Why didn't anyone smoke on "TOS?"

[ThatChapThere]

I like to think of it this way. They had outgrown and matured beyond such harmful foolishness. A shame we're still living with it today.

On the other hand, alcohol was seen many times on TOS so there's that level of inconsistency

Alcohol doesn't make you live ten years less than everyone else.

 

[ThatChapThere]

Americans have the craziest notions about what's obscene.

By their logic, one's very existence is obscene when you think about it.

 

[Ithekro]

By their logic, one's very existence is obscene when you think about it.

Americans are or perhaps were notoriously prudish. Violence in TV...fine...mostly (until the 1980s, when you could do violent acts, but no one could be killed). Swearing and sex though? Those would get you banned right off of the network.

 

[aridas sofia]

The absence of smoking in Trek's 23rd century is discussed in The Making of Star Trek. I get the impression smoking is gone, but alcohol remains, because the legal prohibitions on personal behavior have been relaxed with the marketplace deciding instead of the government. The dopamine-charged reward pathways of human brains still exist, but are better understood and perhaps do not have the power over behavior they do in our less-enlightened time. So, people CAN smoke, but they don't. They CAN drink, and they do. But maybe there aren't alcoholics anymore. Just the occasional drunk.

 

[Christopher]

Violence in TV...fine...mostly (until the 1980s, when you could do violent acts, but no one could be killed).

No, there was plenty of killing in pre-'80s TV, it just had to be bloodless or nearly so. If you look at Mission: Impossible, say, often people would be shot and just fall down without a trace of blood or even damage to their clothing. And when blood was shown, it was in very small amounts and in an unrealistic color that looked more like red paint. (And on M:I, it was usually fake blood anyway.) Not to mention the hypocritical convolutions M:I went through to have its heroes "avoid killing" by arranging for the villains to kill each other instead -- although they did occasionally shoot people in self-defense the heat of battle.

 

[Herbert]

Alcohol doesn't make you live ten years less than everyone else.

In certain cases it might

 

[Spot261]

Alcohol doesn't make you live ten years less than everyone else.

In certain cases it might

Quite often it does.

 

[Christopher]

Alcohol doesn't make you live ten years less than everyone else.

In moderation, no, but alcoholism does exactly that:

http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/alcoholism/possible-complications.html

Alcoholism reduces life expectancy by about 10 - 12 years. The earlier people begin drinking heavily, the greater their chance of developing serious illnesses later on.

Alcoholism and Early Death
Alcohol can affect the body in so many ways that researchers have a hard time determining exactly what the consequences are from drinking. Heavy drinking is associated with earlier death. However, it is not just from a higher risk of the more common serious health problems, such as heart attack, heart failure, diabetes, lung disease, or stroke. Chronic alcohol consumption leads to many problems that can increase the risk for death:

• People who drink regularly have a higher rate of death from injury or violence.
• Alcohol overdose can lead to death. This is a particular danger for adolescents who may want to impress their friends with their ability to drink alcohol but cannot yet gauge its effects. However, alcohol overdose doesn't only occur from any one heavy drinking incident, but may also occur from a constant infusion of alcohol in the bloodstream.
• Severe withdrawal and delirium tremens. Delirium tremens occurs in about 5% of alcoholics. It includes progressively severe withdrawal symptoms and altered mental states. In some cases, it can be fatal.
• Frequent, heavy alcohol use directly harms many areas in the body and produce dangerous health conditions (liver damage, pancreatitis, anemia, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, nerve damage, and erectile dysfunction).
• Alcohol abusers who need surgery have an increased risk of postoperative complications, including infections, bleeding, insufficient heart and lung functions, and problems with wound healing. Alcohol withdrawal symptoms after surgery may impose further stress on the patient and hinder recuperation.

Not to mention the damage it does to the people around the alcoholic:

Accidents, Suicide, and Murder
Alcohol plays a large role in accidents, suicide, and crime:

• Alcohol plays a major role in more than half of all automobile fatalities.
• Alcohol-related automobile accidents are the leading causes of death in young people.
• Fewer than two drinks can impair the ability to drive. Even one drink may double the risk of injury, and more than four drinks increases the risk by 11 times.
• Alcoholism is the primary diagnosis in a quarter of all people who commit suicide.
• Alcohol is implicated in over half of all murders.

Domestic Violence
Alcoholic households are less cohesive and have more conflicts, and their members are less independent and expressive than households with nonalcoholic or recovering alcoholic parents. Domestic violence is a common consequence of alcohol abuse.

Effect on Women. A serious risk factor for injury from domestic violence may be a history of alcohol abuse in the male partner.

