Opening her garage to help

MacNeal’s own kids could be considered youth, even though they are all in college, but she still cares about the welfare of all children, said Shannon Muscat, a member of the Parents Television Council.

In 2005, MacNeal became the director of the Los Angeles Foothill chapter for the council, which is a nonprofit, nonsectarian, nonpartisan organization that encourages the entertainment industry to have more appropriate programming for children. They also teach parents about prime-time broadcasts so they can make educated decisions about what they’re children are watching, MacNeal said.

In her own home, she has blocked certain channels from her cable satellite television, such as Playboy, MTV and BET, among many others. Her family has an interest in the sciences and often enjoys watching the Discovery Channel, but sometimes she needs to block that one, too.

“Once a year during November, the Discovery Channel does a presentation that I block called ‘The History of Sex,’” she said. “If you don’t have it blocked typically and your 10-year-old son decides to watch it at the same time, there could be some problems.”

The council has 1.4 million members worldwide, with more than 200 members in MacNeal’s chapter, MacNeal said. One of the most recent endeavors of the council is what they call “Cable Choice.” It has been proposed to the Senate, Congress and the commission. The effort would allow consumers to only pay for the channels they order, instead of paying for all the channels, including the ones they don’t want to watch, she said.

Muscat doesn’t have cable because she doesn’t have the choice to only pay for the channels that she wants her family to watch.

“Just because I want to buy the Disney Channel, it doesn’t mean I want MTV to come along with it,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to pay the cable company for channels that I don’t want.”

Muscat was inspired by MacNeal to take an active role in trying to effect some positive change for the sake of all children, she said.

She looks up to MacNeal as a woman with integrity and a caring nature that is contagious. MacNeal attributes it to the genes passed down from her grandmother.

“She had to have a lot of fortitude, passion, commitment, energy and inner strength — what she called was moxie,” MacNeal said.