If you grew up in Belgium in the late 80s, you remember a distinct line in the sand: there was serious content (news, school programs, government information) and then there was fun content (cartoons, variety shows, American imports). But in 1991, that line began to blur dramatically.
Phone switchboards at BRT collapsed within two minutes. Elderly viewers reported chest pains. Parents scrambled to turn off television sets. In a famously Catholic Flemish village near Leuven, a neighborhood watch group reportedly gathered outside the home of the BRT station manager, shouting Latin hymns. The Great Shift of 1991: When Belgian Media
In the conservative landscape of the early 1990s, this unfiltered approach pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable for educational entertainment. Elderly viewers reported chest pains
: Masturbation, "playing doctor," falling in love, and sexual intercourse. In the conservative landscape of the early 1990s,
Voorlichting 1991: A Snapshot of Belgium's Entertainment and Media Scene