Effect on Children. Alcoholism in parents also increases the risk for violent behavior and abuse toward children. Children of alcoholics tend to do worse academically than others, have a higher incidence of depression, anxiety, and stress and lower self-esteem than their peers. In addition to their own inherited risk for later alcoholism, many children of alcoholics have serious coping problems that may last their entire life.

Adult children of alcoholic parents are at higher risk for divorce and for psychiatric symptoms. One study concluded that the only events with greater psychological impact on children are sexual and physical abuse.

 

[1001001]

I think it would have been great for Kirk and the hippies to spark up a big Space Fatty.

 

[johnnybear]

According to Nimoy in I Am Spock (IIRC rightly), it was the stress of filming The Voyage Home that caused him to quit, so 1985-86?

Not having been a smoker myself, I'd always thought that smoking helped to ease the pressures and stress of everyday life?
JB

 

[johnnybear]

Comm-pic coming in on hyperchannel…it's Twitter.

https://twitter.com/ncbonnie1/status/881215051100811266

Hey, isn't that Jean Marsh? The one time wife of Third Doctor Who Jon Pertwee and also an official companion in the television series as well? Strange to see two worlds collide over fifty odd years ago!
JB

 

[Christopher]

Not having been a smoker myself, I'd always thought that smoking helped to ease the pressures and stress of everyday life?

Until it ruins your health, or until the money drain of sustaining a chain-smoking habit takes its toll on your finances. Remember, Nimoy died of a smoking-related illness, COPD, even though he'd quit decades earlier. The habit ruined his lungs, and it probably wasn't good for his heart or his blood pressure either, hence the danger of smoking and stress combined.

 

[johnnybear]

So true, Chris! A friend of mine who is a heavy smoker and knows that it is killing him wonders where all his wages disappear to every week!
JB

 

[T'Bonz]

Pot stinks. I never could stand the smell of it. To me, it's another forum of smoking which I could never stand personally.

While it may indeed have medicinal uses, it's just a way for people to get high. If they need to get high; just stick to pills. Doesn't pollute the air.

 

[scotpens]

Alcohol doesn't make you live ten years less than everyone else.

In moderation, no, but alcoholism does exactly that.

Also, consuming too much alcohol in too short a time can result in a dangerously high blood alcohol level (acute alcohol poisoning), which can possibly be fatal.

As Bill Maher pointed out years ago, cannabis is the one recreational drug that's never killed anybody.

Having all the tapes reused, burned, scrapped, or otherwise gone usually precludes people remembering a show decades later. Particularly if a show was a local UHF station or what not. Things survive and some people remember, but the majority will never hear about it because it basically doesn't exist anymore. Like a lot of early television. Either the film was reused, or the quality of the tape was so poor that it has disintegrated by the 1980s, much less the 21st century.

Film can be junked for its silver content, or simply trashed. It can't be reused.

Much of early live television survives only in the form of murky kinescopes, which are films taken off a TV monitor. It was the only way to record TV images before videotape.

Pot stinks. I never could stand the smell of it. To me, it's another forum of smoking which I could never stand personally.

My neighbor in the apartment next door smokes weed pretty regularly, and frankly I don't think it smells that bad. I'd rather smell pot smoke than tobacco smoke any day of the week.

 

[mb22]

Hey, isn't that Jean Marsh? The one time wife of Third Doctor Who Jon Pertwee and also an official companion in the television series as well? Strange to see two worlds collide over fifty odd years ago!
JB

Looks like the 1980s -- more like 30-40 years ago.

 

[Nyotarules]

Alcohol doesn't make you live ten years less than everyone else.

Until you choose to drive a car and be a potential danger to everyone else and oneself.

 

[Maurice]

Minor nit: film doesn't get re-used.

 

[scotpens]

Minor nit: film doesn't get re-used.

Already noted upthread.

It's possible Ithekro meant "tape" and simply misspoke.

 

[Kor]

Also, consuming too much alcohol in too short a time can result in a dangerously high blood alcohol level (acute alcohol poisoning), which can possibly be fatal.

As Bill Maher pointed out years ago, cannabis is the one recreational drug that's never killed anybody.



Film can be junked for its silver content, or simply trashed. It can't be reused.

Much of early live television survives only in the form of murky kinescopes, which are films taken off a TV monitor. It was the only way to record TV images before videotape.


My neighbor in the apartment next door smokes weed pretty regularly, and frankly I don't think it smells that bad. I'd rather smell pot smoke than tobacco smoke any day of the week.

I don't smoke anything. But I've noticed that different types of tobacco are much different in that regard. Cigars and pipe tobacco are rather fragrant, reminding me of some kind of incense. Cigarettes are just nasty, though. And I think pot stinks to high heaven.

Kor