The 5th Time is the Charm

In November of 1968, the rating system was introduced into the film industry. The first version of the ratings went something like this: G, M, and X. The G was for general audiences and the M was for "mature" audiences where parential guidance was suggested. A movie rated R was restricted to anyone under 16. Many peopel were getting confused by between the M and R ratings so they swited it to G, GP, R, and X. Replacing the mature rating with GP (general audience with suggested parental guidance) was sure to ease the confusion among the movie enthusiasts. Nope. The GP was obviously too confusing so, in 1972, they came up with a bright idea of flipping the two letters to make it PG, which stood for parental guidence. These ratings would hold firm until the fourth edition came out in 1984 when PG-13 was introduced. This suggested parental guidence up until the age of 13. The X rating was for adults only. The movies that would earn an X rating would have many mature circumstances such as drugs, violence, and the money maker; sex. The 5th edition of the the ratings eliminated the X rating in 1990, because it was adopted by the pornography business and gave the film makers a bad reputation. They decided to switch the rating to NC-17 which meant that no one under 17 years old would be admitted. I'm glad to see that after 5 attempts, we have found a system that has stood true over the last 13 years.