From: hermit@cats.UCSC.EDU (William R. Ward)
Newsgroups: rec.nude
Subject: Re: Doogie Howser M.D.
Date: 3 Oct 92 02:45:54
Organization: Computing and Telecommunications Services, UCSC
Distribution: rec
NNTP-Posting-Host: am.ucsc.edu
In-reply-to: lebrun@ll.mit.edu's message of Thu,  1 Oct 92 09:08:45 -0400

In article <9210010908.PN07824@LL.MIT.EDU> lebrun@ll.mit.edu (Steven F. LeBrun) writes:
|Last night, 30-Sept-1992, on the television show "Doogie Howser
|M.D.", Doogie persuades his date to go skinny dipping after she
|expresses a desire to go swimming but does not have a swimming suit.
|In his discussion about not needing a swim suit, Doogie states some
|ideas that are often seen in rec.nude.  He states that it is a shame
|that this country (the USA) with respect to the rest of the world can
|be so advanced in so many areas and be so backwards about nudity.  I
|believe that Doogie's short monologue about nudity had a stronger
|impact on accepting nudity than the actual skinny dipping scene.

I agree 100%.  It was very well done.  It wasn't too preachy, as
someone mentioned.  It did an excellent job of capturing the mix of
sexiness and sensuality and fun of that sort of situation (While
skinny-dipping isn't inherently sexual, it is somewhat so when you're
doing it with someone you're dating!), while not falling into the trap
of turning it into a sexual encounter like most TV shows might.  It
wasn't too preachy; it showed two people talking each other into a
daring thing.... And the comic value of the whole thing was great
too...

|I really enjoyed the symbolism in the show.  Soon after Doogie and
|his date jump in the pool, his mother comes home and finds them
|playing in the pool.  Kathryn, Doogie's mother, was appalled to
|finding her son "naked with a woman" (Kathryn's words).  Her actions
|and words implies that what happened at the pool was wrong.

Doogie's date was Kathryn's *boss*, which was part of the reason for
her being upset with him.  Certainly it was mainly about his being too
old to be her kid, but it was about other things too.

|During the course of the story, Kathryn realizes that it is not the
|nudity that appalled her, it was the fact that her son had grown up.
|At the end of the story, Doogie walks into the living room to find
|his mother watching movies of Doogie, when he was a toddler, playing
|in a kiddie (inflatable) pool.

The home movies that she was watching at the end were of Doogie
skinny-dipping as a kid!  He was naked, running around, frolicking in
the inflatable pool.  I think that nudity was an important aspect of
the show and of her acceptance of Doogie's behavior.

|In my interpretation,  Doogie represents the heathy concept of body
|acceptance and self image, i.e. nudism.  The interplay between the
|Doogie and his date while he is convincing her that it is alright to
|swim without clothing starts out with romantic overtones (romantic,
|not sexual), after all, they are on a date.  The situation quickly
|becomes more child-like (child-like as in innocent instead of immature)
|when Doogie says "I won't look if you don't".  The actions in the pool
|are also innocent play.  They are splashing and laughing in the water
|like friends of all ages, regardless of gender, would playing together.

Well, there *was* an element of sexual tension involved, I think.  But
I think it was fabulous that once they got in the pool they started
splashing and playing, not screwing around or anything.  And one
interesting note--despite FCC rules etc., you could see that both
actors were really nude (or wearing VERY convincing flesh-tone
swimsuits), which is kind of cool.

|Kathryn's discovery that Doogie is growing/grown up forces her to
|realize that she has to accept this change in her life whether she
|wants to or not.  Kathryn's acceptance of Doogie growing up parallels
|society's need to accept behaviors that it may not like that are not
|harmful.

This show affected me a lot.  I'm going through a (scarily) similar
situation in my own life--I'm 21, and living with an older woman, and
while I'm not living with my parents, my mother is having a very hard
time letting go of me and letting me be an adult.  The lesson that
Doogie learned in the show is one I'm reminded of a lot lately.... in
fact, just a few days ago, I met with my mother for lunch to discuss
this very issue!

|It is good to see shows like this make a positive statement about
|nudity.  Hopefully, this will become a trend on TV and in the movies.

Definitely agree!  That would be wonderful.  Actually there seem to be
more and more shows that mention it... ever since the L.A. Law episode
that I think everyone here knows about.  Hopefully one day the FCC
will allow non-sexual nudity on TV, perhaps!  But I won't hold my
breath.
--
William R Ward                       Bay View Software
VoiceMail: +1 (408) 479-4072         Internet:  hermit@cats.ucsc.edu
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           Santa Cruz CA 95060 USA
Newsgroups: rec.nude,news.answers