More than 20 cuts were made in Showtime's up and coming drama 'Queer as Folk' after the pay-TV network voluntarily submitted the first six hours of the 22-hour series twice to the MPAA ratings board, Washington Post TV writer Tom Shales reported today (Thursday).

Shales quoted one unidentified cable industry executive as saying, "I'm surprised that Showtime is being so skittish about this ... because usually they go out of their way to court controversy." The channel's programming chief, Jerry Offsay, declined to discuss specific scenes that had been cut, but did tell Shales, "At some point somebody has to draw some line."

He said that the MPAA meted out the equivalent to an NC-17 rating to the episodes on each of the two occasions, offering a list of suggested changes. He also told Shales that the producers did not object. "They were very happy with the final result," he said. "We've made changes and everybody was able to live with them. We're pretty comfortable with where we ended up."

Source: Studio Briefing