Fit for the Whole ABC Family?

It's not easy to segue from a 7th Heaven rerun to a shot of a teenage boy lying naked in a forest. Yet when ABC Family recently attempted the feat while premiering teen soap series Kyle XY, the transition was seamless—and it was followed by said boy encountering a couple having sex in a tent. For these and other "family" situations, you can thank a disturbing trend that's emerged over the past few years on the revamped channel, one that's steeped in a convoluted behind-the-scenes history.

Who's the Misfit Now?
If you had never tuned into ABC Family before, the fact that a series about a 16-year-old-looking potential alien began by showing some skin probably wouldn't seem earth-shattering. After all, these days who's not toeing the line in similar fashion and on a regular basis? With its teen-oriented dilemmas and "edginess" (e.g., situations involving sex, drugs or any other vice that's now considered mandatory matter for teen dramas), Kyle XY fits comfortably alongside Fox's The O.C. and CW's One Tree Hill.

One not-so-minor problem, though: It's not on those networks. It's on one that most households blindly accept as family friendly simply because of its name. This is the same cable outlet once called The Family Channel and founded by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson, who wanted to provide programming fit for the whole family as an alternative to the gradual cultural shift toward edgier fare. It was then passed like a hot potato from Robertson to Fox's Rupert Murdoch to Disney's former CEO, Michael Eisner. And it wasn't too long ago that the channel's riskiest move was deciding how long a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers marathon should run.

Not anymore. Not if Kyle XY has anything to say about it.

Kyle is a super-smart yet naive (belly button-less) outsider who gets taught the birds and bees—and then some—by a porn-obsessed ninth-grader after a dozen or so jokes about getting an erection at a public swimming pool. That ninth-grader's older sister, meanwhile, is determined to shed both her "prude" label and her virginity—the latter of which she does by Episode Four. "It's not like I'm waiting for true love," she reasons. And when her mom figures it out, she's cool with it, actually crediting the experience with helping her daughter mature. (She's equally cool with the porn and the partying and the gambling and the Ouija board.)

"It's definitely that WB crew [now CW] that we're going for," admits actor Matt Dallas, who plays Kyle. "It kind of deals with some deeper issues and some real issues. ... There is a lot of family drama."

In the Name of Reality
Real issues. Family drama. Those buzzwords have become the driving force behind not only Dallas' show but the entire new-but-not-improved ABC Family. Weeks before Kyle XY came the bikini-obsessed Falcon Beach, a Canadian import whose teen characters face drug addictions, thoughts of suicide, divorcing parents and the repercussions of immoral choices. And Three Moons Over Milford features a teen Wiccan and her brother who is involved with an older woman.

ABC Family president Paul Lee is OK with all that. Why? It's not in the dramatic delivery system, it's in the resolutions, he claims: "There are fairly racy story lines on Gilmore Girls [which the network re-airs faithfully] and Falcon Beach, but they will be resolved in a way that I would be pleased to have a 17-year-old son or daughter watch. The question is not, What is the subject? It's, Do we deal with it responsibly?"

A New Kind of Family
Sadly, that last question is hardly worth honoring with an answer considering Lee's track record since taking over the reins in 2004. Since his arrival the network has routinely slipped in seedy, R-rated movie such as Cruel Intentions and The Object of My Affection amidst Harry Potter and Home Alone reruns. (They're edited for TV, but the lousy lessons remain.)

At one point, ABC Family's tag was the tongue-in-cheek "We make love ... fun." That must be why Lee's new family "reality" is being ushered in with a steady dose of hot tub scenes, romps in the bushes and Girls Gone Wild-like videos (barely blurred). It almost goes without saying that in such a setting, the tempering influence of strong morality and the absolutes of right and wrong rarely make cameo status, much less take a leading role.

Still, Lee states, "We feel we're doing our mandate here. Families today are different from the traditional television family, and we're not in an Ozzie & Harriet world. ... I'm on a mission to make great television about today's families that reflect real family passions, dysfunction and diversity; stories that reflect real values and real life with an undercurrent of heart and optimism."

"Family drama is alive and well and people are rediscovering it," Lee adds, pointing out that Kyle XY has ushered in the network's highest ratings ever for an original series. "We felt we could take a brand that maybe had looked away from its core word and say, 'Hold on, we can reclaim this word.'"

Lee's series do manage to squeeze in a few positive points about such things as honesty, acceptance and appreciating the moment. But at what cost? If he were talking about reclaiming the word drama, then he'd be well on his way. But unfortunately he's not. Which means the channel once known for trying to slow down TV's slide is now speeding it up.