AOL TV's Top 20 "Greatest Controversies of Television"

[JamesG]

From touchy subjects (abortion, homosexuality, Scientology!) to naughty touches (in all sorts of places), we've got all the bases covered in our rundown of the Top 20 Television Controversies of all time.

So, read through our list of TV's most shocking events, moments and mishaps ... and prepare to be scandalized. -- By Adam Duerson




20.) Jon & Kate Plus 8 ... Minus One?

If controversy were measured in PEOPLE magazine covers, the Gosselins would go unmatched. The couple from TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 appeared on five out of six consecutive covers in May and June 2009 as their marriage appeared to dissolve: First he was accused of cheating, then she was -- with her bodyguard. Divorce proceedings began in June, but you'll have to wait for the rest of the lurid details. Season 5 resumed Aug. 3.




19.) Real World's First Real Mess

They promised we'd see what happens "when people stop being polite and start getting real," and season 2, in L.A., delivered the drama. Early on, 21-year-old comedian David got evicted from the house following what looked like a playful tug o' war with Tami. Alas, Tami was in her panties and thus exposed when David won, yielding comparisons by one roommate to a rape. Of course, one year later Puck came around, making David old news.




18.) Aqua Teen Bomb Scare

In 2007, Boston's Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens were commissioned to deploy 40 black LED displays (police would later say they resembled IEDs) promoting Aqua Teen Hunger Force and its upcoming movie; they had installed 38 units when people freaked.

Saddled with 9/11 paranoia, police called in the bomb squad and later threatened prison time. Perhaps comprehending their overreaction, local officials settled on 140 hours of community service.




17.) He Says, She Says on American Idol

Here's what we know: In 2003 Corey Clark made it all the way to the American Idol finals. And here's what Clark said: He was having an affair with Idol judge Paula Abdul, who coached him to success.

Abdul denied the claim on The View and lampooned it on SNL, and Fox found "insuficient evidence" of any shenanigans. Think there's any relevancy in the fact that Clark was peddling a CD and working on a book deal at the time?




16.) First Contact

Caucasian songstress Petula Clark had the audacity in April 1968 to touch Jamaican folk singer Harry Belafonte on the arm during an NBC primetime special.

That act, stunningly progressive at the time, freaked the bejesus out of sponsor Chrysler Motors, but Clark, who owned the show's rights, refused to excise the shot. The show drew huge ratings and may be the first time a man and woman of different races touched on U.S. TV.




15.) NYPD Blue Behinds

Dennis Franz, David Caruso, Jimmy Smits -- you'd just as soon recognize their butts in a lineup as you would their faces on the street. Over 13 seasons of soft-core exposure, Steven Bochco's cop drama got gruff from all angles, starting in 1993 when 225 ABC affiliates refused to air the premiere and climaxing in 2008 when the FCC posthumously fined ABC for an '03 episode that exposed actress Charlotte Ross' tuches.




14.) Palin vs. Letterman

When Sarah Palin resigned as gov of Alaska in July '09, David Letterman quipped, "Was it something I said?" According to the Washington Post: yes.

A month earlier Letterman had cracked wise about one of Palin's daughters, suggesting she'd been knocked up by Alex Rodriguez. (He said he meant 18-year-old Bristol and apologized; Palin thought otherwise and declined to accept.) Later, one report suggested the joke fueled her resignation.




13.) South Park Takes on Scientology

The Emmy Academy saw the brilliance in the 2005 Scientology spoof 'Trapped in the Closet,' which included a cartoon satire covering the religion's main tenets, but Tom Cruise, a devout Scientologist and the ep's punching bag, wasn't amused.

He threatened to pull out of a MI:III tour (Comedy Central and Paramount are owned by Viacom) if it re-aired, which it didn't. Worse, fellow Hubbard follower Isaac Hayes quit the show. Quoth Chef, "That's not cool!"




12.) The Smothers Brothers Gets Smothered

In 1967 The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour started as a sort of wise-ass variety show, but with its slate of thoughtful writers (Steve Martin, Albert Brooks, Rob Reiner), it quickly evolved into the sort of social commentary -- mostly poking fun at racism and the Vietnam War -- that CBS wasn't comfortable with.

The net required a 10-day screening period in which they could censor episodes and finally canned the series in '69, the same year it won a Comedy Writing Emmy.




11.) "Try... Not... to... Think About It..."

In the 1968 Star Trek episode 'Plato's Stepchildren,' Kirk and co. found themselves playthings for a bunch of toga-wearing nutjobs who used telekinesis to control the crew's every move.

