There were no “suspended regulations.” I keep making this point over and over. Enforcement actions are made on a completely subjective and case-by-case basis. There is no big bad list. There is no form one must fill out in triplicate to be permitted to say “fuck” or show titties. In the event that somebody complains to the FCC about content on a network broadcast, then they will determine if it runs afoul of typical standards of indecency or obscenity.
Shit, fuck & cunt are almost never heard on on network TV. The episode of ER where Mark Greene died had him shouting “shit” when he collapsed on the beach; that was pretty controversial and some affiliates did bleep it out. There was also quite a bit of profanity broadcast live on 9/11 when every TV station in the country was showing news around the clock.
I’d note that what is generally considered acceptable (or, at least, not meeting the FCC’s standards of “offensive”) on broadcast TV has changed considerably over the years.
For example, it’s not uncommon to hear “crap” on broadcast TV now, even in the earlier hours of prime time (i.e., before 10pm ET), whereas, 30 years ago, even that mild expletive would have been considered too much for TV.
It also depends on the network what is considered “bad”. ThisTV, for example, blanks out “god damn” on all the movies it shows, even those that were originally made for TV.
Ditto “balls” when in reference to testicles.
These kinds of decisions are made by each network’s Standards and Practices department, based on how much they think they can get away with before advertisers start freaking out.
I seem to recall that Ted Turner’s cable channels (TBS, TNT, etc.) used to blip out “damn”, as well…I suppose, blasphemy being potentially offensive to a different group than scatalogical or anatomical cursing.
Yes they are. Regulations are laws. It’s called “regulatory law.” Enforcement of regulatory law also falls under the broader heading of “administrative law.”
That was just an example. ThisTV blocks scatalogical references as well, plus “son of a bitch”, etc. As a counter example, before the local station stopped carrying it, the Funimation channel on the local terrestrial digital channel had "fucK’ and “shit” all the time between the hours of midnight and 5AM. That may be the reason they stopped carrying it and switched to infomercials—too many local people got their panties in a bunch (plus the fact that there were never any local ads during the Funimation block).
Before Janet Jackson’s nipplegate, NYPD Blue got in the habit of including “bullshit” at least once per episode.
From the very beginning, NYPD Blue was considerably more daring than most prime-time shows. Not only did it frequently include words like bullshit, dickhead, asshole, etc., but it also showed a fair amount of nudity, including the large pasty ass of Dennis Franz as Andy Sipowicz. On the very first episode of the series, Andy Sipowicz grabs his crotch and calls ADA (and his future wife) Sylvia Costas a “pissy little bitch.”
And yet, despite the fact that all of this went to air on network TV, when cable stations like CourtTV and TNT ran old episodes, they would generally bleep out the swearing.
One thing i always found rather odd was that, when the show used the word asshole, TNT would play the ass, but bleep the hole. Very odd.
The local station that shows the syndicated versions of South Park does this as well, but that is probably done by the syndication package rather than the local station.
I find it even more odd that on broadcast TV they routinely mute the “god” but leave in the “damn” whenever someone says “goddamn.”