The gazillion channel universe is a boon in these strange times, although I admit I seldom turn on the tube. I'm more likely to play games on my iPad or read a book, but I tune in occasionally.
I got reminiscing about teenage years. A friend lived right across the street from the school in the small village where we grew up. The school had all kinds of strict rules about students leaving school property at lunch time, but it didn't seem like enforcement was as strict. My pal, being a town kid, was allowed to go home for lunch. I and our other pal were country kids, and were supposed to stay "on campus." Nevertheless, almost every day we would sneak over to Town Girl's place during the lunch break with our lunch pails and watch Days of Our Lives.
I haven't consistently followed a soap opera since my daughter was an infant (she has two boys now, 7 and 5) but I'm told what we considered steamy action on screen as teenagers was pretty tame stuff compared to what you would see now. I've actually watched some of it while undergoing extensive dental work a few years ago. It was a modern clinic with a TV on the ceiling. I never bothered to ask for control of the channel changer.
I've also noted even certain sitcoms aren't adverse to some nudity and bedroom time.
Enter COVID-19. I'm wondering if the edicts of social distancing will see those torrid scenes revert to the decorum of yesteryear.
Remember how Rob (Dick Van Dyke) and Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) Petrie, married with a child, slept in twin beds on the Dick Van Dyke Show. Then there were Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, married in real life, portraying Ricky and Lucy Ricardo doing the same in I Love Lucy. And what about George Burns and Gracie Allan in their half-hour show that aired in the 1950s. Their relationship was also a chaste one on screen.
Will COVID-19 force today's torrid love scenes back to the more chaste depictions of the past?
Possible screen play:
Francine: But I love you Jason. You know I do. Can't you see me radiating that from a safe distance of six feet?
Jason: It's just not working for me, Francine. I need to hold you, to touch you, to be with you.
Francine: Whoa, Big Boy. Back off there. You're not going to COVID-19 me and get away with it. I'll sue.
It's possible romance is doomed.
