‘The Playboy Club’ & Other TV Shows the Parents Television Council Went Berserk Over
July 26, 2026, 11:00 am
Fifteen years ago, a period drama about the 1960s-era Bunnies working in the original Playboy Club had the Parents Television Council hopping mad. In a letter to NBC affiliates on July 27, 2011, the 1.3-million-member watchdog group urged stations not to air The Playboy Club, saying the TV show glorified and glamorized the pornography industry.
NBC ended up canceling the show after three episodes, a decision the PTC celebrated but likely didn’t inspire. (The Playboy Club debuted to 5 million viewers and kept dropping in the ratings.) But the PTC — which declared bankruptcy last year — couldn’t do anything but lodge complaints, often homophobic and sex-negative ones, about the hit shows below.
Ally McBeal The “sexually raunchy” nature of this legal dramedy earned it a spot on the PTC’s list of Worst Family Shows on Network Television for the 1998–99 season. The group griped that “allusions to sex and male genitalia are pervasive, and casual sex is a constant obsession of the characters.” Granted, we’re not sure David E. Kelley ever imagined Ally as a “family” show.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation This procedural made another of the PTC’s yearly worst-of rankings as the group said impressionable viewers were subjected to S&M scenes, a spouse-swapping sex party, and “a plot involving a special Las Vegas luxury ‘party bus’ in which men were entertained by strippers.” (Someone needs to run forensics on the number of adjectives and modifiers in that quote.)
Dawson’s Creek The PTC actually criticized this teen drama showing approval toward young adults who identify as gay. Worse, PTC founder L. Brent Bozell III issued a homophobic comment about Jack’s (Kerr Smith) coming-out storyline. Bozell told the Daily News, “There is very much an agenda in Hollywood to advance the cause of homosexuality as normal behavior by making those who think otherwise the deviants.”
Grey’s Anatomy Years after whining about Ally McBeal, the PTC targeted “Ally McBeal in scrubs” its nickname for Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo). The organization said the sexual content on this show was “pervasive — especially the recurrent theme of infidelity” and that the language of this show was “foul.” All of this, mind you, for a program rated TV-14.
The O.C. In the case of this teen drama, the PTC took offense at the “marital infidelity, drug use, blackmail, pornography, and sexual experimentation,” claiming such content would “be bad enough on an adult drama.” The organization also called out the show for having Marissa (Mischa Barton) experiment with a same-sex relationship… but might have had a point by insinuating that the storyline was a sweeps-week ratings ploy.
That ’70s Show This retro teen sitcom, meanwhile, got dinged for its “casual and irresponsible treatment of teen sex and drug use, which are depicted as risk- and consequence-free.” And the PTC took issue with one storyline in particular, one in which Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) inherits a box of “nudie magazines” from Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) and spends the rest of the day, well, inspecting the contents.
Will & Grace A sitcom featuring two successful gay men — well, one successful gay man and Jack (Sean Hayes) — represented a “disingenuously saccharine presentation of the homosexual lifestyle” in the PTC’s eyes, according to its worst of 1998–99 list. But the group seemed to reserve special judgment for Jack, whom it called “Will’s effeminate gay friend.”
Ally McBealCSI: Crime Scene InvestigationDawson’s CreekGrey’s AnatomyThat ’70s ShowThe O.C.The Playboy ClubWill & Grace (1998)
