OK, smoking is bad for you, but so is being too PC......>>>>>

[Johnny SixPack]

This is way over the top IMO:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14452732/

LONDON - Turner Broadcasting is scouring more than 1,500 classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including old favorites Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, to edit out scenes that glamorize smoking.

The review was triggered by a complaint to British media regulator Ofcom by one viewer who took offence to two episodes of Tom and Jerry shown on the Boomerang channel, part of Turner Broadcasting which itself belongs to Time Warner Inc.

"We are going through the entire catalogue," Yinka Akindele, spokeswoman for Turner in Europe, said on Monday.

"This is a voluntary step we've taken in light of the changing times," she said, adding the painstaking review had been prompted by the Ofcom complaint.

The regulator's latest news bulletin stated that a viewer, who was not identified, had complained about two smoking scenes on Tom and Jerry, saying they "were not appropriate in a cartoon aimed at children."

In the first, "Texas Tom", the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the second, "Tennis Chumps", Tom's opponent in a match smokes a large cigar.

"The licensee has ... proposed editing any scenes or references in the series where smoking appeared to be condoned, acceptable, glamorized or where it might encourage imitation," Ofcom said, adding that "Texas Tom" was one such example.

Akindele said cartoons would only be modified "where smoking could be deemed to be cool or glamorized", and that scenes where a villain was featured with a cigarette or cigar would not necessarily be cut.

"These are historic cartoons, they were made well over 50 years ago in a different time and different place," she added. "Our audience is children and we don't want to be irresponsible."

Turner Broadcasting could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ofcom said it recognized smoking was more generally accepted when cartoons were produced in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, but argued that the threshold for including such scenes when the audience was predominately young should be high.

About 56 percent of Boomerang's audience is aged four to 14 years old.

Early reaction to the review on Web logs broadly attacked Turner's decision.

"Have to dig out all those photos and films of (Winston) Churchill and airbrush out the cigars," said a message posted on the "Organ Grinder" forum on the Guardian newspaper's Web site.

The review was not the first time a famous cartoon character was forced to give up smoking.

Belgian cartoonist Maurice de Bevere replaced his most popular creation Lucky Luke's ubiquitous cigarette with a blade of grass, winning him an award from the World Health Organization in 1988.


Oy vay. 


Johnny

[Old Moparz]

I hate the Atlanta Braves, so I may as well hate Ted Turner too.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner

[PocketThunder]

Well its about time they cut out the smoking scenes.  Remember when they cut out Speedy Gonzalas because he labeled all mexicans as being thiefs?  And they cut out the Bugs Bunny and Japanese guys because it showed the Japanese guys with huge coke bottle glasses stereotyping their looks....

what a shame.

I watch Jay-Jay the Jet Plane with my little guy now. 

[Johnny SixPack]

I can see the argument for deleting scenes where a race is being intrinsically targeted (even then these 'cartoons' were products of their time and should be recognized as such), but smoking is wholly different.

Are they next going to censor scenes where Bugs/Daffy/Porky/etc. dress up as women?

You know they're totally mocking, nay... disrespecting transvestites.

Holy crap, man, you take away Bugs either mocking people, wearing women's clothing, or kissing other guys and you've got a cartoon about a rabbit who took a wrong turn back at Albuquerque. 

[Kirkvkid]

I won't comment on the smoking issue, someone else can fight that war. 

I think what is most troubling about this article is one viewer complained and they are going to change the cartoon.  Didn't we start a war in 1775 so that everyone could decide what was good for one person, not one person decide what was good for everyone else.   

[bull]

They should replace all the cigarettes and cigars in cartoons with pepperoni meat sticks to promote the Atkins diet. Kids are too fat.

[Shakey]

And the Tom & Jerry cartoons plot outline is the cat trying to murder the mouse and it usually ends up with the cat dying a violent death.

    Hmmmmm

I wonder how Mommy feels about that?   

[Johnny SixPack]

And the Tom & Jerry cartoons plot outline is the cat trying to murder the mouse and it usually ends up with the cat dying a violent death.

    Hmmmmm

I wonder how Mommy feels about that?   

Give the man a cigar, er... pepperoni stick! 

Smoking is bad but garroting your enemies (well, local predatory entity) is all cool. 

[John_Kunkel]

It seems like one extreme or the other, I've watched a couple of movies lately where a main character lights up one after another; makes my lungs ache just watching.

[Mike DC]

 
All symptomatic of the media issues at large. 


Better to ban something from TV than talk to our kids and set better examples.

 

[inhrmswy]

All I want to know is where can I get copies of the classic cartoons before they get butchered?  In my opinion the old cartoons are the best.  I cant stand watching any of the new crap.  I'm 31.  I remember getting up saturday morning and watching all the classics from about 6 till 10, when american bandstand came on.  I had no interest in that show at all.

