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"Tom And Jerry" Smoking Scenes Banned

(August 2006)

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PC
Paul Clark
Jenny posted:
Nick Harvey posted:
Bring back the Black and White Minstrels.


I think they're called Revels now.
Wink


Eh? Definitely not Revels... Confused Laughing

If you want Black and White Minstrels, search around for the (probably now unavailable) Vice Versas. I wonder if anyone actually still sells them?
RD
Rob Del Monte
itsrobert posted:
I have to disagree with that decision. It's absolutely pathetic. And what's even worse is that some sad weirdo actually complained about it. I grew up on Tom and Jerry and I've never smoked once in my life...so there's some proof that it has no effect. What do people think children are? Robots that can be brainwashed? I know some children will grow up to be smokers - that's inevitable - but I think it will have more to do with relatives smoking around them and peer pressure than what two cartoon characters are doing on TV. As they grow up, children should be allowed to make their own decisions about whether they smoke or not.

To be honest, I'm against editing TV programmes altogether. Just because a programme no longer lives up to the modern social ideals, it doesn't mean we should erase all memories of past eras. TV shows are a reflection of the time in which they were made. We should be treasuring them, not erasing them.


Surely things like this add to peer-pressure. Remember that children watch this, and, inmo, yes, children can be brain-washed much more easliy than adults. Also it is very sad and defeatist (again in my opinion) to think that it is inevitable for some children, and that there is nothing we can do! Cigarette companies target young people, because they will smoke for longer than an older person (because they have their life ahead of them [obviousley.].). We should protect our young people, and put the protection of a classic cartoon before that.

I don't think that old films' cigarette smoking should be banned, or new films' cigarette smoking should be banned come to that, but it should not be in a childrens' programme!
IT
itsrobert Founding member
Rob Del Monte posted:
itsrobert posted:
I have to disagree with that decision. It's absolutely pathetic. And what's even worse is that some sad weirdo actually complained about it. I grew up on Tom and Jerry and I've never smoked once in my life...so there's some proof that it has no effect. What do people think children are? Robots that can be brainwashed? I know some children will grow up to be smokers - that's inevitable - but I think it will have more to do with relatives smoking around them and peer pressure than what two cartoon characters are doing on TV. As they grow up, children should be allowed to make their own decisions about whether they smoke or not.

To be honest, I'm against editing TV programmes altogether. Just because a programme no longer lives up to the modern social ideals, it doesn't mean we should erase all memories of past eras. TV shows are a reflection of the time in which they were made. We should be treasuring them, not erasing them.


Surely things like this add to peer-pressure. Remember that children watch this, and, inmo, yes, children can be brain-washed much more easliy than adults. Also it is very sad and defeatist (again in my opinion) to think that it is inevitable for some children, and that there is nothing we can do! Cigarette companies target young people, because they will smoke for longer than an older person (because they have their life ahead of them [obviousley.].). We should protect our young people, and put the protection of a classic cartoon before that.

I don't think that old films' cigarette smoking should be banned, or new films' cigarette smoking should be banned come to that, but it should not be in a childrens' programme!


In that case, then, seeing as carrying guns is illegal, the TV companies should edit out all instances of guns from TV, past and present. After all, we should be trying to prevent children turning to gun crime when they become teenagers.

A silly example, you may say. However, I feel that we're at the top of a very slippery slope. Once TV companies start meddling with old programmes, where do they stop?
BH
BillyH Founding member
The sad thing is that since Cartoon Network started 13 years ago, virtually 85% of Tom and Jerry cartoons (and about 95% of Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes) have been totally uncut. Until now.

No one mention the blackface scenes, ok?
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload8/casanova.jpg
NI
Nicky
BillyH posted:
The sad thing is that since Cartoon Network started 13 years ago, virtually 85% of Tom and Jerry cartoons (and about 95% of Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes) have been totally uncut. Until now.

