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Valentine’s Day is coming right up. So is the 40th anniversary of what is arguably the most talked-about kiss in television history. Put those two things together, and one conclusion is inescapable. The high-impact television kiss seems to have gone extinct.
There was a time when a kiss, delivered by the right kind of person to the right kind of person, could set the whole country abuzz and speak profoundly to our national identity crisis. That time was Feb. 19, 1972. On that night, a Saturday, near the end of an episode of the most popular show on television, “All in the Family,” Sammy Davis Jr. planted a kiss on the right cheek of Archie Bunker, the superbigot played by Carroll O’Connor, a split second that instantly became the stuff of television legend.
Davis, a glittery Vegas-style star who played himself in the episode (he had left a briefcase in Archie’s cab), may not have exactly been representative of the black power movement, but he was just right for the job of underscoring the hypocrisy of the age. John Rich, director of the episode, who died on Jan. 29, said in a 1999 interview that the kiss was added at his suggestion when the scripted ending felt weak.
It was perfectly set up, not just by what had gone on earlier in the episode — Davis joked about having a clause in his contract requiring him to kiss white celebrities — but also by the previous 33 episodes of the show, which was then in its second season. It was as if the character of Archie had been building a foundation of narrow-mindedness and self-contradiction specifically so that he could be sent reeling by Davis’s simple smooch.
The Captain Kirk-Uhura kiss on “Star Trek” in 1968, compelled by telekinetic aliens, caused a stir, but the “All in the Family” kiss was more than a stir; it was in effect calling out a country that by 1972 routinely glorified black performers and athletes but was still full of people who thought and acted like Archie. The episode and the kiss have been making lists of top TV moments ever since.
Now move ahead to this past Wednesday night. In a single hour on one network, ABC, a variety of kisses were exchanged that once upon a time might have also shocked the nation. On “Modern Family,” a series, like “All in the Family,” that seems to own the comedy Emmys, Phil had a potential real estate client who caused domestic turmoil with his habit of kissing people on the lips when he was saying an ordinary goodbye.
In a half-hour, the guy (played by Greg Kinnear) kissed Phil’s wife, his own school-age son and daughter and a gray-haired old woman (twice!) smack on the lips. Then came the Valentine’s-themed episode of “Happy Endings,” which featured both gal-on-gal and guy-on-guy kissing (also some drooling). The world seemed not to notice any of this lip action.
Yes, it suddenly seems as if it had been a long time since a television kiss could attract attention. The recent resurgence of Madonna, who performed at the Super Bowl, calls to mind her notorious kiss of Britney Spears on an MTV awards show in 2003, but compared with the “All in the Family” scene, that bit of face-sucking now seems like a lot of noise signifying nothing. Just an aging celebrity and a young one trying to get noticed.
It is entirely possible that these days there is no imaginable kiss that could stir our national emotions, whether transgender, interracial or even interspecies. Poke around on Animal Planet and similar channels and you’ll see rather a lot of people kissing animals on their mouths, snouts and such.
“Hillbilly Handfishin’ ” has made kiss-and-release a tradition for catfish catchers on the show. “Call of the Wildman” features a guy who hunts snapping turtles and feels compelled to kiss them once they’re captured. Pythons, alligators — just about anything, really, is kissable here in 2012, and our collective indifference is cause for alarm.
It’s dismaying to think of a television future without Archie-Sammy moments. A world that cannot be moved by a television kiss is, on some level, a world without emotion.
But there is something we can do to ensure that future generations have a chance to experience the jolt of a controversial smooch. The federal government should ban kissing on network television the way it has historically banned certain words and body parts (a ban now receiving a judicial review). Perhaps cable and premium channels should be included as well, constitutionality be damned.
It’s been 40 years since the “All in the Family” kiss; we’ll probably need 40 years of no kissing to restore the power of this once mighty gesture. If we act now, somewhere around 2052 a brave network show will slip in a smooch and rock the world the way “NYPD Blue” once did with a little bare flesh. Until then, all you actors, please keep your lips to yourselves.
Valentine’s Day is coming right up. So is the 40th anniversary of what is arguably the most talked-about kiss in television history. Put those two things together, and one conclusion is inescapable. The high-impact television kiss seems to have gone extinct.
Davis, a glittery Vegas-style star who played himself in the episode (he had left a briefcase in Archie’s cab), may not have exactly been representative of the black power movement, but he was just right for the job of underscoring the hypocrisy of the age. John Rich, director of the episode, who died on Jan. 29, said in a 1999 interview that the kiss was added at his suggestion when the scripted ending felt weak.
It was perfectly set up, not just by what had gone on earlier in the episode — Davis joked about having a clause in his contract requiring him to kiss white celebrities — but also by the previous 33 episodes of the show, which was then in its second season. It was as if the character of Archie had been building a foundation of narrow-mindedness and self-contradiction specifically so that he could be sent reeling by Davis’s simple smooch.
The Captain Kirk-Uhura kiss on “Star Trek” in 1968, compelled by telekinetic aliens, caused a stir, but the “All in the Family” kiss was more than a stir; it was in effect calling out a country that by 1972 routinely glorified black performers and athletes but was still full of people who thought and acted like Archie. The episode and the kiss have been making lists of top TV moments ever since.
Now move ahead to this past Wednesday night. In a single hour on one network, ABC, a variety of kisses were exchanged that once upon a time might have also shocked the nation. On “Modern Family,” a series, like “All in the Family,” that seems to own the comedy Emmys, Phil had a potential real estate client who caused domestic turmoil with his habit of kissing people on the lips when he was saying an ordinary goodbye.
In a half-hour, the guy (played by Greg Kinnear) kissed Phil’s wife, his own school-age son and daughter and a gray-haired old woman (twice!) smack on the lips. Then came the Valentine’s-themed episode of “Happy Endings,” which featured both gal-on-gal and guy-on-guy kissing (also some drooling). The world seemed not to notice any of this lip action.
Yes, it suddenly seems as if it had been a long time since a television kiss could attract attention. The recent resurgence of Madonna, who performed at the Super Bowl, calls to mind her notorious kiss of Britney Spears on an MTV awards show in 2003, but compared with the “All in the Family” scene, that bit of face-sucking now seems like a lot of noise signifying nothing. Just an aging celebrity and a young one trying to get noticed.
It is entirely possible that these days there is no imaginable kiss that could stir our national emotions, whether transgender, interracial or even interspecies. Poke around on Animal Planet and similar channels and you’ll see rather a lot of people kissing animals on their mouths, snouts and such.
“Hillbilly Handfishin’ ” has made kiss-and-release a tradition for catfish catchers on the show. “Call of the Wildman” features a guy who hunts snapping turtles and feels compelled to kiss them once they’re captured. Pythons, alligators — just about anything, really, is kissable here in 2012, and our collective indifference is cause for alarm.
It’s dismaying to think of a television future without Archie-Sammy moments. A world that cannot be moved by a television kiss is, on some level, a world without emotion.
But there is something we can do to ensure that future generations have a chance to experience the jolt of a controversial smooch. The federal government should ban kissing on network television the way it has historically banned certain words and body parts (a ban now receiving a judicial review). Perhaps cable and premium channels should be included as well, constitutionality be damned.
It’s been 40 years since the “All in the Family” kiss; we’ll probably need 40 years of no kissing to restore the power of this once mighty gesture. If we act now, somewhere around 2052 a brave network show will slip in a smooch and rock the world the way “NYPD Blue” once did with a little bare flesh. Until then, all you actors, please keep your lips to yourselves.
