http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/01/business/fi-abcfamily1
Disney executives say the drama and similar shows are in sync with the realities facing many American families. Critics say such programs don’t belong on a channel with the word ‘family’ in its name.
February 01, 2009|Meg James and Dawn C. Chmielewski
The TV series “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” opens with a 15-year-old girl coming home from band practice, reaching into her French horn case and pulling out a home pregnancy test. Her horrified look confirms the results.
No less startled are some parents whose children watch the ABC Family cable program that revolves around the sex lives of high school students. The titillating themes, in their view, are out of place on a channel with the word “family” in its name — especially given the chaste image of its owner, Walt Disney Co.
But “Secret Life” has become ABC Family’s biggest hit and one of the most popular shows on cable, drawing an average 3.8 million viewers an episode. With depictions of teens rolling out of bed, a father peppering his daughters with questions about their sex lives at the dinner table, and a troubled boy revealing that he had been molested by his father, “Secret Life” represents a coming of age for a channel founded by evangelist Pat Robertson to spread the Gospel.
Welcome to Disney’s new take on the American family.
Along with shows such as “Greek,” set in the belly-shots-and-wet-T-shirts world of college fraternities and sororities, and “Lincoln Heights,” a drama about growing up fast in a crime-ridden Los Angeles neighborhood, Disney says it has reshaped ABC Family into a channel more in sync with the realities and anxieties facing many American families and teenagers.