Tom & Jerry, Bad Influences? 

1 Yesterday afternoon I ran across a story about Turner Broadcasting which is currently delving into its catalog of 1,500 hours of Hanna-Barbera cartoons to remove scenes that “glamorize” smoking. The move is in response to one viewer’s complaint about an episode of “Tom and Jerry.” 

2 A Turner spokesperson said the viewer had complained about a cartoon in which Tom lights a cigarette in an attempt to   1   a female cat and that only cartoons “where smoking could be deemed to be cool or glamorized,” would be cut and that scenes in which villains smoke will remain untouched. 

3   2  , this move will save a generation of youngsters from trying to woo cats with tobacco. Unfortunately, however, those same children are still in danger of dropping anvils on one another’s heads, putting each other’s tails in electrical sockets, cutting each other in half, poisoning one another, exploding each other with dynamite and other sundry weapons available from the diabolical Acme corporation. 

voices.washingtonpost.com, 2006