It seems like just last week, (actually it was just last week) that McBeal, one of Fox's top rated shows, was being criticized by the Catholic Church for its trivial treatment of confession. This, it turns out, received much press. So far, nothing on the kiss. Maybe this is a sign that network TV is maturing and that those in the media like what they see. Indeed, Seinfeld's masturbation episode, along with its oral sex episode significantly pushed the boundaries of what kind of subject matter networks were willing to address on TV. Both of those episodes (and too many other Seinfeld episodes to count) received much press. But Ally's tongue dancing with another women has been largely ignored.
To digress just minute, I believe that it is the upstart Fox Network that really deserves the credit for pushing the boundaries on Network TV adult content, not Seinfeld. Anyone remember Handicap Man on In Living Color? Or Homie the Clown? How about Al Bundy's favorite magazine "Biguns"? Or the old hand down the pants in front of the TV tube? When Fox burst onto the scene in the late 1980s, it not only provided competition to the Big Three networks ( ABC, CBS, and NBC), but it began to challenge the very essence of network broadcasts.
Anyway, while it is a welcome sign that network TV is addressing many taboo issues it once would have never even considered, it is also disturbing to see other performers who are continually singled out by the U.S. government for persecution. Take the nationally syndicated radio talk show host Howard Stern. Not only did the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fine Stern for using the word penis (a word used regularly on talk radio), but when his radio show does appear on the cable channel extra, the E! Network, the FCC requires that any scenes with kissing lesbians must be censored. How can a network, prime time broadcast of two women kissing on Ally McBeal get away with that while the E! Network (which few people even get on their cable providers) is forced to censor a lesbian kiss? This sounds like a double standard to me.
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