Networks re-editing programs to comply with FCC rules

As the rules about TV language tighten, broadcast networks are scrambling to keep up.

Even PBS, the most genteel of networks, is re-editing its shows to fit the Federal Communications Commission’s new requirements.

“We’ve got to err on the side of restraint,” says Pat Mitchell, PBS president.

Other broadcast networks are doing the same as they face FCC rules that don’t apply to cable.

Kevin Reilly has seen the difference vividly. As president of cable’s FX network, he scored big with such gritty shows as “The Shield” and “Nip/Tuck.” Now, as NBC president, he faces limits.

“It’s an uneven playing field,” Reilly says. “I frankly think it’s unfair. … I don’t know that I would have said that two years ago.”

Actors and writers are being far less diplomatic. Richard Dreyfuss, whose “Cop Shop” is being re-edited by PBS, calls the FCC crackdown “a real-world moral and ethical battle with grimly wrong-headed, un-American types who play pick-and-choose when they define our freedoms.”

Dreyfuss produced “Cop Shop,” which is scheduled to air Oct. 6, portraying police on duty and off. He also stars with Rosie Perez in one of the segments.

To meet FCC requirements, PBS is re-editing it to bleep words referring to excrement and a sexual act, as well as what is referred to as the F-word.

The deletions were necessary to avoid having individual stations being slapped with big fines, says Mary Mazur, the executive in charge of the “Cop Shop” project.

David Black, another “Cop Shop” producer, doesn’t fault PBS but is angry about the federal crackdown on language and sexuality.

“The new FCC regulations represent an unacceptable assault on our First Amendment rights,” he says, calling it “an act unworthy of a free country.”

The battle began after Janet Jackson’s breast was exposed during the Super Bowl halftime show. The FCC — which can regulate the public airwaves, but not cable — soon tightened its rules for TV and radio.

Even ABC’s “NYPD Blue,” which has tweaked TV standards for a decade, faced new scrutiny. NBC re-edited an “ER” episode that showed a glimpse of an elderly woman’s breast as she lay on a gurney.

PBS had seemed immune to regulation, partly because of its quality and partly because it has a specialized audience; few children watch PBS’ prime-time shows by accident. It also airs many British shows, which have less-stringent standards.

Last year, PBS taped the play “Gin Game,” with Dick Van Dyke uttering the F-word. Some stations aired it, some bleeped it, some avoided it entirely; some ran the unbleeped version only late at night.

Earlier, the network made “Tales of the City,” a free-wheeling recollection of San Francisco life in the 1960s. Some stations included the nudity; others used a version that featured pixilated breasts.

Even news and public affairs programs are susceptible. PBS aired the Oscar-nominated “The Weather Underground,” in which the F-word appears on one protester’s sign.

“We didn’t notice it beforehand,” says Coby Atlas, a PBS vice president. “We got our wrists slapped for that.”