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NYPD Blue wasn’t the first show to depict nudity, but it was the first to sexualize it. Other network TV shows in the ’90s that involved a degree of nudity typically revolved around medical shows or procedurals that depicted homicide victims in a state of undress. Even M*A*S*H had a brief moment of nudity when Radar’s (Gary Burghoff) towel slips off, and his buttocks are briefly exposed. These previous nude scenes might have shocked some viewers, but because they were not sexual in nature, they were not seen as overtly offensive. That all changed when NYPD Blue depicted the first nude primetime sex scene.
For a show whose pilot episode network show, it’s pretty surprising that they didn’t land in hot water with the FCC early on. However, it wasn’t until the 2003 episode “Nude Awakening” that the FCC took action against NYPD Blue for indecency. This time, the nudity in question wasn’t even sexual. Well, not really. The scene depicts a nude Detective, Connie McDowell (Charlotte Ross), preparing for a shower when an eight-year-old boy accidentally walks in on her. We see her bare buttocks, but other than that, camera angles obscure any frontal nudity. Though the case against ABC was eventually dropped in 2011 by the U.S. Court of Appeals, the FCC was highly disdainful of the scene, and some advocacy groups voiced immense displeasure over the court’s ruling.
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