ABC was the preferred network among American women aged 18 to 49 in 1984.
To ensure the general public "understand what goes into our decision-making in programming with sexuality themes", the network released a 35-page guideline labeled "Sexuality, Television and Broadcast Standards".
The guideline reassured the public, "Network television recognizes that sexual intercourse is not for family exhibition."
Hence it stressed, "While sexual intercourse can be an Olympic event for lovers, it is neither a private athletic contest nor spectator sport which lends itself to televise preliminaries, playoffs or the climax of a Superbowl."
Lillian Gish made her Hollywood debut in 1912. She starred in movies such as the 1915 film, Birth Of A Nation. "As an American," she declared in 1973, "I am against censorship of any kind."
However she emphasized, "Ugliness disturbs me and much of what is shown on the screen is ugly. Not only in exposure of the human body. I also mean the ugliness of violence. To me, violence is just as offensive as nudity."
"I wish," she said, "there were some way to impose taste on the people who make films. It's not that I mind the portrayal of sex in movies, but sex should be beautiful, an expression of human love. But too often it is made to seem ugly."
Dynasty star Jack Coleman made the comment, "It's really almost impossible to have a gay storyline. You can talk about it and hint about it and innuendo, but you can't really do it. You just can't put that on prime time television. The standards won't allow it."
Hart To Hart star Stefanie Powers made the observation, "We agree the success of the series is resting on the relationship between the main characters, so we must have the opportunity to get those kinds of cute scenes in. It's silly that we should even have to ask for it."
Christopher Cazenove recalled of sex scenes on Dynasty, "You couldn't actually do a proper kiss. So if a kiss came in the middle of a scene, you actually had to do it like a screen fight and get the camera to the right angle so that when you kiss, your mouth wouldn't touch and do all that sort of stuff which is really hard - not touch. And when you come out of it, the make up still looks wonderful."
Emma Samms explained there were rules to performing a kiss scene. The first was "don't swish my face". The second, she said, "It's (the actor's) job to shield my body from the camera because obviously it would look ridiculous if you're doing a bed scene and holding the sheet to (cover) yourself. It's up to the man to keep his body next to you, as close enough so that nothing shows."
But one prime time soap, Hotel, decided to take the liberties of exploring "touchy topics" such as child molestation and homosexuality on television.
Of Hotel, co-star Shari Belafonte-Harper related, "I think many of us in the show are used as filler. We have a lot of big guest stars, and you can't have them come on and do small roles. So the show is centered on Jim (Brolin) and Connie (Sellecca) and Anne (Baxter) and the guest stars. The rest of us don't have much to do."
To ensure the general public "understand what goes into our decision-making in programming with sexuality themes", the network released a 35-page guideline labeled "Sexuality, Television and Broadcast Standards".
The guideline reassured the public, "Network television recognizes that sexual intercourse is not for family exhibition."
Hence it stressed, "While sexual intercourse can be an Olympic event for lovers, it is neither a private athletic contest nor spectator sport which lends itself to televise preliminaries, playoffs or the climax of a Superbowl."
Lillian Gish made her Hollywood debut in 1912. She starred in movies such as the 1915 film, Birth Of A Nation. "As an American," she declared in 1973, "I am against censorship of any kind."
However she emphasized, "Ugliness disturbs me and much of what is shown on the screen is ugly. Not only in exposure of the human body. I also mean the ugliness of violence. To me, violence is just as offensive as nudity."
"I wish," she said, "there were some way to impose taste on the people who make films. It's not that I mind the portrayal of sex in movies, but sex should be beautiful, an expression of human love. But too often it is made to seem ugly."
Dynasty star Jack Coleman made the comment, "It's really almost impossible to have a gay storyline. You can talk about it and hint about it and innuendo, but you can't really do it. You just can't put that on prime time television. The standards won't allow it."
Hart To Hart star Stefanie Powers made the observation, "We agree the success of the series is resting on the relationship between the main characters, so we must have the opportunity to get those kinds of cute scenes in. It's silly that we should even have to ask for it."
Christopher Cazenove recalled of sex scenes on Dynasty, "You couldn't actually do a proper kiss. So if a kiss came in the middle of a scene, you actually had to do it like a screen fight and get the camera to the right angle so that when you kiss, your mouth wouldn't touch and do all that sort of stuff which is really hard - not touch. And when you come out of it, the make up still looks wonderful."
Emma Samms explained there were rules to performing a kiss scene. The first was "don't swish my face". The second, she said, "It's (the actor's) job to shield my body from the camera because obviously it would look ridiculous if you're doing a bed scene and holding the sheet to (cover) yourself. It's up to the man to keep his body next to you, as close enough so that nothing shows."
But one prime time soap, Hotel, decided to take the liberties of exploring "touchy topics" such as child molestation and homosexuality on television.
Of Hotel, co-star Shari Belafonte-Harper related, "I think many of us in the show are used as filler. We have a lot of big guest stars, and you can't have them come on and do small roles. So the show is centered on Jim (Brolin) and Connie (Sellecca) and Anne (Baxter) and the guest stars. The rest of us don't have much to do."
