Award-winning actor Tom Hanks was on ABC’s Good Morning America when he slipped into a role he played in a recent movie. The result was an inadvertent f-bomb and a disappointed reaction from the Parents Television Council.
Hanks was sitting with Elizabeth Vargas when the incident occurred.
Both Hanks and Vargas apologized for the slip-up. Hanks jokingly blamed ABC’s staff for giving him a hand-held mic.
ABC told Access Hollywood, “This morning Tom Hanks accidently used an expletive during a live interview on ‘GMA’ with Elizabeth Vargas. They both immediately apologized on air, and the show was corrected for the all subsequent feeds.”
According to an article from CelebrityCafe, PTC also reacted. It called the incident just one more in a similar string of incidents that have allowed the harshest language into American homes during the morning hours. It said the networks have to step up and make sure it never happens again.
RBR-TVBR observation: What harm, exactly, has been done, and how much should be invested to protect against this harm? It cannot be proven that any harm has been done. Without such proof, it really is ridiculous spending millions of dollars on preventative measures.
Hanks slipped up, like many before him. It was fleeting and inadvertent – a mistake. It did not turn America into a nation of zombies. It did not turn the children who may have witnessed it into depraved lunatics.
Most importantly, the previous slip-ups did not encourage network program executives and on-air entertainers and newscasters to start peppering their language with f-bombs and the like.
For PTC, this seems to be one of the biggest issues in on earth.
Sorry PTC – for most of us, this is no big deal at all. If anything, it actually humanizes Tom Hanks and makes us admire him a little bit more. And in the final analysis, we have many many more things to worry about – including everything from the state of the economy right on down to whether or not we have all the ingredients we need to make tonight’s dinner — than this insignificant little incident.
