CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #578
In the 1980's, Ronald Reagan deregulated children's TV programming. This allowed large toy companies to finance the production of thousands of hours of shows that were designed to sell toys. Rather than be educated and/or simply entertained, this very vulnerable audience could now be exploited for financial gain. Bad for kids, but good for me. Reagan's mostly unheralded policy shift created an enormous demand for scripts, which allowed me to get my first job in television. In a matter of months, I went from struggling musician to gainfully employed scriptwriter. My life dramatically changed for the better, (comedically changed for the better?), because a Republican president decided the pursuit of profit need not be hindered by the common good. I've always felt a bit ambivalent about this. For many years I've wondered if my success came at a price. Were children growing up in the 1980's somehow harmed by the cynical, thirty-minute commercials that suddenly engulfed the after-school hours and all of Saturday morning? Well, wonder no longer. If thirty-two-year-old, White House advisor Stephen Miller is any indication, the damage done to some of those kids was deep and irreparable.