ABC Family to be renamed Freeform

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Maxirad said:
tvguide.com/news/abc-family-to-change-its-name-to-freeform/

Um, does this mean that the channel will stop showing The 700 Club?
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The “becomers”? What are they becoming?

Unfortunately the shows I watch are filled with ads for denture cream, nursing home abuse lawyers, etc. Methinks I am in a different demographic.

This channel was originally the “Christian Broadcasting Network”. They changed the name to Family Channel, but still owned by CBN. When they sold it to ABC, I think one of the conditions was that they continue showing the flagship “CBN” show, The 700 Club. I don’t know how long that clause will last.

I know people poke fun at Pat Robertson, but back in the 1970s he pioneered an enormous breakthrough in religious TV. People like Bishop Sheen had been on in the 1950s, but that was only one show, by permission of CBS; later syndicated, with a much smaller audience. What Pat Robertson did was to integrate TV and radio into his own total networks, independent of the secular media. In my city CBN had their own local radio station, their own call in counseling center. They attracted many Catholics. Like other para-church, non denominational organizations, found it easy to attract an initial following, but hard to sustain long term.

Bishop Sheen could never get his own series on CBS today, but he could get on EWTN, which was, to some extent, patterned after CBN (not in doctrine, but comprehensive organization). A quick prayer for Pat might be appropriate.
 
Wow, never would have guessed it was originally CBN. ABC Family and their “new kind of family” is one of the reasons we got rid of cable/satellite TV a couple yeas back. It seemed the only ads I saw for the network were for shows that seemed to glorified teen pregnancy and LGBT relationships. My wife and I decided if that is the “new kind of family” then we weren’t interested in what media companies were selling. If nothing else atleast people won’t be duped into thinking that the station has any family content.
 
What a shame that a once family oriented network has decided to embrace fornication, sodomy, selfishness, and vanity.

I’m glad they are dropping the family part though because they are no longer family friendly, instead they are becoming a home for the seven deadly sins.
 
Advertisers aim for the very young demographic because those are the people most susceptible to advertising. Older people are more set in their spending habits.
 
DaddyGirl said:
I can’t find one sentence in that article that expresses anything remotely like that.

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Just look at one of their most popular shows, Secret Life of the American Teenager. Based on seasonal synopsis, the first 3 seasons had teenage girls that get pregnant. There are friendships that grow between girls that cheat on each others boyfriends (which seems to be common in the show). I beleive one of the main teenage characters also comes out as gay in one of the seasons.

Another one of their shows, The Fosters, featured two homosexual 13 or 14 year olds boys kissing.

The message they send is regularly having sex, getting pregant, and your first homosexual experience by the age of 15 is all part and parcel of being a kid. It isn’t something unfortunate, but just part of growing up. Add that to the show Pareenthood, where one of the kids gets his girlfriend pregnant and then she has an abortion because it will ruin her chance at college and it sends a pretty nasty message about growing up and making good and bad choices.
 
DaddyGirl said:
I can’t find one sentence in that article that expresses anything remotely like that.

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Just wondering if you watch commercials? Lots of commercials are pushing fornication, adultry, gluttony, and many of the other deadly sins… in addition to lying and disrespecting authority… The message may be subtle… (or NOT) but it’s there…
 
According to this article, the channel will continue to air The 700 Club. As for the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living was never a CBS show. It aired on DuMont and then ABC.
 
Maxirad said:
According to this article, the channel will continue to air The 700 Club. As for the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living was never a CBS show. It aired on DuMont and then ABC.
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Always better for me to spend 30 sec on Wikipedia rather than trust to memory. 🙂
 
DaddyGirl said:
Surely, but these shows have been airing for 2, 5, and 7 years…they are not inspired by the name change announced yesterday.
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I would agree it has nothing to do with changing the name. It really has more to do with what they promote to their “becomming” target demographic.
 
