[quote name="chipolata" post="5329" date="January 5, 2007, 10:54 AM"]I find it quite worrying that we have to start purging our DVD and record collections if somebody involved was involved in a crime. Does that mean I have to chuck out all my Phil Spector records? And my Sex Pistols albums? Sid Vicious stabbed his girfriend, that's not very nice. Or how about getting rid of any films starring Paul Rueben's because he was once caught jerking off in a cinema? And wasn't one of the cast of Rab C Nesbit convicted of a pretty unpleasant offence? Should I burn those DVD's as well? And who could forget The Naked Gun films starring OJ Simpson? And if you want to talk about child abuse, Charlie Chaplin had a pretty unhealthy interest in underage girls, should he be written out of history as well? Ditto for Jerry Lee Lewis - didn't he marry a fourteen year old?'
There are a few points that I would make about this list.
The first is that many of these people were affected by the accusations that they faced. Jerry Lee Lewis had to go on the run when he married that girl and it did affect how people viewed him and his music at the time.
The second is that several of these incidents are viewed as being much less serious than child abuse. Jerking off in a cinema or even wounding with a knife are nowhere near as frowned upon in this country as child abuse is.
The third point that I would make is that people like O.J. Simpson and the guy from Rab C. Nesbitt only had relatively small roles in what they did. O.J. was in each of the Naked Gun films for about 10 minutes which is very different to the role that Chris Langham has played in the shows he has been in. I'm not saying he is the only star but he is high profile in them. O.J. was also found not guilty in the criminal trial and while many people may not agree with that decision it does make a difference.
The fourth point is that a lot of these incidences happened a long time ago. People are much more concerned with fresh convictions than they are with incidents that happened decades and decades ago.
The two examples that I would cite are Gary Glitter and Jonathan King. Both have been found guilty of sex offences and so are pretty relevant. Now the fact is that Glitter's music is not played on the radio anymore and is not sold in shops. People's opinions have changed towards it and I don't think anybody can deny that.
Jonathan King's case is more interesting because he often worked behind the scenes with bands like Genesis and many others. Now their albums have not been reevaluated because he is not an audible presence on them. But any song which featured his lead vocals would not be played on the radio now I doubt and people wouldn't want to hear it.
Those factors are pretty important I think. If Chris Langham had only worked as a writer or producer on these shows then there would be more chance of them being released. If a fair amount of time passes between a possible guilty verdict and a DVD release then it would be a lot more feasible.
