There’s a show on one of the terrestrial TV channels in the UK at the moment called Anatomy for Beginers. In it Gunter von Hagens (who did the body worlds exhibit) dissects bodies to demonstrate, well, anatomy, along with explanations of how the body works. IMHO, the program is fascinating, but it’s attracted some mild controversy, 'cos:
It shows human bodies being dissected, albeit very neatly and respectfully
they have “live” models on each week who stand there completely naked and have anatomical drawing painted/projected onto them.
It’s resulted in lots of discussion in the lab where I work, so I was wondering…
would this be a bigger/smaller deal if it were shown in the US? Which of the two factors would be more controversial? It’s on at 11pm, and there are warnings before each program, so there’s little chance of anyone seeing it accidentaly.
In the US there have been multiple TV shows about surgical procedures and autopsies, complete with close-ups and color commentary. It’s like a football match for your pancreas.
Naked models are a tad risque but not unheard of for broadcast TV, and would not be a big deal in an educational context. Especially if it were on PBS and there were no advertisers to become righteously indignant. There are naked people of all sorts on cable.
There used to be a show called “The Operation”, on either the Dicovery or Learning Channel, which stepped you through various procedures like heart surgery etc. So it not confined to PBS.
(damn hamsters ate my first post, let’s try again.)
There was or is a show on the Discovery channel called Dr.Somethingorother: Medical Examiner. It basically detaisl a coupel autopsies per show as the doc tries to figure out what killed people. However, in the show, the body is only shown zoomed out, and any organs are blurred out to a huge extent. If they need to simulate the autopsy it self or want to show the body, it’s fake, and says ‘dramatization’ on the bottom of the screen. It makes me curious as to why, since other medical shows have no problem showing the gore. What irks me is that there is a disclaimer saying it contains graphic content, when, in fact,it does not, cause it’s all blurred out.
The Learning Channel or The Discovery Channel (basic cable offerings in most markets) had, a few years ago, a Desmond Morris (IIRC it was Morris - My memory may be fading) show on sexuality that included a couple having intercourse on camera (albeit under covers), graphic close-up shots of various parts of the male and female reproductive anatomy, and even close-up shots of some of the more interesting secondary sexual characteristcs. Not to mention an inside-the-vagina shot of the consequences of male and female sexual climax.
Controversial? Yup. Censored? Nope - they re-ran it a week later.