No one mention the blackface scenes, ok?
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload8/casanova.jpg


Erm - in the mid-1990s, Turner (the company who owns the MGM library pre 1986) edited the original dialogue of the black woman in the shorts, deeming it too "stereotypical" - they also edited much of the blackface scenes, saying that it could "brainwash children into being racist". What stupidity! I grew up with the original version of these cartoon shorts, and I never thought anything of a blackface scene; it didn't really mean much to me. Watching the current versions of the shorts on Boomerang is laughable; they are edited to some degree or another.
BH
BillyH Founding member
That picture was taken from a Cartoon Network showing in early 2002. The logo was airbrushed out at the time as I was doing it for a website (and, if you look closely at the top right corner, you can see I didn't do that good a job).

Ok, yeah, they redubbed quite a few of the maid cartoons, but for some reason not all of them. I was thinking more of scenes that were cut out completely than redubbed, though - out of all the T&J cartoons they made, I can only think of four which had a scene removed when watching it on Cartoon Network or Boomerang in the UK, one of which was a clip-show.
SD
sda|
These films are an excellent snapshot of their time, and should not be tampered with.

Plus the fact that they were made for 1940's cinema, not 2006 children's TV.
RM
Roger Mellie
BBCNicky@Yorks posted:
BillyH posted:
The sad thing is that since Cartoon Network started 13 years ago, virtually 85% of Tom and Jerry cartoons (and about 95% of Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes) have been totally uncut. Until now.

No one mention the blackface scenes, ok?
http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload8/casanova.jpg


Erm - in the mid-1990s, Turner (the company who owns the MGM library pre 1986) edited the original dialogue of the black woman in the shorts, deeming it too "stereotypical" - they also edited much of the blackface scenes, saying that it could "brainwash children into being racist". What stupidity! I grew up with the original version of these cartoon shorts, and I never thought anything of a blackface scene; it didn't really mean much to me. Watching the current versions of the shorts on Boomerang is laughable; they are edited to some degree or another.


I wonder if Turner asked any black women if they were offended by these cartoons?

I think parents and other kids are far more of an influence on whether kids smoke or not, rather than some cartoon made way back when.

Watching Tom and Jerry when I was a kid, certainly didn't want to make me blow up mice with dynamite! Wink

There are always double-standards with all this PC editing... by cartoon bosses' thinking, it seems to be OK to glamourise guns-- but not smoking? Aeee? Confused I think a lot of it has to with the mentality of some Americans.

As Paul O'Grady once remarked: "If you walked into a bar with a cigarette in California, it's like 'burn the witch'. But if walk into a bar with a bag of coke and a gun, nobody flinches"
BT
Baroness Trumpington
BBCNicky@Yorks posted:
Turner (the company who owns the MGM library pre 1986) edited the original dialogue of the black woman in the shorts, deeming it too "stereotypical"

All together now: "Tah-masss? You baaad cat !!"
DA
Daniel89
Paul Clark posted:
Jenny posted:
Nick Harvey posted:
Bring back the Black and White Minstrels.


I think they're called Revels now.
Wink


Eh? Definitely not Revels... Confused Laughing

If you want Black and White Minstrels, search around for the (probably now unavailable) Vice Versas. I wonder if anyone actually still sells them?


I remember those sweets. If you got a black minstrel, bite it and look inside it's white, as for the white minstrels it's vice versa hence the name. But sadly the last time I saw them was in the late 90s where my mum would buy sweets at the petrol station but I want them to come back.
SA
saturdaymorning
Slightly off topic,but Spongebob Squarepants is so bad.It's not far off Itchy and Scratchy.How can anyone watch him get burning stuff in his eyes then they go big and red?Watch three episodes.Two of them will have something like that in it.
ST
stevek
censoring smoking scenes is going a bit far, kids are not all gullible idiots and most today know the harm smoking can do.

If the censors want to get really pedantic they should censor bob the builder incase he enourages kids to play building sites Rolling Eyes

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