GSN: Black and White Overnight Policy

From this post here, it looks like what everyone thought has been confirmed, yet again.

Okay, please show me the moron who will start smoking after watching a black and white kinescope from more than 50 years old so I can bop them upside the head for being a dumbass. People are too knowledgeable about the dangers of smoking these days to be that stupid. It’s like expecting to see The Secret Storm after watching a Match Game ‘73 rerun, or thinking that you can successfully write in for tickets to see John Daly and the gang in person.

I love how GSN wants to be "family friendly" with shows that air at 3 am, but around the time this decision was first discovered they had no problem rerunning Dog Eat Dog promos which had someone using the phrase "payback's a bitch" over and over. And let's not forget that a commercial for a vibrator airs during this hour. Not to mention they had been running these shows for at least 7-8 years before a decision like this was made.

Don’t get me wrong. I am probably one of the biggest anti-smoking people ever. I am extremely turned off by it, the smell disgusts me, and when my mother tried to start, I basically annoyed her out of the habit. I love and have an interest in old shows as much as the next person, and while I look at 1970’s programs and envy the people who wear bell bottom jeans and platform shoes (yes, I know I have weird fashion taste), there’s a pretty good chance I’m not going to model my life based on something I saw on television, and said chance increases if the shows in question are this old. If we can watch panelists smoke on these programs like chimneys, as well as see Richard Dawson and Charles Nelson Reilly smoke regularly on Match Game reruns during the day with no problem, then showing a program featuring a box of cigarettes or a Marlboro logo on a desk shouldn’t make anyone start to smoke either.

I refuse to believe an impressionable young child will either a) be up at 3 am to begin with, or b) watch a show like this with interest and decide to pick up the nearest cigarette or pipe, kick back, and have a smoke. That is just ridiculous.

Also, GSN, way to go on limiting your own library even more. There are years of Cullen Price is Right that we can’t see thanks to CBS; now there are plenty of good years of I’ve Got A Secret, To Tell The Truth, and Two for the Money that will probably not see the light again.

I’m not attacking the moderator (thanks for the response), but I disagree with this decision and I always will.