ha! I just saw this on The Dallas Morning News.There is a link to the clip and check the last paragraph out in the article.
Are you ready for some controversy?04:49 PM CST on Tuesday, November 16, 2004
If you didn't see the skit involving actress Nicollette Sheridan and Philadelphia Eagles receiver Terrell Owens Monday night, perhaps you heard the click of remote controls everywhere as parents frantically tried to shield their children's eyes.
ABC's Monday Night Football game between the Cowboys and the Eagles opened with flirty banter between Owens and a towel-clad Sheridan and ended with the towel, and Owens' jaw, on the floor.
The racy skit was meant to be nod toward ABC's popular series Desperate Housewives, in which Sheridan plays a less-than-wholesome divorcee, but some viewers didn't see the humor in the promotion.
"In a word, disgusting," said Ken Chrane, a Manor, Texas, resident. "I don't understand why ABC feels that this approach makes football any more appealing. ... This type of material has no place preceding a program that is watched by thousands of impressionable children, especially teenage boys."
"Disgraceful" and "pointless, awkward and gratuitous" were some other descriptions offered byDallasNews.comvisitors Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Communication Commission said the agency received "multiple" complaints, but officials would need to review them before deciding whether to take action.
The skit offered a suggestion of nudity, but showed Sheridan from the back. In that respect, it differed from the Super Bowl halftime incident in which Janet Jackson's breast was exposed during what later became known as a "wardrobe malfunction."
Since then, the FCC has taken a harder line about violations of indecency laws. CBS, which aired the Super Bowl, was fined more than half a million dollars for the incident and the 20 stations CBS owns, including KTVT-TV (Ch. 11), got the top fine of $27,500 each.
Last week, several ABC affiliates, including Dallas' WFAA-TV (Ch. 8), refused to show the movie Saving Private Ryan on Veterans Day, citing concerns about graphic violence and possible FCC fines. ABC had shown the film twice previously.
"Ironic," said Arlington resident Dan Schroeder. "WFAA in North Texas declines the opportunity to show Saving Private Ryan due to the language and violence in prime time, then a week later decides that overt sexual innuendo is OK. If you want to be the morality monitor, the least you could do is show some consistency."
National Football League officials didn't seem too pleased by the skit, either.
"ABC's opening was inappropriate and unsuitable for our Monday Night Football audience," said Greg Aiello, spokesman for the NFL, in a released statement. "While ABC may have gained attention for one of its other shows, the NFL and its fans lost."
The NFL and some fans were disturbed by a promotional skit that aired before Monday's football game.ABC Sports issued an apology Tuesday afternoon. It said: "We have heard from many of our viewers about last night's Monday Night Football opening segment and we agree that the placement was inappropriate. We apologize."
WFAA-TV General Manager Kathy Clements said that local affiliates did not have an opportunity to preview the segment. "We saw it for the first time just as you did when it aired Monday night," she said in an answer to viewer e-mail on the subject.
Some viewers, however, said they do not understand why people are so upset about the skit.
"It was harmless and anyone who had a problem with it is overly sensitive and looking for a reason to be offended," Addison resident James Winegardner said.
Said another fan: "Didn't see it. Didn't care. I tuned in to watch the Cowboys play football. Didn't see much of that either."
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