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<\/p>\nRUSH: Did you watch the finale last night? Not the finale. (interruption) You didn\u2019t…? (interruption) Do you watch Game of Thrones? (interruption) You watch it last night? (interruption) Okay. (interruption) Well, so I won\u2019t do any spoiler alert. Oh, one thing I do want to say. For those of you who haven\u2019t watched it yet, I\u2019m gonna try to give you some assistance here. The entirety of the episode… It\u2019s an hour and 22 minutes. Virtually 85% of it is battle action. Of course, “Winter is Coming,” “the Night King…”<\/p>\n
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It all takes place at night, and there have been many complaints from people today and last night that it was too dark, that they really couldn\u2019t see who lived, who got killed or died, couldn\u2019t keep up with their favorite characters. Too dark. Couldn\u2019t keep up with their favorite characters. A lot of people are claiming that HBO blew it by shooting it too dark, and one of the theories is that by shooting it dark they didn\u2019t have to focus on detail so much. That\u2019s not what happened. I\u2019m gonna tell you what happened here, folks. It\u2019s a common mistake.<\/p>\n
The people that produce this show produce this show as though it is a movie, and where do you watch movies? You watch them in a darkened theater on a giant screen with a very bright projector. But how many of you turn every light in your room at home off, put blackout shades on the windows, and make your living room the equivalent of a movie theater? My guess is that none of you do, or very few. I did. I watched it in pitch black, which I have the ability to do because I\u2019ve set it up that way. I\u2019m a forward-thinking guy.<\/p>\n
But if you watch… Even if you have a big TV, if you 55-, 60-, 75-inch, whatever, TV, if there\u2019s any ambient light in the room… They didn\u2019t edit it. I think they made a mistake. I think they edited it as a movie. It\u2019s almost a feature length. And make sure that your source material is good. For example, some people were watching digital streaming last night, and if you watched it live digital streaming, then you were among the gazillions trying to, and the stream might have been degraded enough that you would also lose some quality.<\/p>\n
So if you haven\u2019t yet seen it, make sure you choose a source that\u2019s good — cable, DirecTV — something that produces a solid signal. If you\u2019re gonna watch it streaming, you could probably do that now since the big crush is over, but make sure you\u2019ve got a really rock-solid connection if you want to see it in full-fledged 1080p. If you do that and if you darken your room, then don\u2019t blow up the brightness or contrast on your TV. You can do that too much and then it all starts bleeding together. But if you haven\u2019t yet watched…<\/p>\n
This is a public service here from one inside broadcaster to plebes.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/APP-042919-Game-oF-Thrones-RUSH.jpg\")
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If you haven\u2019t yet watched it, make sure your room in which you watch it is dark as you can make it and… (sigh) Well, I wouldn\u2019t advise recalibrating your set, but if your set has preconceived settings that automatically mix the brightness and the contrast and the color level and the tint and the color temperature, choose “cinema” or “THX” or something. Don\u2019t choose “vivid.” Whatever you do, don\u2019t choose “vivid.” That\u2019s not how you overcome darkness. A lot of people choose the “vivid” setting \u2019cause it makes it as bright as it can be. They turn the contrast all the way up.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s been the only complaint about it that I\u2019ve run across.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: Adam in St. George, Utah. Thank you for holding, and welcome to the EIB Network. Hi.<\/p>\n
CALLER: Hey, Rush, it\u2019s a privilege and an honor. I\u2019ve always wanted to talk to you. Thanks to my awesome parents who always taught us truth, I\u2019ve been listening to you in the past 25 years. So thank you. I just had a quick comment, slash, question for you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Yes.<\/p>\n
CALLER: You were talking about Game of Thrones earlier. From what I understand there\u2019s — and I know it\u2019s a highly entertaining show. I don\u2019t watch it myself, but from what I understand I think almost most of the episodes have a pretty gnarly kind of porn scene in it, so I\u2019m wondering when families get together, people get together and sit down over a bowl of popcorn and that comes on, what happens, like what do you do, Rush? I\u2019ve always respected you.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, there is —<\/p>\n
CALLER: I know it\u2019s an awkward question.<\/p>\n
RUSH: No, no, no. This is a great Open Line Friday question. You can throw anything — it\u2019s what I tell \u2019em on Fox — throw anything you want at me. I don\u2019t care. I am totally informed. I don\u2019t equivocate. I know exactly — but, you know, I got a problem here, Adam. I\u2019ve got 10 seconds left. But I\u2019m gonna answer this. I\u2019m gonna answer. I\u2019m gonna say thank you for calling, but I\u2019m gonna answer it \u2019cause I know exactly why you\u2019re asking it. I\u2019m not gonna run away from it.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
RUSH: We\u2019ve had some very complimentary callers today, and I never want to appear as though I take that for granted. I don\u2019t. I appreciate all of it. And I thank you tremendously for it. Telephone number, if you want to be on the program\u2019s 800-282-2882.<\/p>\n
