In this day and age, where thong swimsuits are prevalent at famous beaches, local pools and thong underwear is commonly available as an option in most department stores, a sighting on popular entertainment wouldn’t garner even a raised eyebrow. Well except from purveyors and self appointed guardians of feigned morality. And also to note that the options seem overwhelmingly, if not solely for women’s wear.
However, even as recently as the last two and a half decades, societal forces were in more of a closeted mode, certain slips or visuals of thongs in mainstream were somewhat scandalous and titillating given the fact of the comparative demure nature of swimsuits and back coverage of that era. Just a warning that there will be some circumlocution while unveiling the shows and nature of the disrobement to keep everything above the belt so to speak :).
House MD
A show about a misanthropic consultant doctor, played by Hugh Laurie, set in a major hospital, it could be a given that some exposure of the human body would be common given that medicine requires full access to the body and not be confined to puritan chastity or Victorian morals of coverage. Even so there does seem to be a lascivious undertone to the writers narrative, which apart from the blatant muttering of workplace harassment of the variety that can’t be mentioned here, seems to focus on either a certain upper body part for women, if not the underwear, or lack there of for the lower part.
The first scene is from Season One, Episode 17 “Role model.” At 23 minutes and 44 seconds, the patient, who at this point seems to have been engaging in immaculate intercourse, has a rash and lowers her pants to reveal a cerulean thong for just a brief duration. There is a bit longer profile shot where the side straps are on view for a longer stretch.
Season Three, Episode 3, [Time unknown], a patient’s daughter is infatuated with House while attending a session with her father. In a scene after a brief discourse wanting to thank him for looking after her father, girl walks backwards and turns around to quickly reveal a red mini thong which is glaringly visible with a very low rise jeans and blue t-shirt that’s above the waist line. This then pans to House’s befuddled to appreciative glance then zooms back in to a tightly cropped footage of thong as she walks away.
*House MD can be seen on Amazon Prime at the moment.
Dexter
Forensics expert by day and vigilante sociopath leaning towards taking out criminals only by night. A show which contains a good deal of gore, although not as much by comparison to other crime shows. It contains a lot of simulated inter-course type activities as well as top-less women galore and other miscellaneous nudity. So not much of a stretch to see some thongs.
One interesting curio is in Season 5 episode 5 “First Blood,” where at roughly 13 minutes and 6 seconds, Masuka, another forensic technician, is showing his back tattoo and the screen pans up from his waist up. In this scene there’s no shirt and the pants seem secured and zipped up however his underwear waist line sits a good 2 inches, at least, higher.
The pan is relatively quick so it gives the impression of a thong and moves up to a tattoo of a nude and bare breasted female warrior. It does then however zoom out to show the full upper torso plus the ultra low rise pants and underwear combo. This reveals more of a rio type bikini rather than a thong. The scene does go on the show from the front where the side strap is clearly hiked high above the pants and is under an inch wide. So even though it’s not a thong it’s interesting to see this level of gratuity for men on a show. Mind you this is a show based in Miami and Masuka is more of the frivolous, brazen type ala Quagmire from Family Guy, so guess it’s a bit more open then other US shows.
In the same episode, while at the tattoo shop, there is a woman getting a back tattoo at roughly 23 minutes and 16 seconds while only wearing a dark pink thong and a tied back tank top. The shot is a close up and quickly zooms back out to show the main characters while still clearly showing the woman in the background sitting leaning facing forwards on the back of a salon sofa. There’s several visuals of this at this point.
After a brief discourse with the tattoo artist known as Michael Angelo, Debra (Detective Morgan) and Masuka head back out where the woman appears again starting at 25 minutes and 26 seconds. Then after this there’s prolonged shots of the Debra where the woman in the thong is clearly visible at varying zooms while getting tattooed. The climax of this is the woman dismounting the chair like a motorcycle, turning around walking closer to the camera and adjusting the front of the underwear while nearly in the foreground and turning back again which is partially obscured by the detective.
Whether these are gratuitous or just somewhat candid is hard to gauge and will depend upon the viewer’s interpretation.
Season 7, Episode 6 “Do the Wrong Thing,” at 21:50, the scenes pans across a beach while two girls carrying a massive surf board runs past the foreground. The first is wearing a rio type suit while the second is in a pink g-string bikini which runs quite steeply at the thong part. At 22:44 two women head up some steps in the background, which appears to be the same g-string clad woman, with another woman in a pink thong right next to her.
Another scene from Season 7, Episode 8 “Argentina” at the 24 minutes and 10 seconds, a woman walks past the main cast who are seated in a outside bistro just near the marina. The scene shows the woman from the back with a low rise g-string bikini framed at mid buttocks and half way down the shoulders at the top. Nearer the start of the 24th minute, the woman can be seen from the front walking past.
8 Simple Rules
A sitcom centered around the typical middle class suburban family with two parents and three children, the pilot starts with perfunctory introduction of the main cast.
At around the 3:24 minute mark, the last of the three children, Bridget (Kaley Cuoco) is introduced with a not to subtle exposition on her attire, which at this point consists of a crop halter top, low rise jeans with straps of pink underwear slightly, but flagrantly, shown and being adjusted. Around 7 seconds later a shot from the back reveals that the straps extend from a g-string and are hiked up quite high.
This is the main focus of the dialogue for the next one minute, with shots switching from the back to the front and other angles. During which, the Dad (John Ritter), at 3:44 mark, describes the undergarment as a slingshot to which Bridget replies that “It’s a thong.”
The point of contention being that the not only is the appearance of the under garment inappropriate but alludes to how itself might be an issue and possibly the cause of the newer generation’s anger which is delivered by Ritter’s character with the line – walking around in a wedgie.
This is later followed up at the 5:48 minute mark, where Bridget is walking out of the car which clearly reveals the lower thong portion as she walks off. Only to be followed up by a close up, which switches back to just showing the waistband straps and jeans which seems to be not as lowered as the previous scene. Then followed by a full shot which then shows a slightly more lowered jeans line which shows the straps plus a bit more of the thong back.
The focus on thong underwear in what appears to be PG rated show at the onset is intriguing for a show that came out in 2002 but would be quite demure by today’s standards
These are just some of the more popular shows from around the time period of thongs were not as prevalent and somewhat more restricted and taboo. If there are any others that you would know of please comment the shows and possibly the episodes they are from.
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