Yahoo! News - Indecency Crackdown Has Bochco in 'Blue' Mood
The so-called indecency crackdown has hit "NYPD Blue" hard, Bochco explains. At ABC's insistence, the show has been forced over the past two months to alter or eliminate visuals in four sex scenes. "We've also had to dial back some of our language issues," he says.

Bochco relates these facts with more sadness and resignation than outrage, like a man who cannot believe he's still fighting the same battles nearly 25 years after bringing "Hill Street Blues" to NBC. He's philosophical about it -- but not at all pleased.

"We unfortunately live in a time where we no longer have broadcasting philosophies," Bochco believes. "We have divisions of giant companies who do staggering amounts of business with the government. Because of their size and responsibility to shareholders, they're prepared to accommodate anything rather than take on the government in ways that could cost money and damage their relationship with advertisers."

That's the new reality. And what upsets Bochco perhaps more than anything isn't the fact his show has to relinquish hard-won freedoms and water down his product 11 years in; it's that he's the victim of what he sees as mere political jockeying.

We are moving backwards. The talent will abandon network television for venues such as HBO where they will not be censored, and once again those who can afford it will have quality entertainment. The rest of us will just have to settle for gratuitous violence as usual.