"NYPD Blue" signs-off but war over adult content on TV continues

"This police drama contains scenes of nudity and adult language. Viewer discretion is advised."

If the above warning failed to convince what you would be tuning in to at 9 p.m. Tuesdays back in the fall of 1993 was the equivalent of R rated material found in only movies and on cable television shows, then perhaps this particular shot did.

It's the infamous crotch grabbing scene shown within the first five minutes of the premiere episode of ABC's controversial police drama "NYPD Blue" (1993-2005) in which Dennis Franz's Detective Andy Sipowicz tells a female district attorney to "Ipsa this, you prissy little bitch."

First season's cast of NYPD Blue.

The comment seemed to make Franz's partner Detective John Kelly played by David Caruso exhibit a look of embarrassment and I am not all that certain it was part of the act.

When it comes to Hollywood testing the waters of decency on network television shows, my comment has always been and continues to be if you don't like it, don't watch it.

As much as the old folks would like the networks to return to the days when shows like "Bonanza" (1959-1973), "Hawaii Five-O" (1968-1980), "Happy Days" (1974-1984), and "Leave It to Beaver" (1957-1963) were free of nudity and profanity, the bottom line is those days are over.

There is no doubt when "Blue" premiered, hundreds of Christian conservative groups who protested against it were hoping once the show's novelty had wound down, viewers would stop tuning in and the series would be history over the course of a season.

The fact several television stations, including Dallas' WFAA, refused to air the program during its Tuesday night 9 p.m. time slot for a couple years just added more fuel to the fire getting more viewers interested in seeing what all the fuss was about.

Steven Wheeler, general manager of WSIL in Harrisburg, Ill, whose station was among the 50 plus affiliates that didn't air the series, said it best in a March 2, 2005 article by Jake Tapper and Avery Miller on abcnews.go.com. "As a practical matter, if it's a huge success and it runs for 10 years, then I'd have to cave in at some point," he said.

Controversy sells and in the case of "NYPD Blue," it sold well. Christian conservatives lost the war, and prime time would never be the same.

Or has the battle over adult content always been the same before viewers got the chance to see what male actor on Blue had the hottest looking rear end? When was the last time TV viewers were given the chance to grab an up close and personal piece of female cheesecake so long as nothing was shown below the waist? As the days counted down to Blue's final episode March 1, I was amazed at the entertainment media's claim that the series changed what we now see in today's television shows. The fact is the battle over what is considered appropriate to air has been waged for decades ever since "the boob tube" was invented.

How many racial slurs did the censors allow Archie Bunker to get away with saying on "All in the Family" (1971-1979)? How many times did you hear George Jefferson refer to his interracial neighbors upstairs on "The Jeffersons" (1975-1985) as "honky" and "zebras?"

What about the episode on "St. Elsewhere" (1982-1988) where Ed Flanders' Dr. Donald Westphall pulled his pants down and mooned Ronny Cox with the comment, "You can kiss my ass pal?" It may be true that "NYPD Blue" opened doors for other shows to voice what Mr. Spock from "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986) referred to as "colorful metaphors" and air scenes of nudity. Over the 12 and a half years of the police drama's run, I have heard the words "asshole" and "bitch" uttered on “ER.”

While on two episodes of CBS's "Chicago Hope" (1994-2000) viewers were treated to a close-up on a woman's breasts following surgery and heard Mark Harmon's character utter the phrase "Shit happens" that got conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh's attention. The day after the episode aired, Limbaugh commented on his radio program now he knows what the "S" in CBS stands for.

Those who think Janet Jackson's Boob-gate fiasco at the 2004 Super Bowl and "NYPD Blue signing off into syndication heaven after 261 episodes and 15 plus Emmy wins means a hopeful return to good clean profanity/nudity free programming during what some think is "family hour" guess again.

Keep in mind, the first line out of comedian Chris Rock's mouth when he came out on stage to host the 77th Annual Academy Awards Feb. 27 was "Sit your asses down" after receiving a standing ovation. As Blue's producer Steven Bochco said in an article on CNN on March 1, 2005, "You just can't put the genie back in the bottle. It's not going to happen, notwithstanding the fact broadcast television in these days has become an extremely conservative and frightened medium."

Adult content in television shows is here to stay. The only difference now is it's not going to be publicized as much the way it was for 12 years on Tuesday nights when Andy Sipowicz and the detectives at the 15th squad were out solving murders and dealing with their own caseload of personal problems.

©3/23/05

Dan Rather retires with a whimper instead of a bang

March 9, 2005, will probably go down in the eyes of most, if not every right-wing conservative, as what Darth Vader said as the Death Star was thirty minutes away from destroying the rebel base in Star Wars (1977). “This will be a day long remembered.”

For conservatives on the radio talk show circuit, March 9, 2005, seemed to be a day of complete jubilation. I didn’t get a chance to hear what Rush Limbaugh had to say about what was CBS’ anchorman Dan Rather’s final newscast that night. I did, however, catch Sean Hannity’s program, which airs immediately following Limbaugh’s Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on WBAP.

