YEAR IN REVIEW 1995 : The Year That Hollywood Became a Punching Bag : Want a hot button? '95 had a million of 'em: violence, sleazy talk shows, Tha Dogg Pound, Joe Eszterhas. Are you (and Bob Dole) ready to ring out the old yet?

By Robert W. Welkos

Dec. 31, 1995 12 AM PT

Robert W. Welkos is a Times staff writer

In Bosnia, the issue was not that people were going to too many violent movies. This was not a factor.

--Sean Daniel, producer

It was a year when the arts braced for a Newt-ron bomb and Hollywood got hit with blasts of cold air from Kansas Sen. Bob Dole . . . but the real taste-makers remained, as always, the ticket-buying public.

It was a year when Time-Warner sold off a profitable recording label, Interscope Records, because of a flap over gangsta rap lyrics . . . but little controversy ensued when Interscope released its most controversial album of the year, “Dogg Food,” by Tha Dogg Pound.

It was a year when TV “trash talk” brought calls from the nation’s former drug czar, William Bennett, and two U.S. senators to tone down the programming--but by year’s end, the shows still fed the viewing public a steady diet of shouting matches and sordid tales of sex and violence.

And what year would be complete without shock jock Howard Stern? One minute his employer agreed to pay the federal government $1.7 million to settle more than 100 claims of indecency involving his radio shows, and the next, 15,000 people showed up for his autograph on a book in which he coyly posed on the cover in eyeliner and falsies.

Throughout 1995, entertainment and the arts remained at the vortex of a raging public debate over values. And as the new year dawns, almost nothing about the debate has been settled. If anything, the decibel level could increase as the November presidential election draws nearer.

But there seems to be a widespread feeling in the entertainment industry that things could have been worse.

Senate Majority Leader Dole made nationwide headlines when he characterized gratuitous violence and sex in movies, TV shows and rap music as “nightmares of depravity.”

As the year ended, Dole kept up his attack when a New York subway worker was killed by arsonists. Dole stood in the Senate chamber and compared the attack to a scene in the movie “Money Train.”

But even his critics had to concede that Dole had not advocated government censorship. And police later downplayed the connection between the subway arson attack and the film.

“I don’t think [Dole’s criticism] had a chilling effect on the business,” said screenwriter Gary Ross (“Dave”). “People understand that it was pretty cynically motivated because he has to cater to the right wing of his party.”

Besides, even many in the entertainment industry believe movies and television and rap music do impact the popular culture, do have an effect on children, and that gratuitous violence should be avoided.

“I think there is a very good argument that the American public is over-saturated with violence--but not because Dole is attacking us,” said Tom Pollock, the former head of Universal Pictures who now occupies a top position at the studio’s parent firm, MCA Inc.

Pollock pointed out that Universal’s most successful movies of 1995, such as the PG- and PG-13-rated releases “Casper,” “Apollo 13,” “Waterworld” and G-rated “Babe,” were devoid of gruesome violence and mindless sex.

Sex, In fact, wasn’t an easy sell at all. Two much-hyped films by “Basic Instinct” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas--the NC-17 rated “Showgirls” and R-rated “Jade”--went over poorly with the public.

Producer Sean Daniel (“Tombstone”) said filmmakers and studio executives increasingly wrestle with how much violence and sex, if any, should be in their films.

“This is not some scramble to react to Bob Dole or Bill Bennett or even Bill Clinton,” Daniel said. “I think there is this combination of mercenary and moral reasons that people are dealing with it.

“I think there is no question that the industry and everyone who is involved in the process feels an increasing weight--as they should--about how much of the culture they have a hand in,” Daniel added.

While Hollywood saw Dole’s remarks as politically inspired, the industry faced the sobering realization that many Americans shared the senator’s concerns.

The Times Poll found that 71% of Americans surveyed sided with Dole--including many young people, liberals and African Americans. And 61% of Americans believed that entertainment was getting worse and a majority of those surveyed believed that Hollywood did not share their values.

If there was any comfort that Hollywood could take from the survey, it was that more than half of those polled said they saw a greater danger from govern ment censorship than from hurtful entertainment.

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, addressing a November meeting of Christian communications professionals in Miami, said, “The temptation to seize upon movies and television as alien intruders debasing us is overpowering. Particularly for politicians. Why? Because politicians, in their zeal to confirm themselves as noble guardians of the national ethic, find assaults on visual entertainment to be immune to political risk.”

The tone for the current debate had been set with the 1994 congressional elections.

Hollywood’s sizable liberal community rejoiced in 1992 when Bill Clinton and the Democrats regained the White House after a dozen years of Republican occupancy. But the jubilation stopped two years later as Republicans took power in both houses of Congress for the first time in four decades.

Liberals in the entertainment field suddenly found their Democratic allies on Capitol Hill in the minority. Many feared what would be wrought by Dole and new House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.).

Congress soon went to work whittling down taxpayer support of the arts. The National Endowment for the Arts saw its staff cut by about half and its 1996 budget substantially reduced, while Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) pushed through language in an NEA funding bill that prohibits the arts agency from funding art that “denigrates religion” or depicts “excretory or sexual organs or activities.”

An old staple--sex and violence on television--also drew the attention of Congress, with lawmakers proposing that TV sets come with a “parental choice chip” or “V-chip” that would prevent children from watching shows that parents found objectionable. The lawmakers have also called for TV to institute a voluntary ratings system.

These proposals come at a time when the networks have eliminated the so-called “family hour”--the hour between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. that was traditionally given over to family fare--and scheduled shows with stronger themes, particularly sex.

Meanwhile, the networks argued--and studies backed them up--that prime-time programming has less violence than past years. The real culprit, according to network executives, were cable TV channels that show movies unedited.

While movies themselves were outside the jurisdiction of lawmakers, some studios came in for scorching criticism because of the controversial films they released.

One of those was Miramax Films, a risk-taking independent that believed in pushing the envelope even after it had been bought out by the family-oriented Walt Disney Co.

In April, various church groups and religious organizations decried Disney and Miramax for releasing “Priest,” a film about a homosexual cleric.

Two months later, Disney refused to distribute the NC-17-rated movie “Kids,” photographer-turned-director Larry Clark’s graphic portrayal of sex-obsessed homeless New York teens. Miramax decided to set up an independent releasing company, Excalibur Films, to distribute the film.

Nowhere did the waters roil more than in music, where critics lashed out at gangsta rap lyrics that glorified violence and degraded women.

Time Warner eventually bowed to pressure and sold off Interscope Records, which catered to gangsta rap, while at the same time the corporation squeezed out executives Doug Morris and Danny Goldberg, who were seen as free-speech advocates in the industry.

As 1996 approaches, both Morris and Goldberg are again powerful players in the music industry: Morris is new chairman of MCA Music Group while Goldberg is president of Mercury. Michael Fuchs, the key figure at Time Warner who forced their departures, was himself fired last month.

As the election year arrives, the music industry is bracing for more controversy. Rapper Tupac Shakur is coming out with his new album on Interscope-distributed Death Row Records and Snoop Doggy Dogg (another Death Row/Interscope artist) is currently on trial for murder in Los Angeles.