Oh yes MB you're right about PBS in the 70s. Point taken! The first time I ever saw two men kiss was on a UK production of Marlowe's play Edward II, starring Ian McKellen, which was shown on PBS sometime around 1974 or 1975, I believe. There was no reaction in the press at all because nobody in Washington bothered to watch PBS--and the church groups paid no attention, either. Times have certainly changed.
I think when you wrote Caligula, you meant I, Claudius. It's certainly amusing to contemplate what public reaction, if any, there might have been had the Malcolm McDowell Caligula aired on PBS, circa 1978... I remember being surprised at how nonchalantly the actress playing Messalina sat up in bed bare-breasted in one scene.
G.