Smoking to be cut from classic cartoons
This reminds me of something I read several years ago. Lucie Arnaz said she would like for digital technology to eliminate smoking from I Love Lucy episodes. This statement may have been made in connection with plans to release Lucy episodes on DVD. I do not know if this was done.
Lucy and Ricky smoked frequently on the show. Lucie's motivations are laudable but this would materially change the shows. The plan was to use digital technology to change the actions of the smoking characters. What do you change the actions to? Who decides what the smoking characters are doing instead of smoking? Will it work within the context of the show and with what the other charcters in the scene are doing? Merely digitizing out the cigarettes and changing them to lollipops would not work. You would need to change the gross motor movements of the actors. You would need to change the performances of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, a sitcom they created and for which they were responsible during its entire run. Who would have the cojones to take on that task?
And, would even the most ardent anti-smoking crusader want to change that very funny episode in which William Holden guest-starred and Lucy set her fake nose on fire while lighting a cigarette?
Lucy and Ricky smoked frequently on the show. Lucie's motivations are laudable but this would materially change the shows. The plan was to use digital technology to change the actions of the smoking characters. What do you change the actions to? Who decides what the smoking characters are doing instead of smoking? Will it work within the context of the show and with what the other charcters in the scene are doing? Merely digitizing out the cigarettes and changing them to lollipops would not work. You would need to change the gross motor movements of the actors. You would need to change the performances of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, a sitcom they created and for which they were responsible during its entire run. Who would have the cojones to take on that task?
And, would even the most ardent anti-smoking crusader want to change that very funny episode in which William Holden guest-starred and Lucy set her fake nose on fire while lighting a cigarette?
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. Oliver Wendell Holmes
-
OscarGuy
- Site Admin
- Posts: 13668
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 12:22 am
- Location: Springfield, MO
- Contact:
It's just another form of censorship. I think it's ridiculous.
You're a frickin' parent! If you don't like that it shows smoking to your children, don't let them watch OR a really great idea might be to TALK to your damned children and tell them that smoking's not cool.
I hate parents who blame the media for what their children watch or what they might pick up from it. I swear sometimes that you should have to take a class and earn certification before getting a permit to have children.
You're a frickin' parent! If you don't like that it shows smoking to your children, don't let them watch OR a really great idea might be to TALK to your damned children and tell them that smoking's not cool.
I hate parents who blame the media for what their children watch or what they might pick up from it. I swear sometimes that you should have to take a class and earn certification before getting a permit to have children.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19339
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Turner to ax smoking scenes from cartoons
Cable network to remove decades-old sequences after viewer complaint
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.
Cable network to remove decades-old sequences after viewer complaint
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.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster