Bare Butts on Soaps

[cityfan01]

Do you remember in the early 00s when soaps started showing men's nude backsides on daytime TV, which was squashed by the Janet Jackson incident? Do you think that making daytime television more risque could have saved the soaps?

[JackPeyton]

I remember an article on SOW about Daniel Cosgrove on GL and the dude who played Mike on ATWT both doing it. There was supposed to be another that then got cut.

I think Davidson and Diamont both showed it on Y&R in the early 90's.

But no, i do not think it would have made a difference one way or the other in terms of them getting cancelled. It isnt like they could get all HBO or even FX, but those net's shows' appeal isnt the nudity, its just a plus.

[cityfan01]

I just feel like it could have added an extra bit of intensity to the soaps. Going from the early radio shows thru the 80s, things got progressive. Then, it kinda stopped, and we are where we are. Not sure what would have happened, but I think it would have been interesting

[EricMontreal22]

It really was amazing ho American TV was going that way (Billy Campbell even flashed his butt in Once and Again which, while a brilliantly written show, was marketed more or less as something the family could watch unlike, say, NYPD Blues and its infamous nudity)--and then post Janet it completely became more "pruded" up. I believe Y&R had a butt scene around the same time, early 2000s, but yeah. And it wasn't even made a big deal of. The whole American attitude towards nudity is just ridiculous, considering how violent network tv often is now. I mean apparently in the UK they show this commercial even in the daytime:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeD6HysO5kA&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dham%2Bcommercial%2B2012%26oq%3Dham%2Bcommercial%2B2012%26aq%3Df%26aqi%3Dg1%26aql%3D%26gs_l%3Dyoutube.3..0.834.4675.0.4824.20.9.0.11.11.0.116.919.4j5.9.0...0.0.xH8T_ZXBVIk

[antmunoz]

That commercial is better than a week of DAYS.

[frequentsoapfan]

No someone's naked butt wouldn't add anything to the show because it doesn't change the ex amount of things wrong with the shows.

[edgeofnight]

I remember the 'buzz' about Marc Collier showing his butt in a shower scene with the (then) Terri Columbino. The real funnier thing was trying to hide the fact that she was pregnant in real life.

A friend of mine told me that she saw Marc Collier in a porn movie where he plays a passsenger going through the checkpoint at an airport.

I haven't seen it, so, I can't say if it was really him or not.

I also remember 'Coop' Bradshaw having a conversation with his 'significant' member on GL one day. If I can talk to my wife's knees, I guess Coop can have talks with his 'friend.'

[ellabelle]

I would not start watching a new soap in the hopes that I'd get to glimpse 2 seconds of naked butt.

On the other hand, I agree that soaps were oddly prudish for the times, particularly my beloved AMC. If TPTB had gone for more risque love scenes, I'd have been all for that.

[frequentsoapfan]

The only soap that tried to push the envelope as far as risque sex scenes in recent years was Passions. Prudes aregue that people don't want to see too much skin during the daytime because grandmother's watch these shows or these shows sometimes play at public places,etc.

[Huntress]

It's quite common on European soaps (well, at least in the UK and Germany) that nude skin is being shown. On AWZ, almost every male cast member – with the exception of the older generation – has shown his butt at least once. But nudity alone wouldn't help improving a show's ratings as it is usually only done to make scenes more realistic or to create funny moments when someone accidentially walks in on somebody stepping out of the shower.

In the mid 90s, we even had some female nudity on soaps, and I even remember male frontal nudity on "Marienhof".

[Eric83]

On GL wasn't Bradley Cole's (Richard/Jeffrey) bare butt shown during a sex scene with Marah?

[John]

No that was then Shayne, Marty West

[antmunoz]

Shayne and Marina. If Shayne and Marah had sex, then they trumped the lovin' cousins, Jonathan and Tammy.

[YRBB]

We saw Jack and Brad's butts in '96 lol I was glad about Brad's

[Soapsuds]

Ha.....a very interesting commercial to say the least