NBC series has joke about school massacres

Actress Debra Messing attends the NBC Network 2014 Upfront presentation at the Javits Center on Monday, May 12, 2014, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — School massacres apparently will be fodder for humor in a new NBC prime-time fall series.

During NBC's schedule preview to advertisers on Monday, the network ran a clip of "The Mysteries of Laura," a new series that begins this fall starring Debra Messing. Messing plays a homicide detective, and one scene shows her recoiling after rushing into a schoolroom where the walls and windows are smeared in bright red.

She says: "This is a depraved, unspeakable act."

Then comes the scene's punch line: her character's two children, also covered in red, had gotten a little wild with paint during an art project.