Posted on 11/14/2014 4:34:44 AM PST by Kaslin
Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Tim Graham.
While Obama's Federal Communications Commission obsesses over liberal concerns like the under-regulation of the Internet and whether "Redskins" is a profanity, broadcast television is sleazier than ever.
As The Hollywood Reporter recently noted, "Nearly two months into the fall, it's clear that explicit jokes and boundary-pushing storylines are changing the definition of what sexual content is acceptable in primetime."
For example, the Sept. 16 season premiere of the Fox sitcom "New Girl" featured star Zooey Deschanel repeatedly muttering "sex fist" as a motto for five friends all succeeding at casual sex after the last wedding of the summer. "Multiple fisting jokes followed," they reported.
"We got away with murder," executive producer Brett Baer told the Reporter after the premiere. "We've given broadcast standards a run for their money." The real question is whether there are any barriers to sleaze, or merely a ban on saying "Redskins."
Over on Fox's "The Mindy Project," nearly an entire episode focused on star Mindy Kaling and her boyfriend debating whether he "slipped" into anal sex. That led to discussions of sexual positions, including the "necktie," the "ascot" and the "bagpipe."
They also mocked the Catholic Church. The boyfriend said he had no intention of going "back door." When he added, "Even if I think about that ... " she shot back, "They promote you to cardinal?"
That's not to say this smutcom approach works for Fox. Both half-hour shows often come in fourth place, far behind the brand new hour-long CBS drama "NCIS: New Orleans."
But producer Shonda Rhimes is dominating ABC on Thursday nights with a trio of hour-long shows. "Scandal" and the new show "How to Get Away With Murder" are currently the top two network dramas among viewers 18 to 49 (and "Grey's Anatomy" is not far behind).
The Hollywood Reporter noted that "Scandal" opened the season with star Kerry Washington and her boyfriend "in an explicit entanglement on the beach." On Oct. 16, Rhimes brought the sex position "Eiffel Towering" -- a threesome move -- to primetime when the daughter of the President of the United States was "caught on tape performing a lewd sex act that many had to Google."
"I have no intention of changing what's happening on Scandal at 9," Rhimes announced in July. "That will be interesting. I look forward to being censored." Except she hasn't been.
On Oct. 30, ABC rankled the Parents Television Council and many others by airing a "Scandal" sex scene just seconds after the "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" Halloween special ended. In the good old days, there were two minutes of commercials between programs. Now they just blur into each other.
At 10 p.m., the Rhymes show "How to Get Away With Murder" has aired almost-weekly gay sex scenes, including one where a character announced after a casual office sex encounter, "He did things to my ass that made my eyes water."
Openly gay executive producer Peter Nowalk told the E! network, "I knew I wanted to push the envelope, especially with the gay sex." It's designed "to right the wrong of all of the straight sex that you see on TV. Because I didn't see that growing up, and I feel like the more people get used to two men kissing, the less weird it will be for people."
The FCC is intentionally irrelevant, and so broadcast TV never stops pushing, pushing, pushing the envelope further into every sexual position and fetish and orientation. They're not trying to protect the children watching Charlie Brown. Tinseltown's libertines want to "educate" the children that every twisted turn of sexuality should be embraced and welcomed.
One Saturday morning I flipped by a rerun of The Golden Girls, a series which I had absolutely no interest in when it was popular.
Five minutes in they hit me with a vibrator joke. This show was produced in 1987. Has been going on a LOOOONG time.
Yup, called "programming"
I don't watch any of those show, so wouldn't know what they contain.
However, I think he's wrong...we turn the channel when it happens.
I always wondered if Ned Beatty fired his agent afterwards.
“””””I emphasize the health risks of sex with the unclean.””””
I don’t know man... once me and my wife (God rest her soul) were four-wheeling in the mud and started throwing mud clods at each other laughing, then I tackled her in the dirt... well, its real deep in the woods where nobody’s around and...
It was pretty awesome.
I miss you, honey.
I actually blame Norman Lear, with his filth starting in the early ‘70’s as the start of it.
People laughed at David Wilkerson when he predicted this in “The Vision” in 1973.
Of course, back then networks ran shows like Cannon and Mayberry RFD. Hawaii 5-0 was about as racy as it got.
The “Greaseman” interviewed him on air one time about that. He said he was getting paid well and the production crew was more upset than he was. He made a lot to do that scene is what he said to Greaseman.
Personally, my solution is just to turn it off. Let broadcast television sink to ever lower depths.
Shonda Rimes.... ugh...That's a man, baby!
I am not surprised the producer is gay. That show has no redeeming value. It may be well written, intriguing, well acted and all that but lying, cheating, stealing, murder, whatever you need to do to achieve victory is the meme. I thought to myself that this is the training ground for Democrat operatives and politicians. There are better ways to fill my time.
It greatly amuses me that my trademark line (”I’d hit it”) made the Freeper Lore Poster cut. :)
The worst one ever was the HBO series, “Six Feet Under”, which featured men kissing every five seconds, rampant feminism, and GOP bashing.
Your post made me smile. And tear up a little.
I had to include it. :-D
An exception- the old classic Three's Company. Key character Jack Tripper becomes roommate to two young women by pretending to be homosexual so the landlord will permit him to stay. There is an object lesson in almost every episode. Jack lies a lot (little white ones, mostly), and the lies always come back to bite him.
Lesson, which should have been learned by a lot of politicos- it's not the misbehavior as much as the coverup.
It’s been a long time coming, but American culture has fully devolved down to a vile, poisonous sewer. Only fit for the degenerates that it helps cultivate.
Remember, though: You were lucky to experience and be with a woman like that. All these years, I got nothin'.
I don't think I need to Google that one. I'm pretty sure I figured it out once a threesome was mentioned.
The New Girl, Two Broke Girls, something else that I forget, these are all shows that hubby and I stopped watching because it seemed like every other word was “penis” or “vagina”.
I’m not 9 years old anymore and it’s just not that amusing to me.
I quit watching most network scripted shows (I like the Amazing Race, singing shows, etc.) for the most part. I tried to give “How to Get Away with Murder” a chance because I took the title literally. I watch a lot of international television where sometimes a racy episode has two wrist grabs and a back hug. The “love scenes” on the Murder show came off as inhumane and weird after not being exposed to that for a while. Yes, they can put all of that in there but take it out and there is no plot, just hateful characters I don’t care about.
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