[bomp] But the Anvil-To-The-Head scenes can stay

[NankerPhlg@xxxxxxx]

'Tom & Jerry' Smoking Scenes to Be Cut
By Mike  Collett-White
Reuters
 
LONDON (Aug. 21) - 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 offense to two episodes of Tom and Jerry shown on the  
Boomerang channel, a corporate sibling of Time Warner Inc.-owned Turner  
Broadcasting. 
 
"We are going through the entire catalog," 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 in the United States 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. 

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