I'm bookmarking this post to reference when I'm writing script notes. Thank you, Scott.

When my daughter was growing up, there were all kinds of movies I wanted to show her but didn't simply because of one or two scenes of adult content - many of which did not make the movie any better. For example, "9 to 5" is a great film that younger people can enjoy, but there's a lengthy and unnecessary scene of them sitting around smoking pot. (I showed that one to her anyway and she loved it) I'm all for filmmaking making whatever movie they want, but know that lots of films will be avoided if they can't be watched with kids.

Doesn't matter. From what I've been told, it's much easier to tone down a piece than to spice it up. So unless the script is just a gratuitously constant stream of expletives, it will be rewritten in production to suit the producer's needs. Therefore, the best thing to do, imho, is to simply be true to yourself.

What do you think about the pilot for Once Upon a Time then? It's filled with the f-bomb but obviously it was not put in the show itself. Is this because it was pitched by a previously established writer, or just something that worked out?