Marya Mannes: “Well I was going to use the word roughage to describe what is so terribly needed on Television, which is a bland diet, and which these interviews do provide. But there is another area which I think you were probably going to throw at me ultimately, and that is when somebody is interviewed purely for the sake of sensation or prurience, like . . I want to say a Private Detective working on a confidential case or let’s say, a strip teaser or something. This is done, not to stir controversy, not to stir excitement, but to appeal to the Peeping-Tom instinct in human beings. And that I think is exploitation . . .”
Richard D. Heffner: “Well, why do you say not to stir excitement? That’s why I picked up what Mr. Seldes said, because I had the feeling that it was the excitement, that kind of roughage that . . “
Gilbert Seldes: I meant the excitement of the mind, not . . ."
Mannes: “Intellectual excitement. This is a different . .what I’m talking about is . . uh, well it’s very hard to say the word on television, but it is an excitement of the senses and not very good senses.”
Seldes: “I’m defending the Peeping-Tom instinct in the human frame. I go that far. I think I’m defending the satisfaction of sheer curiosity.”
I don't think in the 1950s we had all that much to worry about. I mean, The Kardashians hadn't even been invented yet.
