With everything from the new Melrose Place to trashy Twilight knockoffs, the new Fall TV season promises steamy viewing. Hemlines may rise and morals may fall, but TV writers would do well to remember that presenting sex on network TV has always been a tricky business. Though we’ve come a long way since Ricky Ricardo knocked up Lucy, only to discover that the network censors wouldn’t let him say the word “pregnant,” it’s amazing how sensitive the suits still are to sex. Here are ten TV shows in which the sex lives of their characters dramatically changed the entire series, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
1. BRIDGET LOVES BERNIE (1972-1973)
This romantic sitcom, starring David Birney and Meredith Baxter as a Jewish New York cab driver and an Irish-Catholic schoolteacher respectively, was one of the big hits of its TV season. Yet it was canceled after its initial twenty-four-episode run, a casualty of hate-mail campaigns by religious groups who objected to its mixed-religion romance angle. Seen today, the opening sequence from the pilot, in which Bridget and Bernie meet-cute, fall in love instantly, then find out that each other’s last names are Steinberg and Fitzgerald and wryly concede that they “have a problem,” plays like a broadcast from some distant solar system. Bridget Loves Bernie remains the only network show ever unceremoniously canceled at the end of a season where it ended up at number five in the Nielsen ratings.
2. D-I-V-O-R-C-E
Hard to figure now, but as late as the ’70s, network TV executives still came unglued at the prospect of showing a divorced woman on TV. Writers eager to explore the dramatic possibilities of a woman starting her life over had to contend with suits afraid that audiences would be repulsed by a heroine with a sexual history. In 1975, NBC premiered Fay, starring Lee Grant, fresh from her supporting role in the movie Shampoo, as a divorced woman in her forties who was starting to date again. Publicly the network boasted of its daring, but there were nervous jitters behind the scenes, and NBC quietly canceled the program after eight episodes.
Grant herself learned the news while she was preparing to make an appearance on The Tonight Show. No doubt NBC assumed she would go quietly into that good night; instead, Grant, a survivor of the McCarthy-era blacklist, went on the talk show and talked shit about the craven bunglers who’d strangled her baby in its crib, reminding everyone who tuned in what hell hath no fury like. A couple of months later, CBS began airing another sitcom that centered on a middle-aged divorcee, One Day at a Time; this one was lavishly promoted and ended up sticking around for nine years. Was CBS deliberately cashing in on the bad publicity that NBC had earned itself? Maybe, but there are also instructive differences between the two shows: One Day’s star, Bonnie Franklin, was more than fifteen years younger than Lee Grant and came across as a good deal less sharp. Plus, she was so weighed down from the effort of raising two kids that she could barely think about sex, despite the clownish male co-stars who kept trying to kick in her door to assure the audience that, divorce or no divorce, she was still quite a catch.
3. JAMES AT 15 (1977-1978)
This NBC series was created by Dan Wakefield, a TV novice whose novel Going All the Way persuaded the network that Wakefield might have enough of a feel for horny American youth to develop a “quality” series about contemporary teen life. James starred sixteen-year-old Lance Kerwin as a transplanted Okie trying to adjust to high-school life in Boston. The show got fine reviews and good ratings, but then Wakefield got it in his head that part of the common experience of contemporary American teenagers was getting laid. He duly turned in a script in which James lost his cherry to — get this — a Swedish exchange student, as if American kids would be squeaky clean their whole lives if only flaxen-haired visitors from the land of ABBA didn’t come over here smuggling impure thoughts in their panties. (Take it away, Lou Dobbs!)
The network approved the idea, but only after throwing the hero a strategically timed birthday party and changing the title of the show itself to James at 16. (They probably would have changed it to James at 27 if such a leap had not been genetically implausible.) In one of those moves that really underscore the alternate-universe logic of the censorious mind, they also insisted that Wakefield “clean up” the dirty script by removing all references to birth control. (They compromised by having James vow to be “responsible,” not the first word that comes to mind when Swedish exchange students are on the menu.) Annoyed by network meddling, Wakefield left the show; NBC kissed him on both cheeks, wished him a successful future, then fired the producers he’d left behind to safeguard his vision. Soon after, the show itself was canceled. Wakefield showed that he’d learned something about how easy it is to deal seriously with adolescent sexuality in American popular culture when, for his next TV project, he wrote and produced the 1980 TV movie The Seduction of Miss Leona, a love story starring those two Tiger Beat favorites, Lynn Redgrave and Brian Dennehy.
Joss Whedon had it long before Grey’s Anatomy on Buffy. I beleive it was season 5 where Willow and Tara actually kiss on air, but they were a couple for most of season 4.
LF commented on
Sep 24 09 at
1:50 pm
Not to mention the implied oral sex between Willow and Tara in Once More with Feeling.
