Blogger ephemerist has a fun post about the PBS broadcast of the recent stage production of King Lear, wherein Ian McKellan appears (briefly) nude. PBS snipped the nude scene before airing the program.
I didn’t make it to the play when it came to Minneapolis last year, but some friends did, and said McKellan’s performance was phenomenal.
local nudist 
I’ve noticed for several years that PBS has gone out of their way to avoid controversy, especially after Nipplegate. They are a broadcast network and probably fear the heavy hammer of the FCC. They’re also funded with federal money and donations and don’t wish to piss off their sources of fundng. I think that may explain it but it doesn’t justify their self-censorship.
I thnk if Shakespeare wrote the play with nudity then he must have thought essential to the storyline and should be included. Who are they to change the story? So what if a child briefly sees a penis on PBS? Children only have a problem with it if adults have taught them that it is a problem. It’s the adults who have a problem with it.
I’m so tired of the paranoia and neo-puritanism that has swept the country since 9/11.