The TV Zone

And speaking of Steven Bochco, and his sudden new TNT hit, "Raising the Bar" (see post below about "90210") - which was seen by nearly 8 MILLION viewers on its Monday debut - I'm suddenly reminded of a piece I did on him exactly a year ago, give or take a coupla weeks or so. Went out to see him at his Santa Barbara office just as he was ending a long, lucrative and suddenly - very bitter - relationship with ABC. He was also just in the middle of the umpteenth re-write of David Feige's drama about public defenders - based on Feige's own account - in the Bronx. He was loving the process and was energized, but he was also reflective, and I got the sense that if the Feige thing didn't fly, what the hell! He'd head off into the sunset and do something entirely different. He definitely had no plans to go back to the networks, and hadn't just dynamited the bridge back to ABC but dropped a 10-megaton bomb on it.

In any event, go to the jump if you wanna read the piece I did for Newsday on Bochco. Interesting guy...very interesting....

Remember that huge fine the FCC slapped ABC with over a naked butt scene that appeared in "NYPD Blue" over five years ago? ABC got around to re-butting (stop me before I pun again) the FCC today.

Here's the statement:

“Today, ABC filed a formal response to the FCC's proposed $1.43M fine for an episode of the Emmy Award-winning drama, “NYPD Blue.” ABC strongly opposed the proposed fine, noting that 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 were well known to the viewing public, and arguing that 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."

The affiliates backed up ABC, too.

"Also today, the ABC Affiliates Association filed a response to the NAL on behalf of the 50 non-owned ABC affiliates named in the NAL. Ray Cole, Chairman of the ABC Affiliates Association's Board of Governors, commented: "The ABC Affiliates support our network in its view that the portion of the episode of NYPD Blue in question is not actionably indecent under the law. ABC Affiliates also believe that the process and procedures employed by the Commission in the handling of this matter were deeply flawed and violate well-settled legal standards."

Here's a You-Can't-Make-This-Stuff-Up Blog entry: The Federal Communications Commission has hit ABC with a $1.43 million fine over a scene that aired in "NYPD Blue" over five years ago.

This is big story (seriously) because this amounts to one of the biggest fines in FCC history. ABC sent out a statement a short while ago saying that it will appeal.

"Blue" - one of the greatest dramas in TV history - ended its brilliant run in March of 2005.

The scene in question?

Let the FCC statement do the talking: "[In the scene in] question, a woman wearing a robe is shown entering a bathroom, closing the door, and then briefly looking at herself in a mirror hanging above a sink. The camera then shows her crossing the room, turning on the shower, and returning to the mirror. With her back to the camera, she removes her robe, thereby revealing the side of one of her breasts and a full view of her back. The camera shot includes a full view of her buttocks and her upper legs as she leans across the sink to hang up her robe. The camera then tracks her, in profile, as she walks from the mirror back toward the shower. Only a small portion of the side of one of her breasts is visible. Her pubic area is not visible, but her buttocks are visible from the side."

(Sorry - Newsday will not be providing a picture at this juncture.)

Here's the ABC statement (and a call to Bochco productions yielded a "no comment.")

"NYPD Blue, which aired on ABC from 1993 to 2005, was an Emmy Award-winning drama, broadcast with appropriate parental warnings as well as V-chip enabled program ratings from the time such ratings were implemented. 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 feels strongly that the FCC's finding is inconsistent with prior precedent from the Commission, the indecency statute, and the First Amendment, and we intend to oppose the proposed fine."

Bochco lives! Or at least another Steven Bochco show does: TNT has picked up the Mark-Paul Gosselaar/ Gloria Reuben/ Jane Kaczmarek legal drama, "Raising the Bar, based on David Feige's "Indefensible," about the criminal justice system.

In the midst of the gloom of the writers strike, this is a huge lift for Bochco, who I interviewed over the summer and who gave every indication that after a long and extraordinary career, he was dialing down. The only exception was this project, which he had worked long and hard over with Feige, a newcomer to the TV trade and a former public defender in the South Bronx. Bochco had had it with the business in general - especially network interference and the sense that the sun had officially set on HIS type off drama, the police/reality/reality-based drama a la "NYPD Blue."

But he was optimistic about this project, and that has paid off. Here's the description from TNT - which says the show will bow later this year (assuming the strike is history by then):

"Gosselaar [above] stars as Jerry Kellerman, an idealistic public defender who will stop at nothing to help those who cannot help themselves. Reuben plays Rosalind Whitman, his passionate and protective boss. Teddy Sears (Ugly Betty) is Richard Patrick Woolsley, who foregoes a cushy job in his father’s firm to work for the public defender’s office. On the opposite side, Melissa Sagemiller (Sleeper Cell) plays Michelle Ernhardt, an attorney in the DA’s office...he courtroom arena in which they face off belongs to Judge Trudy Kessler, played by Kaczmarek. She is imperious and known throughout legal circles to be a little crazy, treating the courtroom as her own private fiefdom."