Feder to write, "Imagine that: One journalist telling off another for simply doing his job. And then bragging about it at a journalism school." (Here's how the Medill School covered the talk.)

Coming up next ... subject to last-minute changes:
Friday: Reader mail

Previously on TV Barn:
26 April: Fox News Channel rocks; Scully directs "X-Files"
25 April: Pets.com sues over sock puppet
24 April: Earth Day on ABC; Elian on display
21 April: Sinclair shakeup in KC
20 April: Reader mail
19 April: More on "Survivor"
18 April: Second thoughts on Zehme, Takei
17 April: Sitcoms bomb
14 April: Ellen's new show
13 April: Reader mail
12 April: "Freaks and Geeks"
11 April: "Star Trek" protests
10 April: Zehme on Letterman

On this date... in 1991, ABC hatches "Dinosaurs" with a flashback to the events leading to the birth of breakout character Baby Sinclair. "I'm the baby, gotta love me." When Earl (voice of Stuart Pankin) can't afford to buy his Allosaurus wife Fran new cookware, he asks for a raise and is summarily fired by Wesayso boss Sherman Hemsley. He's later rehired, with a new supervisor -- escaped "dinner creature" Arthur Rizzo, voiced by Brian Henson, who's now running the Henson Company for his late father. -- Tom Heald