Source: New York Times
You Can't Do That on Television!
By SCOTT ROBSON
Published: July 18, 2004
STEVEN BOCHCO is a little anxious. In a few weeks, the multiple Emmy Award-winning writer-producer will start sending scripts for the coming season of "N.Y.P.D. Blue" to ABC executives for their input. It's something Mr. Bochco has done for years, a first step in every episode's journey from writing room to living room.
But Mr. Bochco is still smarting from lost battles with network censors last season, when he was forced to alter or delete four scenes with partial nudity after Janet Jackson's overexposure at the Super Bowl. "I'm not doing anything particularly different this year than I've done in the past," he says. "But I'm not going to do something I know is going to be really provocative either. If I do, they'll blur it. They'll cut it. They'll perform artless surgery."
Six months after the Super Bowl, writers, producers and network executives are in a state of confusion about what they are allowed to say and show on television. Some contend that election-year posturing in Washington — along with Jackson fallout, residue of Bono's celebratory expletive during the 2003 Golden Globes and even regulatory moves against Howard Stern and other radio shock jocks — is resulting in the most conservative television environment in years. Others say they barely feel the chill.
As television's creative community reconvenes in studio bungalows and office towers across Los Angeles, prepping the dozens of shows that will make up the fall's prime-time schedule, Congress is considering legislation that could raise the penalty for indecency against networks from a four-figure maximum for each violation to $3 million a day.
Meanwhile, nearly everyone is wondering just how to spot the elusive line they're not supposed to cross. "The problem is the F.C.C. is trying to enforce a standard that doesn't exist," says Jeff Filgo, executive producer for "That 70's Show." "It's almost like they're saying: `What's indecency? That's for us to know and for you to find out.' You don't know if you've done anything wrong until you get letters." Damon Lindelof, a former co-producer of "Crossing Jordan" and a creator and executive producer of the new series "Lost," is equally perplexed. While "you can't say `goddamn it' on network TV," he says, some expletives are fine: "You can't say `Jesus Christ' as an exclamation, but you can refer to him as someone who made wine out of water. Where is the line? I wish I knew."
Unlike the film industry, which regulates all American releases with a single ratings board, television has always been governed by informal consensus. Networks reluctantly adopted a ratings system in 1997, but it has yet to catch on with viewers. Internally, the networks rely on watchdog standards and practices departments to vet shows. But these divisions have few, if any, hard-and-fast rules. "Many people think in my drawer I've got a list of 30 words you can't say, but that doesn't exist," says Alan Wurtzel, who as president of research for NBC oversees the network's standards and practices unit. "We're more focused on ensuring that each show works in the viewing context and with audience expectations."
Until last year, the power of these departments was generally considered to be on the wane. After all, throughout the 1990's network content had steadily been getting racier in response to changing social norms and competition from edgier fare on basic and pay cable. ABC showed teenage lesbians kissing on "Once and Again" and David Caruso's naked behind on "N.Y.P.D. Blue"; CBS showed youthful cannibalism on "C.S.I."
Which makes the current round of restrictions
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