“State of Georgia” Not Your Family Comedy Show

ABC Family premiered their newest sitcom Wednesday night, State of Georgia, starring Raven Symone in the title role. I was looking forward to this because I’ve always liked Raven’s work. She has great comedic timing and delivers her lines brilliantly. My children have grown up watching “That’s So Raven” and “The Cheetah Girls” movies, so when they heard she was coming back to television, they were pretty happy.

So my eleven-year old son settled down next to me Wednesday night to watch Raven, and it was going along very nicely. We were having fun! Until Raven flashed her boobs at the actor playing the part of a stage director that she was trying to persuade to hire her for his show. Now, you only saw the back view, but it was clear, even to my son, what she had just done. The look on my son’s face was enough to tell me that he was completely embarrassed and didn’t know what to do next. When in the next scene, Raven sprawled across this man’s desk, provocatively waving food in front of the man’s face, my son left the room. Good thing too, because I was fixing to tell him to leave. He had no words.

Now, I understand that Raven is all grown up now and her roles are going to be much more adult than her little girl and teen roles thus far. I get it. But had I known what her character was going to do on this show, I never would have allowed my son in the room with me. In fact, I would have recorded it and watched it late night when he was sleeping. But there was no warning. There was nothing to tell me that some of the subject matter would not be suitable for children. As a mother, I was very angry. So much so that I don’t think I’ll be watching ‘Georgia’. In fact, anything that ABC Family comes up with will be viewed by me first, without my children in the room.

As much as I have enjoyed what ABC Family has offered up this past season and last season, I’m very disappointed. When I take a closer look at the other shows on this station, it’s clear to me that perhaps now would be a good time for ABC Family to remove the ‘Family’ from their name. “State of Georgia” is clearly not a family show and I think it should come with a warning in its opening credits, if this is the kind of content in this series. Bad form, ABC Family.