A couple of seasons ago on "NYPD Blue" -- one of the few stable shows currently residing in the ABC universe -- the show's creator and executive producer, Steven Bochco, recalls that Susan Lyne (ousted last week as the network's entertainment chief) urged the show to try a little experiment.

"Susan wanted us to start using the word 'bullshit' in our episodes," Bochco said last week in a telephone interview. "And so we did -- not gratuitously, but in character. We received not a single phone call. Not one little peep. No letters of protest. Nothing. Zero.

"I thought, what a nice sign that is, that a 10 o'clock drama can occasionally access some of the casual profanity that's absolutely familiar to anyone over the age of 7."

It was yet another content victory for a series that had written the book on controversy, that had famously stood down the watchdog groups and affiliate rejection to survive its first season in 1993-94 and, more than a decade later, outlive virtually all of its critics.

But as "NYPD Blue" rolls to the end of its 11th and possibly final season, the gritty cop drama has found a foe that it can't compete with in the federal government.

The so-called indecency crackdown has hit "NYPD" 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.

Mind you, 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.

"I'd bet my house that the overwhelming majority of politicians banging this drum haven't watched us or anyone else who's being scaled back," he believes. "In typical lemming fashion, it's just, 'Oh boy, here's an opportunity to get some ink, to get my face out there in an election year.' They get to take easy shots at a slow-moving target."

Bochco suspects that the "self-appointed cultural arbiters" will move on to new issues and the crackdown will dissolve after November.

"Every election cycle, this issue rears its head," he says. "But right now, it's as scary as it's ever been. If it doesn't dissolve, this will be 'NYPD Blue's' last year. If we have to keep reining ourselves in like this, it just wouldn't be worth continuing to do the show."

Bochco perhaps states the obvious when he maintains that you couldn't put an "NYPD Blue" on the air today. "Not a chance," he believes.

The outrage is that the overwhelming majority of citizens in this country subscribe to cable, and many of those to premium cable. They don't make a distinction between what is free and commercial and what's fee and controversial. To insist otherwise is simply to delude oneself.

Then again, they seem to be doing a pretty good job of that in Washington these days.