Why didn't anyone smoke on "TOS?"
- Thread starter Jayson1
- Start date
The most cringey aspect of smoking in old movies is doctors smoking like the scene in The Day the Earth Stood Still where they are mystified by Klaatu's long lifespan while smoking cigs. That's probably the most dated aspect of an otherwise timeless film.
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Those were the days when cigarette ads still claimed endorsement by "nine out of ten doctors."
Kor
Maybe that's the reason why nobody smokes in Trek: It's not dangerous enough.
It is my understanding that Nimoy, Kelley and Doohan smoked at times.
If I recall correctly, Shatner smoked but quit during the original run.
I thought this applied to transporter malfunctions."No Smoking" is also on the signage in TWOK's transporter chamber.
I thought it was incense in Spock's quarters. I didn't know the prop was overheating.
I wish Leonard had quit back then too
The first season of Voyage didn't shy away from the smoking. Particularly in the early episodes, Admiral Nelson would light up and puff away in his quarters. in the observation nose or in the lab - not to mention on land. One early episode even had a cigarette lighter figure in a part of the plot. Once they went to color, the smoking was scaled really far back, even though Basehart had a pack of cigs in his breast pocket for most of the run. Every so often, you'd see him light up, but it was rare after that initial season.
Maybe it had to do with the 1964 Surgeon General's report, or maybe it was because of the change toward making the show more kid friendly. The funny things is, sure, they cut back on the cancer sticks, but the violence was really ramped up. Form what I understand, focus groups named Voyage as one of the most violent shows on the air at the time. There was always someone getting shot, beat up or tossed around by a sea monster. And the deaths.... All of this, though, was deemed fine for kids (but not for long). Today, it's easy to look back and say "man this is violent for a kid's show," but kid's programming was filled with that stuff. Even the cartoons on Saturday Morning, like the Herculoids and so on. Hell, All but one Planet of the Apes movie was rated G. How the last 30 seconds of the second movie qualifies as a kid's flick still boggles my mind.
Anyway, waaay off topic. Just wanted to comment about the smoking. Voyage was the one Irwin Allen series with people smoking regularly for awhile.
Not TOS, but I remember Picard being offered a smoke in his Dixon Hill program, where it was appropriate and meant to be awkward when he clearly was not used to it, I think.
Back then, a G rating didn't mean "children's movie" -- it literally just meant "General Audiences." It more or less encompassed what counts as both G and PG today, while PG was close to what PG-13 is today.
Leonard Nimoy quit during TOS as well. It took a long time, as I understand it, but there are outtakes of him popping a lollipop in his mouth instead of a cigarette between takes. It may have taken him years to finally shake the overwhelming urge and give them up once and for all.
Yes indeed but as my Mother found out last year she still has some damage to her lungs from smoking even though she gave up back in 1980!!! When did Leonard give up as I'm sure I read that it was some time back but it's effects still killed him!
A friend of mine who was a heavy smoker died eleven years ago due to lung cancer, he had just given it up as well and that seemed to just accelerate it's damage! Another guy I know has been contemplating giving it up but he's smoked since his teenage years so what are his chances as well?
JB
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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?
I was curious what that was a reference to, so I looked it up. I was surprised to find it's from The Wrath of Khan. I was expecting something more like "The Cage" or Forbidden Planet, since it sounds very retro. Heck, it wouldn't have been out of place in a Flash Gordon serial.
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