Cable TV testing the limits on ratings

I doubt that I’m the only one who has noticed, but has anyone observed the drift toward R ratings on cable TV lately?

I’m not t alking about pay- cable networks such as HBO or Cinemax. They’ve used cursing and nudity for years.

When HBO debuted in 1972, teenage boys nationwide begged their parents to buy it.

The reasoning was: “But Mom, we won’t have to go to the theater anymore and pay all that money for tickets and Coke and popcorn. We can see the same movies in our living room.”

The actual truth was: “Hey guys, come over and spend the night on Friday and we can watch dirty movies on HBO once my parents go to bed.”

These days, though, even broadcast cable TV, which relies on advertising dollars, is leaning raunchier. I have no problem with that personally because I’m a heathen, but I must admit it is a bit jarring to hear the S-word, “G-D” and unscientific references to male genitalia on AMC, FX and other channels.

While “The Walking Dead” has beefed up its fourletter-word usage in the past couple of seasons, FX seems to be pushing the envelope the hardest.

The 12- letter cuss word — think about it — which is NEVER heard on cable TV except for HBO and its ilk, was thrown out in FX’s “The People vs. O. J. Simpson.” There was even a moment of backside nudity in a recent episode of “Leg ion” (and, in a separate note, while I love the show, if anyone can tell me exactly what ’s going on in “Legion,” I’d appreciate it).

But any overreaction on the “coarsening” of TV should probably be dialed back a bit.

A 2011 study that came out of the University of Tennessee and Florida State University showed that cuss words may be less offensive depending on the TV channel on which they’re used.

Published in the j ournal “Mass Communication and Society,” t he s t udy found that folks were most offended by sexual words, somewhat offended by bodily- function words and less offended by religious blasphemy.

There’s no indication that broadcast TV — NBC, CBS, ABC — is heading down the same track, but there’s no doubt the language has gotten tougher on those channels. Until the past decade, “damn” and “hell” were not heard regularly; now they’re common.

I remember hearing Capt. James T. Kirk say “Let’s get the hell out of here” on the “Star Trek” episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” in 1967. It shocked 10-year-old me like crazy.

Now I don’t really even hear it when it’s used. I guess that’s the coarsening of me.

Shawn Ryan