ABloomberg report published earlier this week sheds additional light on Apple’s bold ambitions in its pursuit of creating compelling, original TV content. Specifically, the report cites how the tech-giant is currently at work on a “small slate” of original television shows, which could be ready for debut by as early as 2019.
However, in what appears to be a bid at taking on the traditional slate of Hollywood Hogwash, the report cites that Apple is exclusively aiming to create shows free of the violent, profane, nude and otherwise risqué overtures one might expect of an HBO program, for example.
Instead of creating programs like “Game of Thrones”, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, or “Sex and The City”, however, Bloomberg claims that Apple is aiming to create shows for a “much wider demographic,” such as a prime-time sitcom or family-friendly program on networks like NBC or ABC.
On that note, the tech-giant is said to already be entertaining pitches for new shows — however the company is reportedly declining any offers containing inappropriate content, including its most recent thumbs-down to a series from “Children of Men” director Alfonso Cuaron, starring Casey Affleck.
Is Apple ‘Too Conservative’?
Of course, while Apple’s move to create only kosher content may bode well with parents, Bloomberg unsurprisingly goes on to cite how some Hollywood producers have labeled Apple “too conservative” in its immovable pursuit of shows “completely devoid” of obscenities.
Apple executives expressed how they “don’t want kids catching a stray nipple,” which is at least somewhat consistent with comments Apple CEO Tim Cook made earlier this year amid his company’s delayed rollout of Carpool Karaoke. Back in April, just days before his company was supposed to debut the show on Apple Music, it was reported that Cook demanded cuts to the use of “foul language and references to vaginal hygiene” in the show.
So What Can We Expect From Apple?
Though the company has dabbled in the original content space for a while now, creating shows like Planet of The Apps and Carpool Karaoke to mixed reviews, the company’s first ‘major’ original content endeavor will be a joint project with NBCUniversal to ‘reboot’ Steven Spielberg’s Emmy Award-winning “Amazing Stories” anthology series from the 1980s. The original series, though packed with action for its time, is unmistakably “conservative” in nature; so the remake isn’t expected to include any risqué or otherwise controversial overtures either.
In the interim, we don’t need to look much further than Apple’s recent $1 billion investment — or its laundry list of high-profile hires from Sony Television and cable TV network WGN America — to get excited about what the company has in store.