When I heard Anita Hill say "penis" on national TV, I told everyone in the room that within a week, comics on TV would be using the word. It took about 24 hours, and it was all over the place, and has been ever since. Based on watching about five episodes in the last five years, I'll bet there hasn't been one episode of "Friends" without the word "penis"--and there are probably a bunch of other sitcoms that have never left it out of a single episode.
General reply to the various comments:
1. Proof that ratings only lead to profanity/obscenity etc. on TV.
2. "Societal benefit" ??? F*** word is not of benefit to anyone's edification. The real reason is simple: RATINGS. The networks want to widen the gate for gratuitous use of words now found on Cable, so they compete aka the Race to the Bottom. See the comment re "penis" in Friends. This show is at 7pm on our TV, we cannot keep it on with kids. I am sure F*** will be used in many other places now besides some movie.
3. " Saving Private Ryan Not a Kid's movie" is right. All the more reason to edit it so it can be properly watched by kids. Keeping F*** words for "Realism" is a piss-poor excuse in my book - lots of "reality" is not deserving or needs to be on TV, and that includes some elements of war itself. do they shows these guys take a piss too??? The excuse to show it, slap a rating on it and let it pass is a wink and a nod to simply letting kids watch anything adults see - in the end the kids will watch it anyway, and we will wring our hands at the ongoing debasement of our culture and wonder how and why it happens. All JMHO.