You’ll never catch SpongeBob lighting up, but there was a time when cartoon characters smoked like just about everyone else on TV. It’s those classic cartoons that have had Britain’s antismoking lobby up in arms lately, according to a report in Daily Variety. The group has reportedly pressured Turner Broadcasting to remove all smoking references from such vintage Hanna-Barbera series as The Flintstones, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo.
The catalyst for the movement appears to be two particular Tom and Jerry cartoons, ‘Texas Tom’ and ‘Tennis Chumps,’ which aired on cable outlet Boomerang. As a result of the complaint, a total of 1,700 toon episodes, including 160 more Tom and Jerry installments, will be edited for tobacco-related content, which will involve painting out cigarettes frame-by-frame.
Turner released the following statement: ‘Turner recognizes that it is not suitable for cartoons aimed at children to portray smoking in a cool context and has additionally pledged to review the entire Hanna-Barbera catalog to remove scenes that appear to glamorize or encourage smoking.’
While this is the first time Turner has agreed to edit out smoking references, it’s not the first time the company has altered classic cartoons. In the past, episodes of Tom and Jerry and other favorites have been re-dubbed to replace stereotypical African-American voices with more politically correct versions.
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