I wasn’t at all surprised to hear Hannity’s program open with the words from the song, “Na Na  Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” in celebration of Rather’s retirement. For much of that entire hour I was tuned into his show, Hannity discussed the newscaster’s fall from grace with last September’s “memo-gate” fiasco; the infamous National Guard story that aired in which Rather and his team failed to authenticate documents regarding President Bush’s military service.

A story that Rather still thinks, had he and his team had more time, could have proved the documents weren’t forgeries while talking with David Letterman a few days before his final newscast.

"We were not able to authenticate the documents as thoroughly as I think we should have,” he said. “Given a little more time, perhaps we could have."

I have not watched a single half-hour of “The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather” in the entire 24 years he was on. I have only watched him in spades and even then, I don’t think that amount of time would add up to thirty minutes. The thing I saw most of him was when he first said George Bush was the winner on Election Night 2000. I went to bed early that morning believing that only to find out hours later I had awakened to a national nightmare.

The other time I caught Rather was when he broke down while talking to Letterman a few days after the September 11 terrorist attacks. This was far different from the brief moments I saw Peter Jennings at ABC and NBC’s Tom Brokaw almost break down during their individual coverage of 9/11.

After reading two pieces about Dan Rather, one published in the March 2005 issue of Texas Monthly by Gary Cartwright, and a not too flattering piece by Ken Auletta in the March 7, 2005 issue of The New Yorker, I can understand the reason and perhaps sympathize with why the right wing is so happy to see the long running anchorman go.

I’ll give Rather some credit. He was simply doing his job during the Watergate era when President Richard Nixon asked the soon-to-be news anchor, “Are you running for something” and Rather responded back, “No sir, Mr. President. Are you?”

On the other hand, I cannot argue that there wasn’t a pattern in the way the often-controversial newsman went after Republicans over the years.

When he confronted then-Vice President George Bush during an interview in 1988 about the Iran-contra scandal, Bush recalled the incident when Rather walked off the set in 1987 due to CBS’ decision to delay the evening news and opting instead to continue coverage of the U.S. Open.

“It’s not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran,” Bush said according to Auletta’s New Yorker article. “How would you like it I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set?”

Then there is Rather’s defense of President Bill Clinton by saying he thinks he is an “honest man” when questioned by Bill O’Reilly in an interview back in May 2001.

“Yes, I think he’s an honest man,” Rather said. “Listen, who among us have not lied about something? I think at core, he's an honest person. I know that you have a different view. I know that you consider it sort of astonishing anybody would say so. But I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things.”

Reading about that alone makes me want to consult Websters dictionary to find out what the exact definition of not just what a liar is but lying as well.

Still, I must give the native Texan some small amount of praise. After reading those two magazine pieces and looking up several “Ratherisms” found on various websites, I am almost sorry I didn’t catch more of his newscasts during those 24 years.

Rather’s news comments, as off-the-wall as they were, I cannot say they weren’t innovative, though I am not sure his journalistic prose would win any accolades with film critics or garner Oscar nominations for best original screenplay.

Consider this sampling of quotes from politicalhumor.about.com compiled by Daniel Kurtzman on what Rather said during the 2000 presidential election.

"This race is humming along like Ray Charles."

"This situation in Ohio would give an aspirin a headache.''

"We need Billy Crystal to Analyze This.”

On the 2004 presidential election:

"This race is tight like a too-small bathing suit on a too-long ride home from the beach."

"This will show you how tight it is - it's spandex tight."

"We've lived by the crystal ball; we're eating so much broken glass. We're in critical condition."

My personal favorite Rather quote, however, has nothing to do with any presidential elections.

“Stay with CBS now for more news, including: Is there a pall over the mall as holiday shoppers think small?”

After reading those two magazine pieces, I also must give him credit for being someone who didn’t just sit behind the news desk unlike his counterparts. He covered things happening around the world reporting with on-the-spot news coverage from Vietnam and Tiananmen Square and Iraq and Afghanistan to his fascination with hurricanes and tornadoes in various parts of the country.

Dan Rather was more a news reporter than he was a news anchor which explains why in recent years he always placed third next to ABC’s Jennings’ and NBC’s Brokaw. Viewers wanted a prettier face to tell them what’s happening in the world and give it to them without all the witty comments.

Or if you want it in simpler terms, they want someone like William Hurt’s not too bright good-looking Tom Grunick from “Broadcast News” (1987). They don’t want an unattractive garrulous, ego-driven on the spot news reporter like Albert Brooks’ Aaron Altman was.

I kind of feel sorry that Rather exits the newsroom on a less than positive note being remembered more for “memo-gate” than all the other things he’s done in his long running career. This isn’t the first time a well-known face has been brought down by an embarrassing scandal.

No one remembers anything good Richard Nixon did during his presidency. They just associate him with Watergate. I’ll always remember President Clinton more for lying about his affair with an intern and his impeachment than anything else he did in the two terms he was in office.

Perhaps over time, people will look back on Dan Rather a little more fondly than they do now, though I doubt conservatives will.

"It is going to loom large," said Alex Jones, director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy in a March 9 article on Cnn.com on what Rather’s legacy will be. "Over time, this is something that will be put in better perspective, especially if he has another chapter in his career."

©3/23/05