The success of MTV's 'Sweet 16'...

It's not the responsibility of MTV to put a higher grade of TV on the air, but it is the responsiblity of parents to not give this type of trash a large audience.

MTV is simply off limits in my house. It's getting to the point where I'm wanting to get rid of the TV altogether.

Another example of the decay discussed in this recent post, here's a piece of the latest from Brent Bozel:

Sweet Sixteen, Buried in Greed

The current king of bad “reality” TV concepts has to be MTV, with dreadful shows like “Date My Mom,” where a young man dates three mothers first to figure out which daughter he wants to date. But one real stinker of a show is called “My Super Sweet 16,” in which extravagantly rich and bratty teenagers are awarded lavish 16th birthday parties from their embarrassingly servile parents, who ought to be too ashamed to show their faces on television, except shame for them is an entirely foreign concept.

It goes without saying that teenagers in general today are generally wealthier, heavier, lazier, and often times sleazier. MTV’s “Sweet 16" preys on this sloth and delivers role models for it. After watching these punks gorge themselves on conspicuous consumption, children watching probably want to emulate them, while their parents, if they watch, would want to slap these brats into the next zip code.

MTV follows the spoiled teenagers around town as they plan their overweening celebrations costing as much as $200,000. They gloat over how their parties will display their greatness, obsess over who can come (and more importantly, who cannot), whine, cry, and fight with their parents, and traipse through fancy auto dealerships trolling for their first cars. The show’s producer, Nina Diaz, explained to the New York Times that ego trips and extravagance are required. "We're looking for the parties to be over the top, and we're looking for originality," she explained.

The teen divas on the show aren’t all female – one of them was the son of top soul-music producer L.A. Reid – but the girls seem to relish the pouty-brat role more So we’re exposed to insufferable Marissa, who had her poodles dyed pink, and Daddy bought her not one car, but two. He fools her by getting her an SUV, and then in the end, he also gives her the blaze-red sports car she badly wanted. My zany Daddy!


But that was chump change. Priya, a 16-year-old Indian-American in Texas, planned to enter her party during an elaborate procession led by elephants. Priya received a Mercedes convertible and an assortment of diamond jewelry for her birthday. Her older sister Divya's graduation gift package included a Bentley, diamonds and two homes in India. "I was really surprised," said the sister, "because I was only expecting a Bentley and one house."

MTV knows that this spectacle of self-indulgence will have viewers coming back each week for another dose of outrage. Every one of these shows ought to end with a serious spanking. Maybe for the parents as well as the teenagers. But MTV would only find a way to spin another reality yarn out of that, too.

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