OH commented on
Sep 24 09 at
2:46 pm
In its original form, this article actually mentioned Buffy as a show that handled lesbianism in a less cynical, more character-driven way; we just ran a little short on space. - ed
Nerve commented on
Sep 24 09 at
3:52 pm
While I understand the “running short on space” argument, I don’t think that sacrificing a POSITIVE portrayal of lesbians on television (i.e. Willow and Tara) in favour of listing all the ways that television got it wrong possibly loses some of the spirit of the article that I was hoping to read. Then again, not my article, so if your aim was specifically to highlight “here’s how television quashes all gay romance,” then top-notch job. Yes they’re all controversies, but it would have been great to see some of the positive outcomes from these incidents! They’re definitely out there!
Anonymous commented on
Sep 25 09 at
9:33 am
Fair enough. Here’s what Phil had to say about Buffy:
There have been lesbian kiss moments on Roseanne, Picket Fences, Party of Five, Ally McBeal, and Friends, among others; Mischa Barton, who dropped in on Once and Again long enough to tempt Evan Rachel Wood, would later be tempted herself, on The O.C., by Olivia Wilde. In a category all its own is the love affair of Alyson Hannigan’s Willow and Amber Benson’s Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where the characters were deeply and believably committed to each other long before they were first seen to kiss on-screen. Even if it’s true that their first kiss was delayed because the network had cold feet, the effect may have been to make the relationship seem like less of a stunt.
Nerve commented on
Sep 25 09 at
10:35 am
Echoing the already stated fact that DJ did not stand for Dan Connor Junior. He was indeed David Jacob. His teacher called him “David Jacob” repeatedly in the early episode in which he won his elementary school spelling bee.
AS commented on
Sep 25 09 at
2:09 pm
Don’t forget the first inter-racial kiss on TV: Uhura and Kirk (I think) on the episode Plato’s Stepchildren, circa 1968.
Susan A. commented on
Sep 27 09 at
3:33 pm
The Brady Bunch was the first program to show a married couple sleeping in the same bed (fully clothed, but still…). That must count for something.
Eric S. commented on
Sep 27 09 at
3:49 pm
You forgot the TV Movie “That Certain Summer” and the same-sex couple on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman that pretended to be brothers. And to Erin S., Bewitched showed a married couple in the same bed long before the Brady Bunch came on the air.
Shemp Lugosi commented on
Sep 27 09 at
4:10 pm
Do I live in an alternate universe? An article like this an no mention of Will & Grace?
BillG commented on
Sep 27 09 at
4:40 pm
Hate to jump in deeper into the geek pool, but what about the big psuedo-lesbian moment with Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? That one pissed off plenty of idiots back in the day . . .
Nash commented on
Sep 27 09 at
6:17 pm
The first interracial kiss on television was on Star Trek (maybe worth a mention).
tom commented on
Sep 27 09 at
6:21 pm
I was going to mention the Dax “lesbian” scene in DS9. The writers twisted the whole thing into a pretzel: without going into detail, Dax’s female love interest are both aliens who can periodically switch genders. Dax had fallen in love with the lady in question while she (Dax) was male. So, the two ladies got to lay a fairly hot smooch on each other while still having the waters suitably muddied about any lesbian/gay vibe. As a result, Trek had its cake and ate it, too.
Max Black commented on
Sep 27 09 at
6:24 pm
That should be “Dax and her female love interest are both aliens….” Woops.
Max Black commented on
Sep 27 09 at
6:25 pm
The first married couple in the same bed was on Green Acres: Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor.
Amanda Huginkiss commented on
Sep 27 09 at
6:25 pm
Pretty shocked that there’s no mention of Murphy Brown or Ellen here. I didn’t watch or care about the shows, but I certainly remember the national brouhaha each of them stirred up at the peak of their controversy.
Daniel commented on
Sep 27 09 at
6:34 pm
To be fair to Grey’s Anatomy, they replaced Dr. Hahn with another lesbian doc, Arizona Robbins, and Callie has continued down the lesbian path. I suspect what really happened was
A: The network decided the pairing was to butch, and the orders came down from the network to replace Smith with a more femme actress.B: the character was gotten rid of because the character was extremely unlikeable, to an extent she couldn’t reasonably come back from(due to bad writing).
Or a combination of the two…I tend to believe that it was 75% column A, and 25% column B.
Bruce from Missouri commented on
Sep 27 09 at
7:12 pm
Let us not forget about the classic episode “The Contest” (about masturbation) from Seinfeld.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Contest
Christian fundamentalists raised a fuss about this episode as well.
dorcheat commented on
Sep 27 09 at
7:52 pm
@ Bruce - totally agree! They got rid of the awesome actress who played Dr. Hahn, then replaced her with a sugary sweet younger blonde.
red commented on
Sep 27 09 at
8:00 pm
I Love Lucy was groundbreaking. It was the first program to allow a pregnant actor screen time, but she wasn’t allowed to use the word ‘pregnant’.
