The creators of Gossip Girl are no strangers to some carefully plotted-out controversy, and the news that an upcoming episode will feature three characters in bed with each other suggests that the show isn't backing off of its mission statement anytime soon. Still, while this hypothetical threesome is certainly eyebrow-raising, it's almost quaint compared to what could currently be found today on basic cable or any of the pay channels.
Therefore, Movieline thought it was time to compile a tribute to some of the most scandalous sex scenes (with video!) that network TV has ever gotten away with. The only criteria for making the list? Well, it's right there in the title: it has to involve actual sex (a controversial kiss is insufficient) and it has to have aired on one of the big broadcast networks. Here are six scenes that came to mind immediately:
Beverly Hills, 90210
Brenda loses her virginity to Dylan
Though the rebooted 90210 premiered last year with a strongly implied blowjob within the first ten minutes, its 90's progenitor was hit with its fair share of controversy simply for scripting an offscreen loss of virginity for Shannen Doherty's Brenda. "Do you know why I'm so lucky?" she cooed to Dylan. "How many girls get to have sex for the first time with someone they love?" What's even more striking is how happy she is after the act (though a pregnancy scare two episodes later would make that afterglow short-lived).
Without a Trace
Teen orgy
In the flashback that cost CBS millions of dollars in fines, a teenage girl remembers a sex party full of underage participants that some overzealous director-of-the-week decided to shoot as though it came straight from an Adrian Lyne film. The message, we think, is that this level of sexual precociousness is a bad thing, but who cares when these eroticized teenage girls are doffing their tops and having sex with two guys at once, am I right? Prompted by complaints from the Parents Television Council and the American Family Association (who may not have even seen the scene in question), the FCC fined CBS for $3.6 million.
General Hospital
Luke rapes Laura
Everyone knows that Luke and Laura's wedding was the biggest ratings event ever on daytime television, but this soap supercouple had a kiiiind of rough start when he, you know, raped her. (He also forced her to disco dance with him just before, adding insult to injury.) Still, audiences seemed so invested in the potential pairing that the two romantically reunited only months after the October 1979 rape. They married in 1981.
The Thorn Birds
Meggie consummates her love for Father Ralph de Bricassart
At this point, sex scandals involving Catholic priests are a dime a dozen, but back in 1983, they were fairly novel -- and the one in The Thorn Birds involved a priest's sexual relationship with an adult woman, no less! (Albeit one he met when she was just a kid.) The real controversy surrounding The Thorn Birds came from ABC's decision to begin airing it on Palm Sunday and run the entire miniseries through Holy Week, which infuriated the United States Catholic Conference. Advertisers felt pressure to stay away, though The Thorn Birds was such a huge event that many chose simply to advertise before the relationship was consummated in the third installment.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy and Spike graphically get together
When Buffy the Vampire Slayer moved from the WB to UPN for its sixth season, the struggling network was so happy to have a modest success that it let Joss Whedon & Co. get away with a lot. Case in point: Buffy and Spike finally giving in to their abusive foreplay when Buffy unzips Spike's pants, mounts him, then engages in a level of thrusting and riding so intense that it brings down an entire house (and could teach those sexually adventurous teens from Without a Trace a thing or two). Here's a montage of Vampire-on-Slayer action set to Madonna's "Erotic."
NYPD Blue
The pilot offers a graphic, taboo-busting sex scene
When NYPD Blue premiered in 1993, creator Steven Bochco felt that in an age where premium cable was widely accessible, it was time for network dramas to stop sanitizing themselves when it came to strong language and sexual situations. The result was a pilot-ending sex scene that went far further than anything previously seen before on networks -- and that scene alone prompted 57 of ABC's 225 affiliates to preempt the show. (Ratings success eventually drew them back into the fold.)
Sadly, I couldn't find Blue's pivotal first sex scene online. Would you, perhaps, settle for a tribute to David Caruso's shirtless mystique?