filed under: Charlotte Ross

The FCC is likely made up of a bunch of eighty-year-old men who spend their days playing shuffleboard and rushing to Denny's for their four o'clock dinner of Moons Over My Hammy, so it's not too surprising that they're just now getting around to noticing that NYPD Blue contained more bare ass per cubic foot than a Russ Meyer flick. And they are shocked, outraged, dismayed, astounded, incensed, buffaloed, etc. According to Dlisted:

The FCC plan to slap ABC with a $1.4 million fine for showing bare ass on a NYPD Blue 5 years ago. The FCC said that the episode which first aired in 2003 "contains explicit and graphic depictions of sexual organs. The scene depicts multiple, close-range views of an adult woman’s naked buttocks. We find that the broadcast dwells on and repeats the sexual material. We have held that repetition and persistent focus on sexual or excretory material is a relevant factor in evaluating the potential offensiveness of broadcasts. Here, the scene revolves around the woman’s nudity and includes several shots of her naked buttocks. The material is thus dwelled upon and repeated."

The FCC said, "Our action today should serve as a reminder to all broadcasters that Congress and American families continue to be concerned about protecting children from harmful material and that the FCC will enforce the laws of the land vigilantly."

ABC said that "the buttocks are not a sexual organ." They are fighting the allegations.

We're intimately familiar with the scene in question, which features Charlotte Ross undressing to take a shower and a kid walking in on her. Pretty innocent stuff, even with the gluteal close-ups and generous shots of side boob. In fact, we think the ABC censors must've gotten wind of the scene before shooting began, because it looks as if Charlotte had a bang up wax job. Had she rocked it '70s style, we clearly would've seen some muff fluff in the side view, and that would have offended Grandma and scared little Jenny and Jimmy as they stayed up for family fun night with a viewing of Basic Instinct, an episode of NYPD Blue, and a couple of shots of Wild Turkey. But luckily Ross was modestly restrained for the sake of decency. She knows America is not France. We hear they broadcast famous actresses getting fisted by monkeys there. The heathens. more »