[PocketThunder]

All I want to know is where can I get copies of the classic cartoons before they get butchered?  In my opinion the old cartoons are the best.  I cant stand watching any of the new crap.  I'm 31.  I remember getting up saturday morning and watching all the classics from about 6 till 10, when american bandstand came on.  I had no interest in that show at all.

i'm 31.  and then WWF came on at 11:30 or noon and the living room turned into a wrestling ring!  Poor mom and all her yelling at us to stop wrestling on the furniture...

[Todd Wilson]

I think what is most troubling about this article is one viewer complained and they are going to change the cartoon.  Didn't we start a war in 1775 so that everyone could decide what was good for one person, not one person decide what was good for everyone else.   

YUP!   We seem to have forgot about that though!   

Editing Loony Tunes   what will they go after next!



Todd

[6pkrunner]

PC gone way too far again. If kids are really that impressionable then they should never be allowed to read a newspaper or turn on the evening news. Now that stuff is scary! You want kids emulating that?

[71bee]

HA! whatta (yet another) freakin' joke!

just wait until they start editing the Simpsons episopdes in the future!

history is BAD! BAD! BAD!

......and the Hollocaust never happened......right?

[Johnny SixPack]

just wait until they start editing the Simpsons episopdes in the future! history is BAD! BAD! BAD!

Yeah, and the PC police will have a freakin' field day with Family Guy.

I wonder what these people think about the caterpillar in, "Alice In Wonderland"?

Hell, he's not only smoking, but he's smoking out of a hookah.

Or other Disney/Warner Bros/Hannah-Barbera cartoons that possibly depict drinking, or other vices.

At this rate Donald Duck will soon be portrayed as a psychotic soul with a severe social disorder.

[69chargerboy]

 

[CaptMarvel]

Remember on Gilligans Island the Japanese submarine commander had those coke bottle glasses & big buck teeth?, or on F-Troop, the Heckawi Indians were money grubbing tourist trinket salesmen or on Popeye he beat bad guys up & actually had a pipe in his mouth that he "shudder" occasionally smoked? Or how about on Our Gang, Buckwheat actually liked chicken & watermelon, (I guess no-one told him he was a racist for liking those) and remember those Duke boys and their race baiting machine on wheels (Oh! that horrible, evil flag!) I am so grateful that I grew up before all of this PC crap! I ticks me off when I see them butchering old shows/movies just to bring them up to these phony PC modern standards. I grew up learning to laugh at everyone, not just the "checkered" past of only the evil, conspiring white man which is what Turner and many other media liberals want you to believe. Lets just ignore the fact that often, in the "good" ol' days, an Indian (scratch that, "Native" American) tribe would routinely run entire herds of those sacred buffalos over cliffs in order to salvage three or four hides and meat...Whats that? todays media wont tell us this? I'm sure they just overlooked it, after all, they are unbiased. Man, who started this one? Thanks alot for getting me started.  Bottom line is, all races have embarrising or unsavory parts in their past or in their character make up. I for one, prefered the days when we could poke fun at everyone equally, unlike today...Yes, there was a time when everyone didnt wear such a huge chip on their shoulder and take themselves so seriously. Man, I cant stand the PC police!

[hemihead]

just wait until they start editing the Simpsons episopdes in the future! history is BAD! BAD! BAD!

Yeah, and the PC police will have a freakin' field day with Family Guy.

I wonder what these people think about the caterpillar in, "Alice In Wonderland"?

Hell, he's not only smoking, but he's smoking out of a hookah.

Or other Disney/Warner Bros/Hannah-Barbera cartoons that possibly depict drinking, or other vices.

At this rate Donald Duck will soon be portrayed as a psychotic soul with a severe social disorder.

These are the same people that believe it's ok to show alcohol commercials on tv or smoking weed doesn't hurt you.
  Chalk up another point for the dictators of the world!

[Charger Aficionado]

Protect the Children. 

[Johnny SixPack]

Protect the Children. 

That used to be the parent's job.

Not the state's/PC police's/television company's.

But as we all know many parents today would rather someone else raise/take responsibility for the actions of their children.

And I think we can all agree that T.V. makes a poor substitute for informed/caring parents.

Simply blaming the T.V. and then attempting to change it isn't gonna solve anything.

[chrisII]

yeah it seems if you edit tom and jerry for violence , smoking, and whatever other evils are in there you wont have a show with a story you can follow..and what about the violence in loony tunes , r runner, ect..this PC BS drives me NUTS!

[Charger Aficionado]

I know there are alot of smokers here, but we need to take these steps (and others you've seen) to eradicate smoking all together.  It is a SCOURGE on our society.

[Shakey]

I know there are alot of smokers here, but we need to take these steps (and others you've seen) to eradicate smoking all together.  It is a SCOURGE on our society.

So are guns but any yahoo can still buy one!   

[Lowprofile]

I know there are alot of smokers here, but we need to take these steps (and others you've seen) to eradicate smoking all together.  It is a SCOURGE on our society.

So are guns but any yahoo can still buy one!

The "yahoos" are the problem, not the guns.  Besides, smoking kills far more people than guns do.