So Adam, St. George, Utah, \u201cI understand Game of Thrones is highly entertaining, perhaps well done, but, man, Rush, the smut, the pornography, the profanity. I mean, how do you gather the family around and watch that stuff?\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, A, I do not have any crumb crunchers, so that isn\u2019t a factor. And it never has been. By the way, folks, when I talk about these shows, I\u2019m not pushing them. I\u2019m simply acknowledging I watch them, and I know a lot of people do. I mean, my comments earlier, the reason this got started, the Game of Thrones episode last night was one for the ages in terms of just what it took to make it. It was ambitious.<\/p>\n
But it was bloody and gory and it had just yuk stuff throughout it. But as a professional achievement it can\u2019t be denied what it was. But it was, to a lot of people — and no spoilers here, don\u2019t worry — a lot of people that watched, it was just too dark. They complained while it was on, “I can\u2019t see anything here, why did they do this?”<\/p>\n
And I was explaining, to those of you who haven\u2019t seen it, I think they edited the episode last night the way movies are prepared. Movies are colorized and texturized and processed, assembled to be watched in a pitch black room where the only light is the screen. Very powerful projectors, digital processors now. But how many of you watch television that way?<\/p>\n
Very few people make your room as dark as you can make it. How are you gonna find the joint you\u2019re smoking or the beverage that you\u2019re consuming or any of that, so you have some light on in the room. Some even, you watch it, depending time of day, might have late afternoon sunlight streaming in. But you\u2019ve got some lamps on or ceiling lights. And who knows what kind of reflections on your TV screen from that light.<\/p>\n
But the more brightness in your room, the less contrast your screen is gonna have. And I think HBO — I\u2019m just guessing — I think they edited and processed this episode for people who would watch it in a movie theater because it was hyped and presented as a feature length episode, meaning movie length. It wasn\u2019t quite that, but it was close. It all took place at night where the only ambient light was fire, moonlight, and candles.<\/p>\n
I think another reason why they filmed it in such darkness was to create a tension. The more trouble you have hearing or seeing something, the odds are you\u2019re gonna have even more focus trying to keep up with it. But I think they also wanted to make it kind of tough to follow as to which characters were killed and which survived \u2019cause it was tough to tell.<\/p>\n
So if you haven\u2019t watched it yet, make sure that your source is good, meaning don\u2019t watch on a low quality stream. Make sure it\u2019s high quality, 1080p, and make sure your room is dark. And on your TV, you know, find the preset for cinema or THX or something, but do not turn on vivid. That\u2019s just gonna wash all the black out. As to the content, I realize that — I mean, I love Ray Donovan. And I\u2019m telling you, folks, there\u2019s nothing more perverse than that show. I mean, that is just straight up and down depravity. It\u2019s so depraved, it\u2019s funny.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/raydonovan.jpg\")
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If you think your family\u2019s a mess watch one episode of that show and you\u2019ll be thankful for any family problem you\u2019ve got. Now, I\u2019m not a student of acting, either, so I don\u2019t watch these, “Wow. That was a great job of acting.” I\u2019m becoming a little bit more aware of that as I grow older, but I watch television for a host of reasons.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons I play golf is I\u2019m thinking about nothing else. It\u2019s the perfect escape. For four hours or however long it takes, you\u2019re thinking about nothing else. I don\u2019t know about you, I need that. I get the same thing with watching television shows.<\/p>\n
Now, not all the shows that I watch are depraved. One of my favorite shows is Blue Bloods on CBS, which is one of the most wholesome — in fact, I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s on CBS. Friday nights at 9 o\u2019clock, Tom Selleck\u2019s show. And there\u2019s not an element of it that would make you turn it off or not watch it with your kids.<\/p>\n
As far as this depraved stuff, you can\u2019t avoid it anymore. And condemning it, I\u2019ve been that route. I\u2019ve done that. There have been countless efforts over the years by politicians\u2019 wives and first ladies to have even more of a warning system for bad language and things that children shouldn\u2019t see, lyrics in rap and rock music, and it\u2019s always been met with laughter and you\u2019re just a bunch of prudes and so forth.<\/p>\n
In fact, let me tell you this, just to give you an example. This is not a hype. I\u2019m just giving you information here. Apple realizes that the product that has made them a trillion-dollar company has reached market saturation. That\u2019s the iPhone. I mean, the days of exponential growth have been reached because pretty much everybody that has or wants a premium smartphone now has one.<\/p>\n
So the game now is convincing people to upgrade them. Well, most people don\u2019t buy a new one every year especially now when they cost anywhere from 800 to $1,300. And they\u2019re made so well that people are holding them for two and three years now. And now that you can replace the battery in a 3-year-old phone and make that phone essentially brand-new, a lot of people are doing this.<\/p>\n
So the sales of iPhones — and it\u2019s not just Apple, but they lead the pack here, they\u2019re leveling off. They have to find other sources of revenue now if they want to maintain the P&L and the market cap and all that. And they\u2019ve decided to do it with services, which means subscribing to a bunch of apps. And these are recurring expenses. Subscribing to Apple News, Apple Music, subscribing to various publications.<\/p>\n
