The FCC has just announced it is fining ABC for broadcasting an episode of NYPD Blue at 9:00pm on February 25, 2003. The episode, like many episodes of that series, featured a scene with partial female nudity. cite
Personally, I think this is wrong. I’ll grant that the FCC does have legitimate powers to regulate program content but I think there should be a time limitation. Community standards change over the years and networks should not be held liable for a show they broadcast today that some future commissioner might retroactively decide is offensive years from now.
Since NYPD Blue was known as the Naked Butt Show (at least by me), anybody know why this particular episode is being singled out? Was it because there was a child involved, or was there something particularly offensive about this butt?
Based on the scanty information I have about the case, I’d agree with the OP. Fining ABC now for something they did 5 years ago seems ridiculous. I also think that anyone tuning into that show should have been aware of the possibility of seeing a naked butt.
My guess is that it was for several reasons: child involved, the fact that she was completely nude (although with obstructed views), multiple views of said butt, etc.
Not saying I agree with the decision, especially this late in the game, but it wasn’t typical NYPD Blue butt fare.
I’m not going to directly link to it, since it’s apparently NSFW if you work at the FCC, but going to YouTube and entering the search term “Charlotte Ross Shower Scene Remix” will get you there.
Ah, thank you. That was a lot… nuder than I expected. And I wasn’t actually expecting the kid and the naked woman to be in the same frame.
Mind you, I still don’t think the FCC needs to protect us from such sights, but it doesn’t surprise me that they would try. The whole five-years-later aspect seems a little weird, but I guess they don’t want future “offenders” saying “But NYPD Blue got away with it!”
The time of the broadcast. NYPD Blue normally ran at 10:00 pm (EST). This episode ran an hour earlier than usual.
ETA: My mistake. I misread the article. The episode was broadcast at the show’s normal time, which is 10:00 pm EST. This means it’s broadcast at 9:00 pm CST and 8:00 pm MST. So the FCC apparently was concerned about the content of this particular scene rather than its schedule.
It wouldn’t have aired at 8:00 P.M. here. Our shows in the MST aren’t aired simultaneously with the East and Central feeds. Shows that run at 10:00 in the East are run here on an hour’s delay so we’ll see that show at 9:00 local time. This applies to NBC, CBS, Fox, and the CW, as well. Cable times will differ from that.
A nitpick, I realize, as it relates to the OP, but only live events, such as sports, would run in the Mountain Zone at the same time as the rest of the country.
The FCC has a long tradition of wielding their power in an arbitrary and malicious way, for example their multiple attacks on Howard Stern. Note that one of the primary reasons Stern fled to satellite radio was because the FCC had just fined him for something they aired several years earlier, and he wanted no more to do with their ability and willingness to capriciously persecute whomever they feel like harassing.
If I had to guess, I’d say somebody having something to do with NYPD Blue insulted somebody in the FCC or their wife at a party or something.
I said nothing about anuses (ani?). The FCC claimed that “common sense” and “case law” indicated that the buttocks is (are)? a sexual organ. I simply imagined someone trying to coax his companion into some rumpery by invoking the authority of the FCC.
A local station broadcast a Rodney Dangerfield movie the other day and, mercifully, fuzzed out his butt when he walked around in a thong, but not when said appalling sight was shown in a Xerox copy. I almost called the FCC but my burned corneas prevented me from dialing accurately and, though the guy I talked to from a DC-area liquor store could understand why I was upset, he could do little to help me, since the very thought of Dangerfield’s naked butt caused him to puke little carrots.