"Hawaii Five-O Star: TV Needs MORE Violence"

James MacArthur -- soft-spoken detective Danny Williams on CBS-TV’s Hawaii Five-O -- says television should show more violence, not less.

“I’d like to see more blood and guts on TV,” the 40-year-old actor said. “More guys getting their teeth knocked out and their noses plastered across their faces.

“More realistic violence in all its horror ... shown the way it really happens in life. What television needs is more violence, not less.”

Denying that he’s bloodthirsty, MacArthur said he sincerely believes more realistic violence on TV would lead to less real violence in the streets.

“I think if we showed violence the way it really is, people would realize the horror in resorting to violence as a means of solving their problems,” the boyish-looking actor explained.

“They’d be turned off by violence and start to see it for what it is -- a terrible thing.”

MacArthur says today’s TV shows glamorize violence and make it seem like a natural thing to do. And he believes this leads to violence in the real world.

“Violence is glorified now -- presented in an attractive way,” he said. “Guys getting punched, tossed over bars and getting up shaking their heads as though nothing happened. It’s presented as if no one is really hurt. This is a powder puff approach and it’s the completely wrong way to go.

“Kids start to believe that if they hit someone or shoot someone, they really aren’t going to hurt them. That’s because what they’re seeing on TV are attractive depictions of violence.

“If they want to stop violence, they ought to show it, not hide it.

“If kids saw people really getting hurt, they wouldn’t like it. Adults, too -- they’d see violence as negative and unattractive.

“So let’s see a little blood flowing, a few noses splattered, pain and agony, people yelling and screaming. Then see how the viewers like it.”