Censorship for Morons

Blazing Saddles was an excellent movie. I don't think I've ever met anybody who has seen it and didn't like it. One thing worth noting is that it's pretty much the only comedy ever to get away with using certain black racial slurs without offending people, due to the manner in which they were used.

Right from the start, you notice that villains swear, but nobody else. Villains are racist throughout the entire movie, other white folk learn the error of their ways, and black people aren't particularly racist to start with. It's made quite clear that foul language is integral to the movie for story, for character development, and for humor.

Not too long ago, TV Land aired the movie. They aired it cut and censored. Though some punchlines were still intact, the movie as a whole was ruined. To make things worse, they tried to disguise the fact that it was censored by using clever editing and erasing audio rather than simply beeping things out. They did it in such a way that if a viewer hasn't seen the movie before, the viewer won't realize that anything's being censored out. This means you can't even GUESS what a line was supposed to be, because it's not obvious that it's been changed. This destroys the timing necessary to make some jokes funny, and does significant damage to the anti-racism message of the movie.

You guys are morons, TV Land. If this language was acceptable in 1974, then it's sure as hell acceptable today. Not only that, but you're a cable network. Clearly, nobody forced you to air a censored version. I have a request for ALL NETWORKS, cable or otherwise: from now on, if you can't or won't air this movie uncensored, don't air it. You don't deserve to.