[Moret:] A watchdog group is accusing the networks of going into the gutter. The Conservative Parents Television Council held a news conference in Washington today to unveil a new study covering 10 years of prime time. The report found the amount of sex on TV more than tripled between 1989 and 1999. It found the amount of violence on TV remained steady over that period, but would have fallen significantly if UPN's WWF Wrestling wasn't factored in. Overall, the group does not like what it sees.
[Brent Bozell, Parents Television Council:] What parents will find on broadcast television today is literally crap, a word that was used 44 41 times during a four-week period last week fall as compared to only five times in 1989.
[Moret:] It's possible the new show "Wonderland" will land on the Parents Television Council's hit list. The gritty one-hour drama is the latest midseason replacement to hit prime time. "Chicago Hope" alumnus Peter Berg has hopped hospitals. He's the executive producer of this new series about a psychiatric ward. Cynthia Tornquist has more.
[Cynthia Tornquist, Cnn Correspondent:] This graphic scene inside a psychiatric ward of a hospital in ABC's new drama "Wonderland" has sparked a controversy that has some mental health advocates upset. [Begin Video Clip, "wonderland"]
[Unidentified Actor:] Very few wrist cutters really go deep, Mr. Matowksi, very few. You went deep.
[Laurie Flynn, National Alliance For The Mentally Ill:] "Wonderland" is a very bleak, very grim and very hopeless picture an extreme picture of mental illness. It's not the reality for most people today, but it reflects the stigma.
[Tornquist:] Laurie Flynn wrote letters to ABC asking they eliminate or edit a suicide scene in the second episode, provide a warning before each episode, and make the public aware that the show depicts only a narrow part of the world of mental illness. [Begin Video Clip, "wonderland"]
[Unidentified Actor:] Can we turn down the volume, please, doctors?
[Tornquist:] "Wonderland," created by former "Chicago Hope" star Peter Berg, deals with the treatment of mental patients. Despite the outcry, Berg is going ahead with the show. Berg consulted with the psychiatrists at New York's Bellevue Hospital during production.
[Dr. Robert Berger, Director Of Forensic Psychiatry, Bellevue Hospital:] Hopefully, this is going to bring mental illness into people's homes in a way it never has before, to get them to understand that it exists, the extent to which it exists, and that it's not as frightening as people actually think it is.
[Peter Berg, Executive Producer:] The subject matter is certainly not for everyone, but after spending as much time as we spent in the hospital, there's no way to candy coat it, there's no way to present it as anything other than what it is.
[Tornquist:] The creators of "Wonderland" spent months at a New York hospital researching the project. Not only did they get to witness electric shock therapy, but they were allowed to interview serial killer, schizophrenics and people who had tried to commit suicide. [voice-over]: Actor Martin Donovan based his character on some of the doctors he met while researching his role.
[Martin Donovan, Co-star, "wonderland":] I feel pretty useless as an actor after I've spent a day with those guys, because the kind of work they're doing, and they're filling, you know, an extremely vital role.
[Tornquist:] "Wonderland" is attempting to shed light on mental illness, a subject that often has been taboo for the tube. Cynthia Tornquist, CNN, New York.
[Sydney:] Friday on SHOWBIZ, "Dawson's Creek" star Joshua Jackson discovers the perils of college hazing in "The Skulls," and this 13- year-old singing sensation is being compared to Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder.