Jimmy Smits' run on Dexter was both short and sweet, presenting as it did a choice opportunity for the Emmy-winning actor. "It was one of the great rewards to be able to do that show," Smits shares in this TVGuide.com video Q&A.
As Season 3's ill-fated ADA Miguel Prado, Smits welcomed the chance to offer a fresh spin on what could have been just another officious and entitled politician-type — especially as he grew closer (and darkly so) with Michael C. Hall's titular killer. "They asked if I'm ready to be challenged," Smits recalls ...
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Advertisers do not like controversy. Advertisers have thin skin. Just a few of the valuable observations to be taken from Sunday’s rich episode of Mad Men, written by Matthew Weiner and Rick Cleveland, which provided a fascinating window into how the TV and ad business worked circa 1962 (and in some ways it hasn’t changed that much since then).One major subplot, with surprising personal and professional repercussions, hinged on a controversial episode of CBS’s groundbreaking legal drama The Defenders, with a shockingly blunt abortion storyline that was causing sponsors to flee. Schlubby Harry Crane, disgruntled after inadvertently learning how much less he was being paid than colleague Ken Cosgrove ($200 a week to Ken’s $300), brought the episode to his bosses’ attention at Sterling Cooper—prompting a screening for lipstick client Belle Jolie, the idea being that women would likely seek this episode out, despite the controversy. (Peggy was on hand to he...
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ABC on Thursday ponied up $1,237,500 in fines assessed by the FCC for the 2003 broadcast of an NYPD Blue episode in which for a fleeting instant, Charlotte Ross made us all forget about Eve Donovan's icky romance with Nick Corelli. (Watch video here. Warning: Nudity.) But this nude's story isn't over yet, folks. ABC merely paid its tab so that it can have its day in court. "While strongly opposed to the fines, ABC paid them in their entirety in order to make the FCC decision appealable," the network says in a statement cited by Broadcasting & Cable. "ABC contends that the FCC order is arbitrary and capricious, contrary to the commission’s own standards and past decisions and in violation of the indecency statute and the First Amendment."Related:• ABC and Affiliates "Rebutt" FCC's NYPD Blue Fine • FCC: NYPD Was Too Blue; ABC to Fight $1.4 Mil Fine
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ABC and the ABC Affiliates Association on Monday formally appealed the FCC's proposed $1.4 million fine for a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue in which Charlotte Ross bared her backside as well as a bit of breast. At issue is the fact that said shower scene was broadcast by 52 ABC affiliates in the Central and Mountain zones before 10 pm. "When the brief scene in question was telecast almost five years ago, this critically acclaimed drama had been on the air for a decade and the realistic nature of its storylines was well known to the viewing public," ABC argues in a statement. "The FCC's action was inconsistent with the commission's own indecency standards, procedural requirements and prior decisions; with the indecency statute; and with the First Amendment."A chairman for the ABC Affiliates Association adds, "[We] believe that the process and procedures employed by the [FCC] in the handling of this matter were deeply flawed and violate well-settled legal standards."The scene in question ...
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The Federal Communications Commission on Friday levied a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC stations, stemming from a 2003 broadcast of NYPD Blue. The episode in question showed Charlotte Ross' Det. Connie McDowell startled by a young boy as she was about to take a shower, and in doing so showed "multiple, close-up views" of Ross' "nude buttocks," the FCC says. (A clip of the scene (warning: nudity) can be found here; megaprops to reader obriensg1 for finding it.) The ABC affiliates targeted by the fine broadcast in the Central and Mountain time zones, and thus aired the episode before the 10 o'clock hour.ABC — which unsuccessfully argued against the FCC's contention that buttocks are a "sexual organ" — has responded to the ruling by noting that NYPD Blue came with parental warnings, was V-chip-enabled, and because it had been on the air for a decade at the time, "the realistic nature of its storylines was well-known to the viewing public." "ABC feels strongly that the FCC's...
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