Indecency complaints filed against episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Will & Grace have been dismissed by the Federal Communications Commission. Brooks Boliek of Reuters writes:

The [Parents Television Council], one of the more active groups on the indecency front run by L. Brent Bozell, complained to the commission about an episode of “Buffy” that aired April 22, 2003, on WDCA, a UPN affiliate in Washington. In the episode, the characters Spike and Buffy fight before having sex, according to the order.

“The commission noted that there was no nudity and there was no evidence that the activity depicted was dwelled upon or was used to pander, titillate or shock the audience,” the commission said in a release.

Americans for Decency, a Phoenix-based group run by T.C. Bundy that claims as its mission statement that it wants to “reduce sexual violence and victimization” by “educating about the danger and harm of pornography,” contends that a single episode of “Will & Grace” that aired March 31, 2003, on Fox Affiliate KSAZ in Phoenix was indecent. In the episode, a “woman photographer passionately kissed (a) woman author and then humped her (what she called a ‘dry hump’),” according to the order.

While the commission did not say that a “dry hump” is always within the bounds of the commission’s rules on broadcast propriety, the panel did note that “both characters are fully clothed, and there is no evidence that the activity depicted was dwelled upon, or was used to pander, titillate or shock the audience.”

Wouldn’t you have loved to have overheard the discussion of the ‘”dry hump’”? Here’s the full text of the FCC’s order concerning Will and Grace, and the order concerning Buffy.