Chinese TV balks
at airing ‘Friends’

updated 3:11 p.m. ET Jan. 19, 2004

BEIJING - The hit American sitcom "Friends" may prove too risque for Chinese television.

"I had thought (the show) focused on friendship, but after a careful preview I found each episode had something to do with sex," Qin Mingxin of China Central Television’s entertainment unit said in an article on the Web site of the Communist Party’s People’s Daily.

"The attitudes of the six close-knit young friends ... cannot be generally accepted by Chinese audiences yet," Qin was quoted as saying this past week.

All television in China is government-controlled, and CCTV had planned to begin airing "Friends" this year. Staff are trying to edit out the sex talk, but "we will face many problems in translation and abridgment," Qin said.

"Friends" is already popular in China, and counterfeit DVDs of are available on the country’s streets.

MORE FROM TELEVISION

Television Section Front

‘Desperate’ Susan does time on chain gang Dobbs says CNN departure was ‘amicable’   Univision to make shows available on YouTube Ian McKellen rules in remake of ‘The Prisoner’ Ian McKellen on his new show and Shakespeare Owen reconnects with an old friend on ‘Grey’s’ Ask Ausiello: Answering 20 TV questions NYT: Few women have write stuff for late-night John King to replace Dobbs on CNN Reality TV section Television Section Front   Add Television headlines to your news reader: