[DesScorp]

I think HBO is jumping the shark here. They're doing hard core porn, and yet the actors are protesting that they're not porn stars, they're serious actors. Well, not anymore. See that "adult DVD" section in the back of your big city video store, mam? That's you now. You're a porn star.

[AU72]

Jane Alexander doing hard core porn on HBO?!

I'll pass.

[mewzilla]

HBO’s owned by Time Warner, ain’t it? If so, nuff said.

[traditional1]

There’s no outcry from the FCC; they’re too busy building the “Fairness Doctrine” to muzzle talk radio......

[BurbankKarl]

Californification on Showtime is equally disturbing.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Ratings equal money. There is no where U.S. mass media, if unrestrained, won’t go in search of a dollar. Jerry Springer proved that.

[gondramB]

This is series with plot plus explicit content rather explicit content wrapped in fake plot. As an HBO subscirber I'm happy to them put on shows that would be censored on network TV. They also release censored versions for people who want less.

Here is a promo

Tell Me You Love Me aka SexLife ~ New HBO Series Sept 2007

[capt. norm]

They have been trending in this direction for years.

After learning the hard way, I block them on our cable whenever my 91-year old mother visits. A few visits back, she was clicking the remote thru the channels and I still don't know what she saw as I wasn't there at the time but it did shock her.

* She doesn't shock easily...when she was 88 she took her "410" shotgun and killed what turned out to be a rabid skunk coming up the back yard.

[andy58-in-nh]

...the first episode finds a woman (Sonya Walger) in her 30s masturbating her husband (Adam Scott) to orgasm...

She's only doing to him what HBO did to their entire audience for the last Sopranos episode.

[Pistolshot]

Even Jane Alexander — yes, that Jane Alexander, the snow-domed, regally poised 67-year-old former chief of the National Endowment for the Arts — drops trousers for some frisky senior sex

Only one word for this.

Ew.

[Yossarian]

Ah, Sonya Walger. She was previously on NBC's "Coupling", which got this write-up from USA Today:

•Coupling (NBC). This comedy (a copy of the BBC hit) about the dating adventures of six thirtysomethings is viewed as a potential breakout hit. But its pilot is raising eyebrows with steamy references to oral sex, "porn buddies" who hide each other's porn stashes and sexual dalliances in public restrooms. NBC says Coupling is already paying off with advertisers: 90% of the commercial time for the show's first season is sold, an NBC spokeswoman says.

So it looks like she's been working up to this porn gig.... Regarding "relevant parts", well, she's got them, but along with a butterface:

[SengirV]

I don’t think the author knows the definition of masturbation.

[HitmanLV]

In retaliation, you have to begin to wonder what Skinemax will do?

[WOSG]

Slouching towards Gomorrah , pt VIII

“Even Jane Alexander — yes, that Jane Alexander, the snow-domed, regally poised 67-year-old former chief of the National Endowment for the Arts — drops trousers for some frisky senior sex”

I can’t think of any better response than ...

Jane, you ignorant slut!

[Williams]

HBO already has plenty of trash, Showtime seems worse from what I read about it.

"RealSex" is absolutely crass and disgusting. That "Taxicab" filth is supposed to be critically acclaimed?

But I'm still waiting for the public outcry after seeing Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie giving people enemas and then watching them poop. Things have gotten bad out there, folks.

[Political Junkie Too]

I remember watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson many years ago, when Gregory Peck was on. They were discussing the recent port trial of John Holmes, when Peck said: "You know, someone once asked me that and I said the day that Laurence Olivier drops his pants on the screen is the day that I will support adult actors, and then I saw the movie The Betsy."

I guess a lot has changed with the Hollywood Old Guard these days.

-PJ

[grundle]

When I first read about this show in the newspaper, I checked wikipedia to see if there was an article on it. There wasn't, so I started one.

If this show becomes a huge hit, then millions of people will read the article that I started!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_Me_You_Love_Me

[ozzymandus]

The only thing HBO has had for many years that was of any interest to me was “The Sopranos”, and that ended with a whimper, not a bang. I cancelled the day after their finale, snice most of HBO’s other programming is junk and old (not recent)movies.

[this is my name not yours]

Free your mind - get rid of your TV. Cutting yourself off from the sewer pipe was the best thing I’ve ever done.

[Tanniker Smith]

I guess the real test will arrive when the first season’s DVD is on sale everywhere ... except Blockbuster and WalMart.

[Caesar Soze]

They canceled Rome for this? O tempora, o mores.