Ozzie and Harriet Nelson were one of the first screen couples to be allowed to share a bed without with each actor being required to keep one foot on the floor at all times. The horrors!!!
harchickgirl1 commented on
Sep 27 09 at
9:34 pm
My post is so garbled because the comment box is so small that you can only see two lines at a time. Increase the size of the comment box!
harchickgirl1 commented on
Sep 27 09 at
9:35 pm
Are you sure that Jodie Dallas (”SOAP”) still identified as gay? During the story where he converted the lesbian, he did bring a man home (the scene was for a laugh — the lesbian brought a woman home, and things were awkward), and then he almost lost custody of his child because of homosexuality, but they still put him in hetero relationships. His last relationship on the show was with the PI who had helped him in the custody fight and when the baby mama ran away. She was played by Maggie Rhodes. Then, realizing the character was long dead anyway, they fully caved to Billy Crystal’s “comic” gifts and had Jodie somehow get the personality of an elderly Jewish butcher.
Carl commented on
Sep 28 09 at
1:09 am
i dont get it, what exactly was this list about? the moments when networks chose the easy path over controversy? or when the networks neutered their best chances at interesting shows? none of these “controversies” changed tv, they just supported the networks ideas that america wasn’t ready for the raciness they could offer, but chose to soften. so what is this really about? Please inform me, i don’t follow the current titles ideology.
Matt commented on
Sep 28 09 at
1:34 am
What is bisexuality “back-pedaling”? Do you not consider it a valid sexuality? Do you realize how insulting that is to bisexuals?
Alicia commented on
Sep 28 09 at
2:51 am
Did all of these controversies really “change TV”? Many were arguably trailblazers that were before their time, and I found this a fascinating history of what was controversial before my birth in 1978. If this article is to be treated as comprehensive, post-1980 nothing besides homosexuality was very controversial on TV when it comes to sex. I suppose that time period coincided with the launch of cable, and as cable blazed new ground the networks were able to gradually follow.
In many ways this reads as a list of “things the Networks got squeamish about and weren’t allowed to change TV at their time”.
HappyTim commented on
Sep 28 09 at
3:11 am
How about the first human-machine sex in Battlestar Galactica, when Helo and Athena get it on and have a child?
JDreyer commented on
Sep 28 09 at
6:40 am
I cannot believe you overlooked mentioning “Seinfeld” for one single reference.
“Master of my domain”? Erika, the phone sex lady? George and Jerry’s evil plot hatched to get Jerry in bed with his girlfriend’s roommate, and that ingenious ending, so incongruously REALISTIC, for God’s sake?
No TV program slashed censorship more. And…Cagney and LACY? Groundbreaking? Because they LOOKED like dykes? Good grief!
Daddy-O commented on
Sep 28 09 at
3:50 pm
No mention of Maude’s (Bea Arthur) open decision to have an abortion of her husband’s baby? That wouldn’t fly on television even today. Are all of the new Nerve writers sub 25?
C'mon commented on
Oct 01 09 at
6:20 pm
Not to nitpick, but the lesbian kiss on “L.A. Law” was not at the end of the episode but about one-third of the way through the episode…which, like Rosalind Shays falling down the elevator shaft, made it all the more shocking than if it had been at the end of the episode. I remember it as if it was yesterday–I was in college and had recorded the episode on my VCR (kickin’ it OLD SCHOOL!). I watched it later that night as I was falling asleep, and when the kiss happened, I jumped straight out of bed in shock. I had to rewind it a few times to make sure I didn’t dream it. Yes, they downplayed things by the end of the episode, and when the characters did go out on a “date” (several episodes later) it was just long enough to have C.J. dump Abby for not really being interested in women (”Consider yourself two things: dumped…and relieved.”), it cemented CJ as one of the most intriguing characters on the show. At least until they watered down her character a season or two later. Hell, everything got watered down by the end of the run of that show.
Bubba in TX commented on
Oct 08 09 at
11:35 pm
In an interview, Joss Whedon said he specifically waited to show Willow and Tara kiss until the episode dealing with Joyce’s death so the network couldn’t advertise the episode as a lesbian kiss thing. Joss didn’t want their relationship trivialized like that.
Tommy Marx commented on
Oct 09 09 at
4:20 pm
lee commented on 
nerkums commented on 
DJ commented on 
huh? commented on 
Doppler commented on 
Ian Adams commented on 
bill commented on 
Will Overhead commented on 