That included making Cap'n and Uhura (African American Nichelle Nichols) swap spit, thus marking what is held as the first black-and-white kiss on U.S. TV. Fearing an uproar, NBC withheld the ep in some Southern states.




10.) Madonna vs. Letterman

Perhaps David Letterman deserved what he had coming in 1994 when he introduced guest Madonna as having "slept with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry." Madonna hit back, saying, "I'm only here because there isn't a Knicks game," then asked Letterman to sniff her panties and called him a "sick f---." She proceded to drop a dozen more F-bombs, making it the most censored show at the time.




9.) Blame it on Beavis and Butt-head

MTV's animated idiots inspired a parade of idiot acts (i.e. bowling balls hurled from freeway overpasses) in their four-year run, perhaps none more infamous than the 5-year-old who burned down a mobile home in 1993 after watching the duo play with fire.

MTV pushed the show to late night, beefed up its warning and banned B&B's trademark "Fire! Fire!" chants. Creator Mike Judge fought back with lines like "Fryer! Fryer!"




8.) Maude Tackles Abortion

Norman Lear always drew decidedly strong-willed characters, and Bea Arthur's Maude Findley, a four-times married feminist liberal, was no exception.

Most controversial was a 1972 episode -- just two months before Roe v. Wade -- in which Maude decides she's too old to risk childbirth and opts for an abortion. Some 30-odd affiliates banned reruns of the ep, and still Maude (along with M*A*S*H and The Waltons) was nominated for Best New Series in the spring.




7.) Ellen Comes Out

All was fine and dandy when Ellen Degeneres' title character came out of the closet in a season 4 sweeps episode in 1997, but ABC grew uncomfortable as the jokes and plot lines all began to lean homo-centric, topped off by a Degeneres-Joely Fisher kiss.

That inspired ABC's adding a TV-14 rating and a parental warning. The show was canned by season's end, but not before such episodes as 'It's a Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay World!'




6.) Elvis' Hound Dog Hips

In 1956 Presley covered Leiber and Stoller's 'Hound Dog' on The Milton Berle Show. Afterward, he put down his guitar and did another take, gyrating his hips in a way that the press deemed "vulgar" and "obscene."

A month later Steve Allen coaxed the King into an apologetic encore, this time while serenading an actual basset hound in a top hat. Alas, Elvis pushed on, promising, "those people in New York are not gonna change me none."




5.) Pee-wee's Wee-wee

The talking chair, the smarmy genie and that tight glen plaid suit ... Clearly something was a little off at Pee-wee's playhouse, but that's what we loved about him.

That is until Pee-wee (nee Paul Reubens) got busted in 1991 for masturbating in a screening of the X-rated Nurse Nancy. Reubens denied the charges but the damage was done. CBS canned Playhouse reruns (new eps had ceased a year earlier) and Toys R' Us pulled all its Pee-wee toys.




4.) The Trouble With Teletubbies

Why Jerry Falwell was watching Teletubbies in the first place, we'll never know. But this much the Moral Majority leader made clear in the Feb. 1999 issue of the National Liberty Journal: If you're purple, wear a triangle on your head, and/or carry a purse, you're probably gay. (Remember, Falwell found homosexuals responsible for 9/11.) In their defense, Itsby Bitsy Entertainment countered: It's not a purse, it's a "magic bag." Take that, Jerry!




3.) Quiz Show Scandals

The 1994 movie Quiz Show only scratched the surface of corruption in '50s game shows. In reality, a number of cheaters on "quiz shows" like Dotto, The $64,000 Question and Twenty-One 'fessed up to the House Committee on Legislative Oversight in '59, including a young Patty Duke, who'd been coached towards her $32,000 prize. Following the debacle, limits were imposed for individual winnings, lasting up until 2006.




2.) Murphy Brown vs. Dan Quayle

In the 1992 finale of Candace Bergen's popular sitcom, Murphy goes into labor and ends the show with a weepy rendition of 'You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.'

Touching stuff -- but not to Vice President Dan Quayle, who criticized the show for embracing single motherhood. Alas, the FYI crew laughed last. Season 5 began with a Quayle-bashing ep, and Bergen later thanked the Veep while collecting her then third Lead Actress Emmy.




1.) Nipplegate

Nevermind that Super Bowl XXXVIII was one of the most exciting ever; people still dwell on a halftime "wardrobe malfunction." At the pinnacle of a Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake medley, JT punctuated 'Rock Your Body' by ripping off Jackson's breast shield, exposing her right boob for 9/16ths of a second. Among the knee-jerk reactions: a $50,000 FCC fine and the NFL opting forevermore for safe acts like Paul McCartney.


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