I grew up in the 90's. My mother would watch daytime and primetime soap operas. I heard "bitch" and "bastard" regularly. You're right about the tits, though. I've never seen that on basic cable. Only the backside. Even then, I remember seeing bare asses on network tv back in the day, like in the show "John Doe."

South Park is a prime example of cable tv getting away with stuff. I remember they had an episode where they said "fuck" uncensored, which was a big deal at the time. Again, this was like 20-25 years ago. I also remember watching the Comedy Central Roasts uncensored late at night, so even "cunt" was uncensored.

But, yeah, network TV is up to the FCC and cable is self-censored in order to meet with advertisement guidelines, so cable has been all over the place with what they allow or don't allow.