DlandFan06 said:
Freeform? Free form what? IS ABCFamily gonna be an arts channel now? What kind of name is “freeform?”
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I could brainstorm with a friend and come up with a better name in a couple of minutes.
 
DaddyGirl said:
Surely, but these shows have been airing for 2, 5, and 7 years…they are not inspired by the name change announced yesterday.

I loathe commercials. But again, the OP and the other poster are talking about the TV shows on the network, I believe, not the commercials.

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II believe that they are talking about the commercials for the shows. I occassionally watch that channel for movies with my nephew. There are LONG breaks with ads for the shows that the channel airs. I would agree it is all about sex alternate families disfunction… I haven’t watched the shows but we see the ads for them and laugh that it was the FAMILY network
 
I was extremely happy when I heard that Melissa Joan Hart had a new show coming out on ABC Family. Imagine how naïve I was to think that it would be a “family” show based on the nature of the star/executive producer and the name of the network. How wrong I was. From the first episode with filthy language to the season finale when Mel and Joe end up in bed together without benefit of marriage, that was the point where I gave up. I couldn’t resist looking in on the series finale a few months ago, and found nothing but anti-family, baby-hating sentiments mouthed primarily by the teenage girl but also by Hart. It’s puzzling in the extreme that they even felt the need to get married, other than pandering to a certain demographic.

Hart’s personal life as a happily married Christian with three boys belies the roles she crafts for herself. She is beyond needing to find work in Hollywood and simply compromising her values to this end. She is actively seeking out roles that demean her as a woman and wife and mother. It is a shame she became part of the Hollywood machine at such a young age, because she could have turned out to be a model Catholic woman.
 
commenter said:
The “becomers”? What are they becoming?

Unfortunately the shows I watch are filled with ads for denture cream, nursing home abuse lawyers, etc. Methinks I am in a different demographic.

This channel was originally the “Christian Broadcasting Network”. They changed the name to Family Channel, but still owned by CBN. When they sold it to ABC, I think one of the conditions was that they continue showing the flagship “CBN” show, The 700 Club. I don’t know how long that clause will last.

I know people poke fun at Pat Robertson, but back in the 1970s he pioneered an enormous breakthrough in religious TV. People like Bishop Sheen had been on in the 1950s, but that was only one show, by permission of CBS; later syndicated, with a much smaller audience. What Pat Robertson did was to integrate TV and radio into his own total networks, independent of the secular media. In my city CBN had their own local radio station, their own call in counseling center. They attracted many Catholics. Like other para-church, non denominational organizations, found it easy to attract an initial following, but hard to sustain long term.

Bishop Sheen could never get his own series on CBS today, but he could get on EWTN, which was, to some extent, patterned after CBN (not in doctrine, but comprehensive organization). A quick prayer for Pat might be appropriate.
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Look up ABC Family’s old show, “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” Sex was dropped from the title. Enough said.
 
From Christian to family to a freeform free-for-all. There’s a social commentary in there somewhere… 😛
 
Elizium23 said:
I was extremely happy when I heard that Melissa Joan Hart had a new show coming out on ABC Family. Imagine how naïve I was to think that it would be a “family” show based on the nature of the star/executive producer and the name of the network. How wrong I was. From the first episode with filthy language to the season finale when Mel and Joe end up in bed together without benefit of marriage, that was the point where I gave up. I couldn’t resist looking in on the series finale a few months ago, and found nothing but anti-family, baby-hating sentiments mouthed primarily by the teenage girl but also by Hart. It’s puzzling in the extreme that they even felt the need to get married, other than pandering to a certain demographic.

Hart’s personal life as a happily married Christian with three boys belies the roles she crafts for herself. She is beyond needing to find work in Hollywood and simply compromising her values to this end. She is actively seeking out roles that demean her as a woman and wife and mother. It is a shame she became part of the Hollywood machine at such a young age, because she could have turned out to be a model Catholic woman.
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Well said. Thank you.

Ed
 
Luckily I can just find out how to block programming on that channel…it’s just a pure filth channel now.
 
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