The Coarsening of Network TV

Words that you never thought you'd see on the front page of the NY Times or on the broadcast networks are suddenly all the rage:

On many nights this fall, it has been possible to tune in to broadcast network television during prime time and hear a character call someone else a “douche.”

In just the last several weeks, it has happened on CBS’s “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” which are broadcast at 8 p.m., during what used to be known as the family hour. It has been heard this fall on Fox’s new series “The Cleveland Show,” which begins at 8:30, and on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” On NBC, its use has spanned the old and the new, blurted out on the freshman comedy “Community” and the seasoned drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”

In total, the word has surfaced at least 76 times already this year on 26 prime-time network series, according to research by the Parents Television Council, which compiled the statistics at the request of The New York Times. That is up from 30 uses on 15 shows in all of 2007 and just six instances on four programs in 2005.

Ever since George Carlin laid out the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” in 1972, television writers and broadcasters have been digging more deeply into the thesaurus, seizing on new ways to titillate, if not offend. And while the word “douche” is neither obscene nor profane — although this usage is certainly offensive to many people — it seems to represent the latest of broadcast television’s continuing efforts to expand the boundaries of taste, in part to stem the tide of defections by its audience to largely unregulated cable television.

As a result, words that previously were rarely heard on television suddenly turn up everywhere, while once unspeakable slurs become passé from overuse. The use of the word, “bitch,” for example, tripled in the last decade alone, growing to 1,277 uses on 685 shows in 2007 from 431 uses on 103 prime-time episodes in 1998.

The Parents Television Council is a conservative interest group that monitors (and opposes) profanity on television, but television writers themselves acknowledge that the language on networks has changed.

“As a writer, you’re always reaching for a more potent way to call somebody a jerk,” Dan Harmon, the creator of “Community,” said about the word “douche.” “This is a word that has evolved in the last couple of years — a thing that sounds like a thing you can’t say.”

I remember sometime back in the 90's you'd never hear the word "ass" on TV. It was one those words you couldn't use.

One night we were watching "Friends" and here came the previously banned word. I was surprised they got that one past the censors, but then on the very next episode of "Seinfeld" here came the word again. Somebody, at least at NBC, had given the okay and suddenly you heard that word in every episode of every show. It's as though they knew they were getting away with something and were desperate to mainstream what was previously considered a vulgarity before someone told them they couldn't say that anymore. It's now as common as "and" and "the".

Unfortunately, writers today have forgotten how to be funny without using street slang vulgarities. They need to go back and read some scripts from Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, Mary Tyler Moore, or Dick Van Dyke and see how it's done. Yes, those shows are considered terribly old fashioned by today's standards, but they were one thing today's show aren't....funny.