Rick Schroder has finally arrived. The former Silver Spoons star, who has been winning over audiences with his portrayal of brash young detective Danny Sorenson on NYPD Blue, got a chance to show off his glutes this week.

In only his second episode, Schroder's Det. Sorenson was called on to flash his bare backside while in bed with a female acquaintance. The actor has now fulfilled the Blue tradition started by his predecessors David Caruso, whose freckled tushy left us cold, and the recently departed Jimmy Smits, whose shapely posterior will be sorely missed.

Producer David Milch insists to USA Today that having Schroder drop trou was not a ratings stunt, explaining that the actor's character "is more emotionally engaging than he is self-aware. He doesn't acknowledge his capacity for intimacy, and, in terms of nudity, that was simply a venue to represent that paradox." Uh-huh.

ABC did not promote the Ricker's nekkidness in promos, but this week's episode once again pulled in very strong numbers.

Milch tells the paper that every Blue actor signs a nudity clause when he or she joins the show, a fact Schroder confirms in a January interview with Cosmopolitan magazine: "[It] reads, 'You may be required from time to time to show the buttocks. No genitalia will be shown.'"

And while Schroder insists to the mag that "I have a nice butt," the shot may still have come as something of a surprise to him. This summer, during an interview with ABC.com, the actor said, "God, they're not going to bring a new character in and have him show his butt, like, the first month."