The FFPF puts the "friendly" in family-friendly programming

I've liked the Family Friendly Programming Forum ever since I learned about them. The FFPF is a coalition of over 40 major advertisers who help fund the development of family-oriented programming, a project started out of frustration with the choices these advertisers saw when evaluating the TV schedule.

Rather than complain from the outside, the FFPF became a part of the process. The first FFPF-supported show to make it on the air was Gilmore Girls, a show that was intelligent and challenging while still meeting the FFPF's goal to see more shows that are "appropriate in theme, content and language for adults and children (that) has cross-generational appeal, depicts real life and resolves issues responsibly."

I don't see the FFPF mentioned often, so I usually stop to read any article I encounter about the group. Today, I learned that the coalition met one of its original goals: to have at least one family-friendly program every night from Sunday to Friday. More interestingly, however, I learned that the current list of FFPF-supported series includes Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters, two of the strongest shows for gay visibility currently airing.

When you think about it, both shows make perfect sense as shows on the FFPF's list of family-oriented shows. On Ugly Betty the importance of family is a constant theme, whether that be the Meades' strained bonds (best seen in Daniel and Alexis' on/off kinship) or the way we see the Suarez family stick together (particularly in how Hilda makes accepting their son just as he is a requirement to Santos re-entering her life).

Similarly, family bonds drive the Brothers & Sisters of the Walker family to turn to one another in times of stress (best seen in the show's trademark scenes where the sibs trade a flurry of phone calls). On both shows, your family is who you're expected to turn to in tough times, and the message is that famiiial bonds help us make the right choices in the end.

There are a lot of things to like like about the FFPF -- starting with their acknowledgment that "family" and "gay-friendly" aren't mutually exclusive terms. Their proactive stance is also a sharp contrast to groups that spend their time looking for TV shows to condemn. And perhaps more importantly, when I hear of a show that the FFPF has supported (their involvement stops if a pilot becomes a series) it's often a show I make a point to catch, and generally like.