Preach it: Billy Crystal says graphic gay sex on TV has gone ‘too far’ and that the industry mustn’t ‘shove it in our face’

Daily Mail: Actor Billy Crystal has said graphic scenes of gay sex on TV have gone too far, and the industry must take care not to ‘shove it in our face’. Crystal, who became one of network television’s first gay characters on comedy show Soap in the 1970s, said contemporary programs are ‘pushing it a little too far’.

He declined to cite any examples, but implied that intolerant attitudes he struggled with while playing Jodie Dallas from 1977 to 1981 have now swung the other way.

According to The Wrap, he told an audience at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, California: ‘Sometimes, it’s just pushing it a little too far for my taste and I’m not going to reveal to you which ones they are. I hope people don’t abuse it and shove it in our face… to the point where it feels like an every day kind of thing.’

He had earlier described how audiences were slow to accept openly gay moments in Soap while it was being aired on ABC – particularly when he was interacting with on-screen boyfriend Bob Seagren, who played Dennis Phillips.

He told the audience: ‘It was very difficult at the time – Jodie was really the first recurring [gay] character on network television and it was a different time, it was 1977. ‘So, yeah, it was awkward. It was tough.’

‘I did it in front of a live audience and there were times when I would say to Bob, “I love you,” and the audience would laugh nervously. ‘I wanted to stop the taping and go, “What is your problem?”‘

However, Crystal later rowed back on his comments and said: ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything today’.

In a discussion reported in a blog on Xfinity, Crystal first blasted the today’s culture of taking offense, then expressed his regret over speaking out at all. He said: ‘We live in a very scary time in many ways. You can’t say this, you can’t say that, you can’t offend this group, that group. People come up to you and ask if you were offended. I don’t understand that. I understand it why everyone is watching out for the other person. That’s offensive to me.’

Welcome to our world Mr. Crystal…

He also said that his comments apply to heterosexual sex scenes as well as gay ones. He said: ‘When it gets too far either visually…now, that world exists because it does for the hetero world, it exists, and I don’t want to see that either.’

Lena Dunham (aka “I was raped by a republican”) displaying her “acting” skills in Girls.

He and fellow star Josh Gad later referenced HBO’s Girls as a show which features large amounts of gratuitous sex scenes.

DCG

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