Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Will and Grace have been cleared over indecency complaints made to US TV watchdog, the Federal Communications Commission. The complaints made by the Parent TV Council and the Americans for Decency group were rejected because the shows did not violate FCC indecency rules.

Characters Buffy and Spike were shown having sex in a 2001 episode.

But the FCC said there was "little evidence that the activity depicted was dwelled upon".

The Commission concluded that the Buffy episode was not sufficiently explicit or graphic to be indecent and that the sex was not used "to pander, titillate or shock the audience".

Indecency crackdown

The PTC made the complaint about the Buffy episode, while Americans for Decency took issue with a Will and Grace episode which aired in March last year.

The complaint related to a scene where two women simulated having sex, but the FCC found the scene was not "patently offensive" under its indecency regulations.

As in the Buffy case, the Commission also concluded that the activity depicted was not "dwelled upon, or used to pander, titillate or shock the audience".

The US Senate recently backed increased fines for airing indecent material.

Under the new measures, the maximum fine would increase to as much as $275,000 (£151,000) for each indecent incident.

The fines would keep increasing per incident until a maximum fine of $3m (£1,649,440) a day was reached.

The issue of indecency on US radio and television has been a major talking point since pop star Janet Jackson exposed her breast on live TV during the Superbowl transmission in February.

The incident generated more than 500,000 complaints to the Federal Complaints Commission (FCC).

From Brandrepublic.com :

Buffy and Will & Grace cleared after indecency protests

Jules Grant, Brand Republic 10:30 10-08-2004

LONDON -’Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ’Will & Grace’ have been cleared by the US Federal Communications Commission following complaints of indecency from two conservative-leaning groups.

The move comes as a surprise following the wave of puritanism that swept the US after the Janet Jackson "Nipplegate" debacle, when she exposed a breast on stage at the Super Bowl in January.

The Parent Television Council and Americans for Decency filed complaints against the two hit primetime shows. They were dismissed by the FCC in a 5-0 vote after they were found not to violate indecency regulations.

The PTC, considered one of the more active groups, complained about an episode of ’Buffy’ in which the characters Spike and Buffy fought before having sex.

However, the commission noted there was no nudity and no evidence that the activity depicted was used to titillate or shock the audience.

Americans for Decency, whose mission is to "reduce sexual violence and victimisation" by "educating about the danger and harm of pornography", complained about an episode of ’Will & Grace’. A photographer, played by Glenn Close, passionately kissed a woman author and engaged in what the actress described as a "dry hump".

While the commission did not say a "dry hump" would always fall within its guidelines, the panel noted that both of the characters were fully clothed and there was no evidence that the scene was "dwelled upon, or was used to pander, titillate or shock the audience".

The FCC has recently taken steps to increase fines for indecency following the Nipplegate affair and has toughened the rules on what can be termed indecent.

The change in attitude prompted Budweiser to announce it was reappraising its advertising in the US to take a more cautious approach.

In August A Busch, president of Anheuser Busch, the owner of Budweiser, said: "As we came out of the Super Bowl, the mood of the country seemed to have changed, and some of our ads got wrapped into that same controversy."

The fallout from Nipplegate also affected DJ Howard Stern, who was sacked by Clear Channel Communications after it adopted a "zero tolerance" policy toward indecency.

Stern’s fall came after an interview with Rick Salomon, infamous for releasing a movie of himself having sex with hotel heiress Paris Hilton. In the interview Stern asked Salomon if he had anal sex with Hilton and asked him about the size of his penis.

The FCC’S strict code was recently condemned as heavy-handed by broadcasters attending a conference in Las Vegas. However, Michael Powell, the FCC chairman, said broadcasters must accept that the Supreme Court had set limits on sexual and explicit language on the air.

From Tvnz.co.nz :

Fake sex scenes ruled okay

US communications regulators have denied complaints that TV stations violated indecency rules when they aired episodes of Will and Grace and Buffy the Vampire Slayer with fake lesbian and heterosexual sex.

The Federal Communications Commission ruled that two women kissing and faking sexual intercourse on Will and Grace did not violate regulations that limit indecent material to late night hours and bans outright obscene material.

"Both characters are fully clothed, and there is no evidence that the activity depicted was dwelled upon, or was used to pander, titillate or shock the audience," the FCC said in one order.

The FCC has been cracking down on sexual antics aired on television and radio and stepped up its efforts after singer Janet Jackson’s bare breast popped out in a performance during a nationally televised sporting event.

The agency also refused a complaint by the Parents Television Council, a frequent television critic, that said the Buffy the Vampire Slayer show was indecent because it appeared to show two characters engaged in sexual intercourse.

The FCC said the episode showed Buffy kissing and straddling a male character after the two fought but "based on our review of the scene, we did not find that it is sufficiently graphic or explicit to be deemed indecent."