STEVE INSKEEP, host: And now, here's an episode from the globalized business of a cartoon cat. The classic Cartoon Channel Boomerang has agreed to cut scenes from Tom and Jerry cartoons showing characters smoking. A British media watchdog complained about cartoons like this one.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Unidentified Man #1: (In cartoon clip) (Singing) If you're ever down in Texas look me up. If you're ever down in Texas look up. Ha-ha! Where men are men and love it, and the girls are so glad of it. Man, if you're ever down in Texas look me up.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: In a cartoon called Texas Tom, the cat is seen rolling a cigarette, lighting it, and smoking it in a bid to impress a female cat.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Turner Broadcasting, which runs Boomerang, has agreed to review its archive material and to edit scenes or references where smoking is glamorized or might encourage imitation. It plans to edit out smoking scenes from classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons like Scooby-Do, The Flintstones, and The Jetsons. Then will poor George do now to relax?</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: When cartoon villains are shown chomping on cigars, the scenes can stay.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: This is not the first time that Tom and Jerry have been censored. In 1965, when the cartoon first appeared on CBS Saturday morning television, a black housekeeper named Mammy Two Shoes was cut out and replaced with a thin white woman.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Scenes of extreme violence have also been removed.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: This is NPR News.
The classic cartoon channel Boomerang has agreed to cut scenes from Tom and Jerry cartoons showing characters smoking. A British media watchdog complained about cartoons that put smoking in a positive light. Turner Broadcasting, which runs Boomerang, has agreed to review its archive material.