TOS on Netflix

[Decius]

Hello all! I'm new to this board but not actually. I was a member here back in 2003 (so nice to see that this board has such a long history and is still thriving), and I later lost ownership of that email account when I moved and canceled my phone service. Anyway, I was prompted to rejoin today by a discovery I made last night.

Netflix currently has the maturity rating on the entire TOS series listed as TV-14, when it should be TV-PG. (Both IMDb and Amazon Prime have it listed correctly.) I had a customer service chat with Netflix this morning, asking them to correct this, and the tech support person told me she'd escalate it with no guarantee that they would be able to change it. Seems like multiple requests from fans may be in order here. It just got my goat when I was trying to watch an episode with my kids and ran into this. I watched TOS episodes one-a-day, nearly every weekday, from ages 6 to 10. (6 PM on KTVU)

 

[BillJ]

It just got my goat when I was trying to watch an episode with my kids and ran into this.

You know what is there, why would an incorrect rating have any bearing on watching it with your kids?

 

[Phaser Two]

You know what is there, why would an incorrect rating have any bearing on watching it with your kids?

Maybe because parental controls had to be removed to watch Star Trek, then reimplemented afterwards?

 

[Henoch]

Beat me to the punch. Parental controls can be set for TV-PG, which blocks TV-14 and up:


The guidelines are as follows. Often content descriptors will be used to specify the type of content in the program.

• TV-Y (suitable for all children)
• TV-Y7 (suitable for children over the age of 7 years old)
• TV-G (suitable for all audiences, equivalent to G)
• TV-PG (parental guidance suggested, equivalent to PG)
• TV-14 (parents strongly cautioned, equivalent to TV-14)
• TV-MA (mature audiences only, equivalent to R and/or NC-17)

The content descriptors commonly seen with the main ratings are as follows:

• FV: Fantasy violence (only used with the TV-Y7 rating for action-oriented children's shows).
• D: Used with the TV-PG and TV-14 rating to denote the use of sexually suggestive dialogue (usually sexual references). This rating is not intended to be used for the TV-MA rating; however, some networks opt to use it.
• L: Used with the TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA rating to denote instances of crude, offensive language (profanity, vulgar slang, racial and ethnic slurs, etc.).
• S: Used with the TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA rating to denote instances of sexual content (including visual innuendo and intercourse).
• V: Used with the TV-PG, TV-14, and TV-MA rating to denote instances of violence.

 

[Decius]

For me, it's primarily just the principle of it, not the practicality. My kids wouldn't be watching it without me there anyway. It's the misrepresentation of what the show is, that irks me. It was network television, not something made for Cinemax.

 

[Spock's Barber]

There should be another content rating.....KN for the times when Kirk is Naughty.

 

[Decius]

Another weird Neflix variation on these maturity ratings is that they also have the content descriptor "Fear", which does not appear at all standard in any list I've seen.

Honestly, I could let this one go. Mainly just wanted to see if other TOS fans found it as irksome as I did.

While I'm on the topic of Netflix, I'm sure you all heard about them dropping TAS at the end of 2019. I suppose that's fair game to discuss here as well, or perhaps it's already been covered on other threads.

 

[BillJ]

While I'm on the topic of Netflix, I'm sure you all heard about them dropping TAS at the end of 2019. I suppose that's fair game to discuss here as well, or perhaps it's already been covered on other threads.

Could be CBS wanted to much to license it? Could be that CBS is going to slowly bring all of Trek in-house under the All-Access banner?

 

[Decius]

Could be CBS wanted to much to license it? Could be that CBS is going to slowly bring all of Trek in-house under the All-Access banner?

Yeah, I think so. I recently watched the 2 seasons of Discovery and 1st season of Picard on CBS All Access. I enjoyed them more than I'd anticipated I would.

I've noticed in recent years (since about 2016) a lot more turnover on Netflix contracts with older TV series (Columbo, Murder She Wrote, The Rockford Files, etc.), which seems like a general trend. The demographic that prefers to live in the past must be rapidly growing!

 

[Kor]

Each provider or network rates the content that they broadcast or stream, as there is no central content ratings body for TV shows equivalent to the MPAA ratings committee/board for movies. Sometimes this may result in the same show having different ratings on different providers. But it seems it would have been simpler for Netflix to just use the ratings that CBS had assigned.

Kor

 

[Lord Garth]

TV-14 is an odd rating to give TOS. Granted, these days, I think if someone even sneezes the wrong way in a film, it becomes PG-13. They want everything to be classified as "teens and up" so people don't feeling like they're watching something aimed at kids. That would be my guess.

PG-13 today is the PG of 30 years ago. And I think the PG of 30 years ago was the G of 50 years ago. If it were made today, The Wrath of Khan would've been given a PG-13 rating for sure.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'm 47 years old and I live alone, so I've never had any need to use parental controls. So, not a battle I need to fight.

PG-13 today is the PG of 30 years ago. And I think the PG of 30 years ago was the G of 50 years ago. If it were made today, The Wrath of Khan would've been given a PG-13 rating for sure.

Absolutely. It definitely has some scary/gory moments.

 

[johnnybear]

Why not just buy the DVDs? That way you could have saved yourself the price of that telephone call!
JB