It's not just that Rod. With newer shows/movies, there's too much perceived pressure that everything has to be newer, bolder, bloodier, sexier, filthier - ie:,
BETTER.
I know Bill Cosby gets a bad rap nowdays, and I honestly have no idea of whether the man did horrible things or not. It wouldn't surprise me. However, that doesn't change the fact that his earlier work is absolutely clean and over-the-top hilarious! You don't need all the language and sex and blood-n-gore to make a movie work. All you need are good-hearted writers. I've heard that Walt Disney was no saint, but I also bet he's rolling in his grave at what Disney has been throwing out these past few years!
Imo, there's NO shortage of good writers. Maybe there is a limit to good ideas. But a lot also has to do with the fact that this world of today is not the world we had 60, 70, even 80 years ago. Back then, kids respected their parents more. Violence was looked down upon, as was sex outside of marriage. Honesty and values were taught. Go back 150 years and kids then were learning many things in grade school that are no longer taught until college, if even then.
The world has changed and, in my humble opinion, not for the better. Stories of how things used to be are limited, because that era was limited to that time. Modern stories have to reflect more the modern times. Sadly, this also includes all of the many things that are supposed to make life more enjoyable (technology). Yes, technology helps in many ways, such as the internet and Tnet, for one. But the internet also opened up a whole new world of life. Online banking + cyber thieves. Online sales + corporate hacking. Websites and forums + data mining. As with life, all new good includes all new bad.
For those newer programs that can somehow leave out the vulgarity and the overkill-sex and the blood-&-gore, they have a hit on their hands. But one day in the not so distant future, even those programs will no longer draw the crowds or the money that are necessary for the entertainment industry to survive.
Another very
LARGE problem
IS money! Back in the black & white days, actors got paid much more menial amounts. Now, seems you have to earn big $$$$$ just to consider accepting a role. Movies have to make $200 million just to break even!! What kind of craziness is that??
Excuse me while I spend my R&R time actually relaxing to something that soothes the pains of the modern world. I still watch newer programs, but my mainstay, BY FAR, are older shows that have class.
Sidenote: Just got finished watching a newer movie - Hyena Road by Paul Gross (the Canadian Mountie from the series Due South). Is a gripping movie about a portion of the war in Afghanistan. Have no idea whether it's a factual place (Hyena Road), but was a good movie. I expect there to be some language in the military, but was almost a little too much F-word in this one. I've spent my life in construction/manufacturing, military and fire fighting. I'm no stranger to language!! But there's a time and a place. Now that I've seen the movie, I will now delete it and never see it again. The M*A*S*H series on DVD? I'll keep that forever!!
I couldn't stand most of those shows when they were on. Glad I won't be missing anything now, either!
...From afar, of course! 
