A swing back to '70s sex

With its tantalizing promise of orgies and open marriages, "Swingtown" has gotten so much press that when the pilot episode opens with a pilot character, you almost miss the joke because you're too busy waiting for all the groovy sex. Yes, there is a "Coffee, tea or me?" moment when it seems like the airline pilot in question, Tom Decker (Grant Show) is being, er, serviced by a flight attendant (back when they were called stewardesses), and yes, he does go on to bring home a winsome young thing to the wife for a little threesome action. But for all the sexual daring and nostalgia the off-screen menage a trois musters -- no exchange of sexual history needed, not a condom in sight -- it's hard to get past the opening scene.

Man, remember when pilots weren't locked into their cockpits? When passengers were free to roam the aisles and flirtation was expected if not encouraged? Remember when flying was actually considered sexy?

Heck, remember when sex was considered sexy?

For all the Industry Chatter, the new CBS drama might as well be called "That '70s Sex Show." A network daring to tread in the R-rated territory previously left to the cable stations -- imagine! But while there is off-screen fornication aplenty in the first episode, this isn't a show about sex so much as it is about sexiness. About a time when sex drove more than just tween marketing, when Americans weren't pre- or post-anything, when groovy was still groovy and grown-ups gave much more thought to their own social lives than they did to their children's.

A noble pursuit, and certainly a relief considering the growing clinical nature of sex on television and the disturbingly airy freedom with which the term "the sexless marriage" is now thrown around. If only the pilot were a little less contrived.

To explore the spectrum of white middle-class behavior, creator Mike Kelley ("The O.C." "Providence") gives us three couples living in Winnetka, Ill., and its environs. Airline pilot Tom and his wife, Trina (Lana Parrilla), are the swingers in residence -- Trina's only comment after her husband brings home the young stew for an afternoon dalliance is that they "try to stay in their own age bracket for a while." Enjoying a post-coitus Tab, she happens to glance out the window to see her new neighbors, who are nothing if not age-appropriate.