by Ed Vitagliano | AFA Journal News Editor

Sex, sex and more sex. That seems to be the single-minded recipe for network programming these days, whether the shows are well-written or, much more frequently, a pitiful excuse for entertainment.

On the March 13 episode of NBC’s popular sitcom Friends, for example, there was an overflow of vulgar humor about sex: jokes about Ross’ promiscuity, his lesbian ex-wife, Ross having sex with a dinosaur, and the size of Ross’ genitals; about Chandler being a homosexual and liking “gay” porn; about Monica being transgendered; about Phoebe’s sex life with Mike; and about Joey’s promiscuity. That’s in a half-hour show – not including commercial air time.

Such sexual blitzkrieg is usually defended by Hollywood supporters as a reflection of real life, as if sitcoms like Friends were merely humorous documentaries. In other words, if you want to see how most Americans are living their lives, take a peek at bed-hopping Joey Tribbiani.

Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development at NBC, oversees network standards, argued, “It’s not like TV is a parallel universe. TV is the reflector of the values society holds.”

A ‘culture of caricature’
Rather than being a reflection of the lives lived by the American people, however, television is much more likely to be a distortion, in much the same way a carnival mirror warps the image of the one staring into it.

Several years ago Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) said, “The tastes of a segment of our society are dictating the culture for everyone. This is not the America most of us know, yet that is the way we are portrayed consistently …. [T]he entertainment industry is transforming us into a culture of caricature.”

What does that skewed image look like when it comes to sex? A 1995 editorial in the Omaha World-Herald said it well: “Viewed through the TV screen, America looks like a nation in which men are forever rutting, women are usually in heat and virtues such as modesty and politeness have been replaced with dirty dancing and gutter-level quips.”

If TV merely reflects reality as Wurtzel claims, then we must assume that adults frequently turn discussions about the frustrations of everyday life into conversations with lewd overtones. For example, on the March 20 episode of NBC’s Good Morning, Miami, Jake’s grandmother enters his office and blurts this series of double entendres (all to abundant audience laughter): “I got dinged in the parking lot.… I’m lucky I can still walk.… I got nailed in the rear by a black Escort.”

Jake retorts, “Please tell me you had an [automobile] accident!”

If the small screen presents an accurate picture of real life, then we must sadly conclude that adults feel no qualms about discussing masturbation in public. On the February 13 episode of Will & Grace (NBC), Grace and Karen are in a coffee shop, and Grace asks her friend why she hasn’t even touched her muffin.

In a loud voice, Karen replies that, since she and her husband, Stan, split up, “I’ve done nothing but touch my muffin!”

If television manifests the truth of American cultural life, then we must suppose that most discussions about the opposite sex quickly turn raunchy. On the March 13 episode of Will & Grace,

Karen tells her maid, Rosario, that she just met a new guy.

“Are you sure you just didn’t lean into the doorknob again?” Rosario asks.

Later there is a joke about the size of Jack’s genitals, as Jack holds up a large, wooden salt shaker. Will, however, hands him a small wine bottle cork instead, and laughter makes clear that the audience has understood the message.

In the “real” world of television, people frequently joke about genitals, such as when Deaq tells his partner Van to “think with the big head” on the March 7 episode of Fastlane (Fox). In fact, in the TV version of reality, adults don’t bat an eye when others use crude euphemisms for both male and female genitals (Good Morning, Miami, February 27, March 6; Will & Grace, February 20; and Scrubs, NBC, February 20.)

Despite Hollywood’s argument that television merely reflects the lives of most Americans, all evidence points to a different reality: most Americans are sick of all the sex on TV.

One survey, for example, found that 77% of respondents said there was too much sexual content on television, while another poll revealed that 71% of people thought that the more explicit portrayal of sex and nudity on television encouraged immorality.

Yet, despite the consistently high opposition to so much sexual content on television, networks are showing sex more often, not less. According to a study released by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, between 1997 and 2002 the percentage of shows with sexual content rose from 56% to 64%, and the percentage of shows depicting or strongly implying sexual intercourse doubled.

Real life consequences?
Perhaps the most disturbing characteristic of the sex shown on network television, however, is that the casual sex lives of regular characters usually carry no consequences.

Over the last two seasons, Friends at least had the chutzpah to write into its story line the fact that the characters’ swinging lifestyles might have consequences, when Rachel got pregnant from one errant rendezvous with Ross. However, in its nine-year history, showing a single consequence for the randy cast of regulars on Friends is hardly the height of responsibility.

It would have been a more accurate depiction of reality if one of the characters on Friends had contracted an incurable sexually transmitted disease – just like one in five sexually active adults in the real world.

Such consequences are rarely, if ever, seen on TV. If television reflects reality, why don’t 46% of teenage girls on TV, after having sexual intercourse just one time, contract the human papilloma virus – just like they do in real life? Why don’t one in five television characters 12 years old and older test positive for genital herpes – just like they do in real life?

One must assume that, in the make-believe world of network television, that kind of reality is just too difficult to face.