NBC's popular prime-time program "Medium" shocked viewers last night as the main male character asks his wife if she's searching for a "thicker, longer penis."
The exchange came 19 minutes into yesterday's show as the married couple – played by Patricia Arquette and Jake Weber – talked in their bedroom, a typical setting for the two characters in the program.
During last night's episode, entitled "I Married a Mind Reader," Joe Dubois walks into the bedroom late at night as his wife, Allison, a medium who helps law enforcement solve crimes, is sitting at a computer.
Joe: Whatcha lookin' for at this hour of the night? Drugs from Canada? A fast and convenient way out of credit card debt? A thicker, longer penis?
Allison: Oh! (she chuckles)
Allison is searching for information on the Internet about an actor in an old TV program about whom she had had a dream. The penis comment was not relevant to the plot of the show.
"I literally fell off my chair when I heard it," said a WND reader who TiVo'd the program. "I've never heard anything like it on television."
Airing Mondays at 10 p.m., "Medium" combines the crime-fighting Dubois character, who is based on a real-life woman of the same name, with the up-and-down realities of an American family with both parents working. The TV family has three young daughters.
The show, created by Emmy-winning executive producer and director Glenn Gordon Caron, has been hailed by fans and critics alike. Arquette won an Emmy as best actress in a drama for her work on the show, and a recent issue of "TV Guide" features the show on its cover.
One fan on a message board for the show says she watches it with her family: "Best show on television today! Our family watches it together. We laugh and enjoy the relationship of the family. In our opinion, the most realistic show of a working couple with kids and their life ... although I think the husband does more child caring than most these days!"
Washington Post critic Tom Shales hailed the show, calling it an "especially impressive achievement."
Wrote Shales: "You may groan at the premise – a young woman helps the police solve crimes through use of her psychic intuition – but it's brought off with so much storytelling skill and so few voguish gimmicks that it might as well be the first show of its kind. It's white-knuckle television, and you may want to reinforce the arms of easy chairs and couches so they can withstand rigorous gripping."
Last week, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin told a congressional committee producers of indecent television, especially cable and satellite channels, should provide parents more tools to shield children from adult fare. "Medium," of course, aired on NBC, a regular broadcast network.
"Parents need better and more tools to help them navigate the entertainment waters, particularly on cable and satellite TV," Martin said.
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