Shades of 'NYPD Blue'

Until this week, there were only two ways to see naked cops on network TV in Dallas-Fort Worth: Move out of town, or drop by Abernathy's Sports Grill, just off Berry Street, where every Tuesday is NYPD Blue Night. ''We pick up the show on our satellite dish,'' explains manager Ann Diakis. ''Last week we had about 75 people in here watching it. And everybody had an NYPD Blue margarita. We make 'em with blue curaçao.''

Since Steven Bochco's new taboo-busting ABC police drama, starring David Caruso and Dennis Franz as grittier-than-life Big Apple detectives, premiered on Sept. 21, Dallas' ABC affiliate, WFAA, has refused to air the show, claiming its in-the-gutter dialogue and out-of-uniform love scenes violate community decency standards. But with Blue's Oct. 23 arrival on independent station KTXA, denizens of Dallas can at long last behold the wonders of bare butt in prime time.

That leaves about 40 small to midsize cities across the country where stations still consider Blue too blue to view. In fact, network TV's first R-rated drama (as Bochco originally described it) has triggered what may be the biggest affiliate mutiny in TV history. Yet the show has still managed to pull in red-hot national Nielsens (21 million viewers a week) to become the most successful new drama of the season. Not since Mariel Hemingway dropped trou for an episode of Bochco's Civil Wars has a smidgen of bare skin (Blue's nudity has thus far been mainly rearview) stirred up so much trouble. And hype.

''I knew this would polarize folks,'' says Bochco, who can afford to be blase now that he has a hit on his hands. ''I knew it wouldn't be some folks' cup of tea. But when you're doing a show like this, some people are going to love you and a lot of people are going to be very disturbed.''

Big surprise: The first to be disturbed were conservative media activists—notably Mississippi's Rev. Donald Wildmon, who years ago crusaded against Bochco's breakthrough cop drama Hill Street Blues (as well as Soap, Charlie's Angels, Three's Company, and many other sexual benchmark series). Throughout the summer, Wildmon's American Family Association spearheaded a missive campaign to drum up anti-Blue sentiment, urging followers to picket ABC affiliates. To help AFA members know porn when they see it, Wildmon sent his supporters photos of Blue's sexiest scenes, taken from a preview tape. ''Look at the photos and make your own judgment,'' he advised his flock.

In some parts of the country, AFA's efforts clearly worked. ''The phone started ringing in early June,'' says Craig Cornwell, program director for ABC's WTVQ in Lexington, Ky., the only of the state's three affiliates to air the show. ''I got called everything from a smutmonger to the Antichrist.'' Local church groups and the AFA picketed the station several times during the summer. Advertisers started pulling out. To defuse the situation, WTVQ conducted a telephone poll last month. About 39,000 calls were received—42 percent pro-Blue, 58 percent against. ''It wasn't exactly a scientific poll,'' notes Cornwell. ''I'd say maybe 20 percent of the calls came from organized protest groups.'' Nevertheless, WTVQ yanked the series after the second episode.

Other ABC affiliates are under similar pressure. Nashville's WKRN has received more than 5,000 petitions asking it to keep its airwaves Blue-less, but it's still airing the series. On the show's premiere night the station received over 400 calls; one viewer told general manager Deb McDermott that on Judgment Day she would have ''a mark on her record.'' Elsewhere, the protests have exploded in violence: Last month, one ABC affiliate (it asked for anonymity to avoid sparking copycat incidents) says gunshots were fired at its headquarters from a passing car during the show's debut.