How To Watch Television

29. NYPD Blue: Content Regulation

271 29 NYPD Blue Content Regulation Jennifer Holt Abstract: Studies of regulation and policy often seem distinct from the analysis of television programming and content. But in this examination of the controversial series NYPD Blue, Jennifer Holt traces the show’s role in the FCC’s history of “policing ” controversial content, and thus reveals how the politics of regulation are integral to what we watch on TV. The critically acclaimed series NYPD Blue (ABC, 1993–2005) had a remarkably long run, particularly for a program noted not just for its gritty aesthetic and ensemble of complex characters, but for pushing boundaries in the areas of profane language and nudity on primetime broadcast programming. The show’s language and “adult content” inspired protests from religious groups, letter-writing campaigns to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), citizen boycotts, and blackouts by more than fifty ABC affiliates in its first year. NYPD Blue was also embroiled in a long-standing battle with regulators, which heated up at the end of the show’s run, as the FCC’s philosophy of regulating content turned significantly in 2004. Subsequently, in 2008, the agency fined ABC for nudity in an episode that had aired five years earlier (“Nude Awakening,” February 25, 2003). Years of legal arguments ensued, and the ultimate resolution dismissing the fines did little to clear up long-standing confusion about the standards employed to police content on broadcast television. Indeed, the history of broadcast content regulation is defined more by its struggles than by any coherent set of rules or guidelines. The NYPD Blue case marks a critically important moment in this contentious history, challenging the conceptual underpinnings of indecency regulation while the FCC fought vehemently to protect them. Through this protracted battle, industrial, social, and cultural anxieties about nudity and indecent material—and their appropriate televisual manifestations—were also on display. The series and the network’s 272 Jennifer Holt indecency case made cultural politics, and the politicization of the FCC, more public. Exploring the ways in which these aspects of content regulation became embattled during the run of NYPD Blue, most notably after the “Nude Awakening ” episode, reveals a new layer of drama in ways that policy—and its history— become visible in the television text. NYPD Blue was co-created by David Milch and Steven Bochco, who had previously collaborated on Hill St. Blues (NBC, 1981–1987). The series became most closely associated with Bochco, a writer-producer with a long history of developing successful, stylistic genre programs, such as Hill St. Blues, LA Law (NBC, 1986– 1994), and Doogie Howser, M.D. (ABC, 1989–1993). While Hill St.’s realist aesthetic and mature content was daring for its time, NYPD Blue was clearly Bochco’s most controversial effort; he even described it as network television’s first R-rated series, and one that would intentionally stretch the boundaries of suitability in broadcasting .1 Nevertheless, it was a mainstay of commercial broadcast television for twelve years and remains ABC’s longest running one-hour drama series. Set in the fictional 15th precinct, NYPD Blue featured an ensemble cast centered on the racist, homophobic—yet somehow redeemable—recovering alcoholic Detective Andy Sipowicz and his succession of police partners. Short, graphic bursts of violence were common, and nudity and foul language were regular components of the program as well. Characters used words like “bitch,” “asshole,” “bullshit,” and “dickhead,” along with vivid descriptions of breasts and other body parts never before uttered on primetime network television. The inclusion of these elements was partly a function of the show’s commitment to realism—often the justification used by producers. NYPD Blue’s substantial critical accolades, including twenty Emmy awards, four Golden Globes, and two Peabody Awards, lauded the show’s unflinching look at life on and off the job. As the Peabody announcement in 1996 said, NYPD Blue was the police genre at its best, providing “gritty and realistic insight into the dilemmas and tragedies which daily confront those who spend their lives in law enforcement.”2 The use of “adult content” in NYPD Blue was also partly a reaction to the incursion of cable into the media landscape. Between 1981 and 1993, the three major networks saw their average ratings (percentage of TV households tuned in) slide from 50 down to 33.6, in large part due to competition from cable channels with far less strict content standards than broadcast networks. Cable would continue to siphon the broadcast audience throughout the 1990s, and...