What's On Your TV?
A TV Guide article once asked the question, "It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon, do you know what's on your TV?" (Logan 12) Anything and everything is available according to some sources. That same TV Guide article describes a scene from the soap opera LOVING in which a seductive, lingerie clad woman lies next to a bare-chested man sliding her hand under the waistband of his pajama bottoms. It also describes a scene from ONE LIFE TO LIVE in which the characters "played doctor with a bag full of sex toys" and a scene from SANTA BARBARA in which the characters "varied their sexual positions while discussing various ways in which they might torture and kill a fellow character." (Logan)
This is only one side of the story. Writer Thom Racina appeared on a segment of the Maury Povich Show that aired in syndication in October of 1992 that dealt with the topic of sex on soap operas. (Racina has been a scriptwriter and/or headwriter for several soap operas over the years including: GENERAL HOSPITAL, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, ANOTHER WORLD, SANTA BARBARA, GENERATIONS, and SEARCH FOR TOMORROW. He also created EMPIRE and was head writer of FAMILY PASSIONS, both Canadian daytime serials.) Racina said that the audience doesn’t actually see what it thinks it sees. He explained that the audience usually only sees some kissing and the removal of the man's shirt as the camera focuses on the fireplace and the screen fades to black.
Racine revealed that the scenes are written this way on purpose. The writers suggest and the audience members simply fill in the rest with their imaginations just like in the days of radio soap operas. There are certainly a few explicit scenes, but most scenes are quite tame. The viewers only perceive them as sexy because that is how they choose to finish them in their own minds. (Povich 10/9/02)
|
