I read this elsewhere, but the Register writes it up best, as the “FCC rejects Buffy screen romp charge“:
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rejected a complaint by the Parents Television Council (PTC) that an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer contained indecent material.
The episode in question – aired on 20 November 2001 – “included a scene in which the characters Buffy and Spike engage in sexual intercourse”. The complainants claimed this to be indecent.
The FCC disagreed, and ruled (PDF) that the programme “was not sufficiently explicit or graphic to be indecent. The Commission noted that there was no nudity, and there was no evidence that the activity depicted was dwelled upon, or was used to pander, titillate or shock the audience”.
Well, not shock them in that way, at least.
Of course, I suspect the PTC has a lot more to object to about Buffy than that. (Actually, and ironically, the current cartoon on the PTC site seems to be poking fun at the focus of regulators on “nudity” instead of “violence.”) Buffy was rated the Top of the Top 10 Worst shows by the PTC in the 2001-2002 season, for “its graphic violence and sex, often mixing the two with an underlying occultist element.”
Wasn’t Buffy invisible at the time of that episode?
I for one was titillated.
I could wax eloquent over the quaint, vague, and goofy “indecency” standards that our FCC pursues (via law), but I won’t, for the moment (not wanting to spoil a perfectly nice morning).