Now they\u2019re gonna add a streaming service, Apple TV+. And they\u2019re going to go the original content route, in addition to providing other networks like HBO, Epix, Showtime, you name it, and you\u2019re gonna pay incrementally for whatever networks you want, but there\u2019s already a whole bunch of these streaming services out there.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/APP-050218-Apple-Store-001.jpg\")
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So Apple hopes to differentiate theirs with their original content. And they\u2019ve hired some really top rate Hollywood writers, producers, and actors and actresses to star in these original shows that they are at this moment producing, the streaming service is supposed to announce — well, supposed to debut in the fall, the new content is. The actual TV app and streaming service is in beta now, and it\u2019ll debut next month, in May.<\/p>\n
But, guess what? There are complaints galore from all of the producers and writers they\u2019ve hired because Apple wants it all to be family friendly. That is Apple\u2019s reputation now, that they\u2019re family friendly. There\u2019s nothing pornographic, there\u2019s nothing depraved, nothing controversial in that regard about Apple other than maybe some of their social stances. But in their products, they emphasize privacy, they emphasize any number of things that are family oriented.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve carved this out as a marketing niche and now some of these people they\u2019ve hired are claiming that their programming is dull and boring and my God, it\u2019s horrible. And that Apple is riding herd over the producers, making sure there\u2019s not a bunch of smut in this stuff.<\/p>\n
And the tech media is saying that Apple is automatically guaranteed to fail here because they\u2019re not gonna be producing what American audiences want. American audiences don\u2019t want the Hallmark Channel, they don\u2019t want wholesome stuff, this has been demonstrated, they want the smut, they want the escapism and all that. So we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n
I mention this only to tell you that Apple apparently has made a decision that they can\u2019t out-smut HBO or Netflix. I\u2019m using “smut” as a general term. They can\u2019t out-controversial programming or sex, language, all this stuff. They\u2019re going the family route. Not quite the family route. They\u2019re going some adult, but there isn\u2019t gonna be any gratuitous violence or sex supposedly, and they\u2019re getting creamed for it, by the media, tech media. Tech media is saying, \u201cApple, bunch of old-fashioned, they can\u2019t do this, they\u2019re making iPhones this way, but they can\u2019t make TV content like this. It\u2019s never gonna sell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, we\u2019ll see. But they clearly think there\u2019s a market for it. You know, it is what it is. I think, folks, when you watch this — I\u2019m not a child, and I don\u2019t bring children in to watch this stuff with me. And I know full well it is not — I\u2019m old enough and mature enough that I\u2019m able to keep that stuff — I can watch it, I can let it in, I can process it, but it\u2019s not gonna make me leave home and want to do that stuff that\u2019s depicted on screen.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019m able to have boundaries and that stuff, I can watch it and that\u2019s all it is, is pure fantasy on a screen. I don\u2019t live in it. I don\u2019t fantasize about it. But I\u2019m not a kid, either. And those of you that have kids, this stuff is a problem. And a lot of it you shouldn\u2019t watch with kids unless you have a really solid relationship with them and you can talk to them about things like this. But even that, for some of this content, would be a risk.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/APP-040918-Rush-Talks-TV-Shows.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the way entertainment is going. The boundaries are constantly moving in terms of what is permissible. For example, folks, there is a four-letter word that means urinate, begins with P, ends with S. I hear it everywhere now. I hear it on radio. It is common on television. I would never utter it on this program unless I\u2019m quoting someone, and even then I would get queasy about it, maybe because I\u2019m old-fashioned or old or mature, what have you. But that\u2019s not it. Just it\u2019s not necessary, so why say it?<\/p>\n
But my point is it\u2019s becoming common, whether you want to call it the degrading of culture or the decline. Whatever you want to call it, it\u2019s happening. And it used to be that you couldn\u2019t, in a prime time TV show, a husband and wife like Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke slept in separate beds. You couldn\u2019t even put \u2019em in the same bed. And if you did, they were in pajamas or whatever, but they were never in bed in the bedroom.<\/p>\n
Now of course it is the exact opposite. So does this stuff have its own detrimental effect? A lot of people think that it does. But it isn\u2019t gonna clean up any time soon. The trend is the way it is. And it\u2019s called realism and why hide that from anybody? The old stuff was what was artificial, portraying things on TV that never happened, meaning Ozzie and Harriet or Donna Reed and her family, they weren\u2019t real.<\/p>\n
So if you can watch this stuff and have it stay on the screen and that\u2019s it — in fact, if some of it disgusts you, that\u2019s fine, but you can\u2019t access very much prime time video entertainment these days without exposing yourself to that. It is what it is.<\/p>\n
Let me take a break. See, I told you I was gonna answer the question, and I guess the cop-out is I don\u2019t have kids. His real question, \u201cWell, how do you watch it with a bunch of kids?\u201d Don\u2019t have any, so not a challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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