Pixelization makes TV 'nudity' a blurry issue

Howie Mandel wore black high-top shoes — and nothing else — during a remote shoot for NBC's "America's Got Talent." Krysten Ritter strolled around in the altogether, casually snacking and chatting on ABC's "Don't Trust the B— in Apartment 23." And Ashton Kutcher greeted visitors on CBS' "Two and a Half Men" in shaggy shoulder-length hair and his birthday suit. These aren't clips from "Networks Gone Wild," but scenes from the recent broadcast season where instances of "full nudity" have skyrocketed. The trick, of course, is that the actors just appear to be naked — the censor-offending, federally banned body parts blurred beyond recognition by the wonders of modern editing.

Known as pixelization, the post-production technique, which displays a certain area of a photo or footage at a much lower resolution, came into wider use years ago largely in TV news, documentaries and reality programs. There, the practice obscured product placements, and distorted everything from a license plate number to a human face to protect privacy rights. But now television writers are using the tactic as a sight gag and a way to attract attention, in much the same way that scripted programming commonly bleeps out censored language. The stars themselves are almost always not in their birthday suits anyway. Instead, they are outfitted with body suits or swimsuits that are later erased or covered up with special effects, according to producers and industry insiders. In the 2010-11 television season, there was one instance of pixelized "full frontal nudity" on the major networks. This season, there were 64, according to new research by the Parents Television Council, a nonprofit Los Angeles-based media watchdog group. Though the nudity is usually phony, this use of pixelization pokes at the standards of what is considered decent and underscores a larger debate about what should be allowed on television.