Following up the previous post, several TV writers I’ve spoken with agree with commenter Nick:
Network execs in 2011 cannot afford to scorn cable TV programming. Maybe ten years ago they could, but now they all want their own cable show. They want the same level of prestige and edginess, but they want to somehow make it within the confines of the usual network restrictions on language and sexuality.
The easiest thing to do, then, would be to take an outstanding cable pilot script and strip the offending elements from it, leaving (in the network exec’s mind) a perfect product: edgy, yet safe; prestigious, yet nipple-free.
A writer who hands in a network script laced with nudity and profanity and the like is playing right into the fantasy. It’s got the same TV-MA stuff you’d see on cable, so presumably the quality of the rest of the script must be right up there.
On the other hand, if the same writer handed in the same script but without the naughty bits, it would look like just another network script. And the exec doesn’t want to make a network show; he wants to make a cable show. On a network.
What bugs me about this isn’t the swearing — I love all variety of curses, the filthier the better. What annoys me is the dishonesty. The bait-and-switch.
Imagine I wrote an ABC pilot that featured a scene in which Angelina Jolie plays poker with Jennifer Aniston, with Brad Pitt’s heart as the wager.
Maybe it’s a great scene. Family Guy could do it as animation. But for a live-action show, it’s completely fucking moot, because Jolie/Aniston/Pitt are never going to agree to play themselves in this pilot. I’ve wasted everyone’s time putting this scene in the script.
It’s the same with characters saying “fuck” and “shit.” It’s not going to happen on broadcast television, so including it is just jerking everyone around.