routinely featured adult language, which until then
had been heard only on cable and satellite televi-
sion. This did offend many viewers, and ABC was of-
ten threatened with boycotts and other forms of ret-
ribution.Others, however, felt the program was only
reflecting the way police officers really spoke, and
the consistently high ratings appeared to indicate
most viewers were not too upset. It was its treatment
of nudity that was most upsetting to the drama’s
most vocal detractors, however. Both sexes appeared
in various forms of undress on a fairly regular basis.
Full-frontal nudity was avoided, but little else was left
to the imagination. Like the obscenity, though, the
use of nudity was not gratuitous but seemed to flow
naturally from the plots.
Impact NYPD Bluechanged the standards and mo-
res of dramatic broadcast television. For better or
worse, it opened the doors for a host of increasingly
more explicit programs that followed. Its main ap-
peal, though, was that it featured outstanding en-
semble acting, intriguing scripts, and story lines that
millions of viewers found to be entertaining.
Further Reading
Collins, Max Allan.NYPD Blue: Blue Blood—NYPD
(NYPD Blue). New York: Signet, 1997.
Nelson, Robin.TV Drama in Transition, Values, and
Cultural Change. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Thomas W. Buchanan
See also GoodFellas;Pulp Fiction; Television.628 NYPD Blue The Nineties in America