By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT — A nudity scene aired on "NYPD Blue" will not cost television stations thousands of dollars after all, a Manhattan federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The controversial 2003 episode, entitled "Nude Awakening," depicted the nude buttocks of actress Charlotte Ross, who was playing the live-in girlfriend of the show's star, Det. Andy Sipowicz, played by Dennis Franz.
Dozens of television stations, including ABC affiliates in Central and Mountain times zones, were fined $27,500 by the Federal Communications Commission for airing the allegedly illicit footage between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., the hours that are off limits for such material, according to the court decision.
FCC rules say the stations violated the "indecency standards" of the law by showing the nudity for "slightly less than seven seconds," the decision reads.
But a federal appeals court in Manhattan disagreed with the FCC's action, claiming nudity in itself was not "per se" in violation of the rules, saying that the regulations are vague to begin with.
NYPD Blue was a popular network police drama that ran from 1993 to 2005 on ABC. It is now airing in reruns.
"Nude Awakening" originally ran on Feb. 25, 2003.
