Diane Delano is one of those “there’s what’s her name” actresses who usually plays tough female authority figures. A couple of her more famous roles would be Maurice’s on-again/off-again sheriff girlfriend on Northern Exposure and Mountain Girl, the ladyfriend of J.K. Simmons’ character in The Ladykillers. The relevance here is that she played Rhonda Vasek, a bailiff who has an affair with married horndog lawyer Douglas Brackman (Alan Rachins) on L.A. Law back in 1987 (I looked it up on imdb because I remembered the actress).
In one episode one of the other attorneys barges into Douglas’s office unannounced and he looks up from the desk where he’s seated with a sort of pained expression on his face and can’t concentrate on the discussion. Later in the scene the interloper (can’t remember who) hears a bump and a woman say “ow” like she’s bumped her head and he notices the soles of the bailiff’s shoes sticking out under the desk.
So there was an oral sex scene (not at all graphic but you knew what was happening) at least as far back as the late 1980s.
There are some allusions to oral sex in the James Bond films.
From Russia, with love:
James Bond: You’re one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen.
Tatiana: Thank you, but I think my mouth is too big.
James Bond: No, it’s the right size… for me, that is.
In Shampoo, Warren Beatty’s character gets a lap full of face from the married lady he was bangin’, when she crawls under the table (while drunk) at some restaurant or other.
(I assume Shampoo eventually got shown on broadcast TV.)
They usually cut the scene before then. In fact, they drop the whole exchange:
*Jackie Shawn: You must be a very important executive. Sid Roth: Well, whatever I am, I could get you whatever you want. Jackie Shawn: Hm?
[points to George] Jackie Shawn: Well, what I really want is to suck his cock. *
Well, there was a scene in Frasier when his former high school crush Lana (Jean Smart) was eating a popsicle. Frasier said, "You know, there was a time back in high school, when I would have paid a thousand dollars to watch you eat a popsicle. "
Lana just looked at him, then bit the end off the popsicle.
Around 1972 there was an episode of Mr. Rogers in which Queen Sarah Saturday wanted to borrow a book from the library but couldn’t find the librarian, Milady Stacks. Telling king Friday XIII about it he merely said “Oh… oh… oh yes… really…”, causing her to tear away the tapestry from the podium he was standing at and learning that Milady Stacks was in fact the king’s mistress. The oral sex was not explicit, only implied, but the implication strengthened when Milady Stacks told the queen “Begging your majesty’s pardon, though my valley hath ne’er been plowed yet my mouth is filled with kingly seed”, culminating in her expelling Milady from her maidens until King Friday solemnly swore to her while holding the relic of St. Augustine of Florida and in the presence of His Holiness Pope Purrie that “I hath with Milady been improperly intimate, I do so yield and and will penance make before God and before my queen, but know that even yet is she a maid and her maidenhead intact and the union hath not been made consummate in such a way as to create progeny”.
Obviously this changed before the 1976 story arc when Milady Stacks bore his bastard Sir Blue Monday, challenged the legitimacy of Prince Tuesday, and drove Queen Sarah Saturday from court as she entered a sham marriage with the king. How many times did I rush in to the house to see how Queen Sarah Saturday, a still regal and arrogant but near penniless exile in Sesame Street, strove to raise and finance a muppet army and stage a coup on behalf of Prince Tuesday without having to promise away half of Make Believe’s revenues. The Fairchilde/Von Count Treaty whereby they reconciled, King Friday XIII agreeing to abdicate upon Prince Tuesday’s 21st birthday and forever remove Blue Monday from the succession, Milady Stacks being exiled to Bemidji, Minnesota (tell me you didn’t have to look that one up on the map when it aired!) and restoring her abandoned jewels in exchange for Queen Sarah Saturday agreeing to DNA testing for the prince and an oath of fealty to him until his education that would result in her immediate excommunication should she again seek aid of muppets, and then just as they are about to swear their oaths and sign she adds in that King Friday XIII must have no other mistresses, but he tricks her by saying “I do solemnly swear I shall never penetrate another woman” then, for the first time ever, winking at the camera… that wasn’t just the first oral sex I remember on TV but damned good educational programming.
At least I think it was Mr. Rogers. Anybody else remember these episodes?
That scene was predated by another L.A. Law moment in which Harry Hamlin is trying to seduce Susan Dey (the romance between their characters was a major subplot through the first few seasons). The camera shows them face-to-face from mid-torso up when his head dips below camera level, she moans for a few seconds, then he raises his head again. I suppose arguably he could have been kissing her tummy, and that’s probably what a lot of embarrassed parents told their curious children that night.
I read somewhere, years ago, that many taboo things on prime time TV were broken a long time ago on the afternoon soaps, including (implied) oral sex. Anyone know if this is true?
In the past few years a couple of soaps have had gay sex scenes. I haven’t watched any of them and I’m sure they end the scene before things get really interesting, but obviously there would be oral sex there since it’s about the one act you can pretty sure all gay couples do (I’m sure there are exceptions, but very few).
Even more explicitly on Friends…Joey is saving his semen for some reason (getting paid as a lab test subject, IIRC), and is in bed with a new girlfriend, who works creating gift baskets. Joey keeps diving under the covers, avoiding PIV sex. The next day his apartment is full of gift baskets.
I’m going to cut Ms. Margulies some slack and assume she misspoke. She meant to say “blowjob” and instead said “oral sex” to try and come off more classy.
If this is the case, and I know I’m assuming a lot here, would she be right? If we eliminate all of the references or allusions to cunnilingus, has a broadcast network show (not a movie or program on a cable channel) actually shown a woman giving, or getting ready to give, head? I can’t think of one. Jokey references or allusions before or after the fact don’t count, I’m talking about actually showing someone getting down to business ready to slob some knob (I keep it classy too!)
The scene from How I Met Your Mother counts. First you see Marshall driving alone, then he gets pulled over. By the time the cop gets there, Lily is sitting upright in her seat. Fairly clear what she was doing.
Juliana is told by the network/show bosses to make a big deal out of the “oral sex” scene.
Juliana does as she’s told.
Reporter calls her (her bosses) on the inaccuracy of the claim.
She reacts badly.
Internet geekery ensues.
Anybody remember when the popular-at-the-time-pretty-much-forgotten-now series Sisters premiered (1991) and caused a huge sensation- in all the papers and on the news- because they talked about orgasms in the opening episode?
Is FX a network? Because in The Shield there was an extremely explicit scene when the police chief had to blow a gangbanger at gunpoint, culminating in the banger taking pics of the chief bobbing for knob with his camera phone, and said pics played a large part in a later story arc as well.
Well, I’m not sure whether that scene (which I cited earlier in the thread) qualifies as “heterosexual”, given that one of the participants was a robot.
I think she’s full of it. I haven’t seen the clip, but I can guarantee it’s implied sex.
The only time you’re ever going to see genitalia on the networks is on PBS or a medical documentary (and even then, an 80-90% chance of it being hidden or censored.)