MTV: Music Television has launched an anti-violence campaign along the lines of its 1992 “Choose or Lose’’ election coverage and last year’s “Free Your Mind’’ campaign against racism and intolerance.
The “Enough is Enough’’ campaign includes public-service announcements, special shows, and MTV News coverage about the impact of violence on young people.
Meanwhile, MTV is re-airing a half-hour special about youth violence, “Generation Under the Gun,’' for taping by teachers. It is being shown at 4 A.M., Eastern and Pacific times, every Monday through March 28.
The special examines why teenagers carry guns and how they get them, as well as efforts to combat youth violence.
Teachers can obtain additional materials from MTV’s Community of the Future, 1515 Broadway, 23rd Floor, New York, N.Y. 10036; (212) 258-8699.
Home Box Office will bring back its “Lifestories: Families in Crisis’’ series next month with the first of six new episodes.
“More than Friends: The Coming Out of Heidi Leiter’’ is the story of a high school senior who decides to tell her family and classmates that she is a lesbian. The half-hour show makes its debut at 9:45 P.M., Eastern time, on March 7 on the pay-cable channel.
Other “Lifestories’’ episodes examine a high school football player’s use of steroids, a Philadelphia boy’s efforts to aid homeless people, a priest’s sexual abuse of an altar boy, and teenagers’ troubles related to drug abuse and drug dealing.
The dramas are all inspired by real-life stories.
News-release headline of the week: “Nickelodeon to take over Baltimore-area middle school.’'
Was it possible, given Baltimore’s experimentation with private management of public schools, that the children’s cable channel was getting into the school business, too?
But the “takeover’’ was short-lived.
It was only for a day last week that Nickelodeon “took over’’ Marley Middle School in the Baltimore suburb of Glen Burnie, Md.
A Marley student was the grand-prize winner in a Nickelodeon contest, which brought several stars from the cable channel’s shows to the school on Feb. 17. The school received a videotape collection called “Mr. Wizard’s Science Library,’' and televisions and videotape recorders worth $10,000.
--MARK WALSH
