A Brief History of Sex on TV

Soap
Even before its 1977 ABC debut, letter writers protested this soap-opera parody, in which Billy Crystal played openly gay character Jodie Dallas. Same-sex physical activity on a television series was still a long way off, however. In 1989, just the sight of two men sharing a bed on thirtysomething caused some sponsors to vanish, along with more than a million ad dollars.

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