NYT: Censured PBS Bunny Returns, Briefly

[DeepModem Mom]

Censured PBS Bunny Returns, Briefly
By DENNIS GAFFNEY
Published: December 18, 2006


(WGBH and Marc Brown Studios)
Buster Baxter

What happens to a children’s public television show after it has been attacked by the secretary of education, pilloried by conservatives, then abandoned by its underwriters? In the case of “Postcards From Buster,” it manages to return, belatedly but unbowed, for a second season.

“We were proud of ‘Postcards From Buster,’ and we are proud of ‘Postcards From Buster,’ ” said Brigid Sullivan, vice president for children’s programming at WGBH, the Boston PBS station that produces the show. “It’s a children’s show dealing with diversity by showing real kids in real-life situations. That’s not being done by anyone else.”

In “Postcards From Buster” documentary footage of children from different cultures is combined with animation of Buster and his friends. This season includes only 10 episodes, which began in November and will run through February, a far cry from the 40 produced for the show’s first season.

Children first came to know Buster Baxter, the animated bunny who is the show’s star, as the best friend of Arthur, the animated aardvark who is the title character of another PBS series. But most adults probably first heard of Buster in January 2005, midway into the show’s first season, when word got out that an episode about maple sugaring, called “Sugartime!,” would feature children in a Vermont family with two moms.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings attacked the episode in a letter to Pat Mitchell, the former PBS president, dated Jan. 25, 2005. “Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode,” she wrote. The same day PBS removed “Sugartime!” from its lineup. In the days that followed, the American Family Association, a major Christian conservative organization, orchestrated a campaign of more than 150,000 e-mail messages and letters to Ms. Spellings supporting her position....The producers, musicians, editors and writers of “Buster” were let go from the show for almost a year; under normal circumstances the second season would have begun in fall 2005. That fall PBS decided to provide most of the money needed for a season of 10 shows....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/18/arts/television/18bust.html

[aaronbees]

1. I've never seen the show

But the new episodes sound excellent. It never fails to amaze me how dangerous diversity and reality can seem to social conservatives. I hope this show survives -- sounds like they have a good strategy to raise the sponsorship.

[Danger Mouse]

2. Fuck. Fucking fuck,

Just fuck those idiots. Sick of their shit.

[Ilsa]

9. I know. My kids loved Buster. I hated seeing it disappear

from the afternoon PBS chldren's lineup. My disabled child likes Arthur and Buster also. We're working really hard to keep our children free of exposure to asinine discriminatory attitudes about race, gender, sexual orientation, appearance, etc, and keep them exposed to loving and accepting ideas.

I wish there was someway to discriminate against Margaret Spellings for being whatever the hell she is. I'd love to see her get a taste of what life is like not being one of the majority or the "norm." We've already started fighting some of those battles for my disabled child.

[John Q. Citizen]

3. I've seen it, my kids like it. What's the problem? n/t

[MADem]

6. The rightwingers don't want their kids to know about gay people!

They think that knowledge will affect their orientation, just like they think that any talk of, or explanations about, s-e-x will make the little kiddies want to fuck like, dare I say, rabbits!!!

See, they think it's 'catching'...ya know, like the flu!!!! It would be funny if it weren't so damned pathetic...

[progressoid]

11. Well, just look at him!

Could he be any more gay?








:sarcasm:

[John Q. Citizen]

15. Buster seems like a nice enough kid/rabbit with a video journal, but it's Bugs

Bunny who is always showing up in drag.

Why can't those toontown humans pick on someone there own size, like Harvey?

[justjones]

4. I thought Buster was going to be the first gay bunny in a leading role on a cartoon series. Dang. nt

[Danmel]

5. Maybe they can name the Mommy Bunnies Mary and Heather

Cheney. Then it should be just fine.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. THAT is a very good point! nt

[Up2Late]

7. Good, They shouldn't be intimidated by these stupid AstroTurf groups who...

...try to stifle good, FREE speech and actual, modern reality like this.

[nealmhughes]

8. Buster is Arthur Read's best friend on the Arthur series.

Instead of race, the characters are different animal species: Buster is a rabbit, Arthur is an aardvark, Mr. Ratburn is a their principal and a rat, SueEllen is a cat and a new ager, the gorillas/chimps (not really sure which they are) are Jewish, their friend "The Brain" is of African ancestry, etc.

Buster is making a home documentary as his father who is a band manager and the band travel to gigs throughout the US. It is a mixture of live action and cartoon.

I love that show and I'm 45 and my "child" is over 20!

[Ian David]

12. Buster never disapeared from WGBH.

They only aired the "Sugartime" episode once, though, I think. I got it on tape though.

[onehandle]

13. If you don't see something, it doesn't exist.

Right-Wing logic.

Which is why they whine about images of death and destruction in Iraq in the "news."

They don't want to "waste (their) beautiful mind(s) on something like that."

[Kber]

14. Except for God, of course.

He exists somewhere up in the sky, right?

[lumberjack_jeff]

16. Arthur is an aardvark?

Huh. Perhaps it's anthropomorphism run amok.

[underpants]

17. Oh so that's why they did a "Postcards from Iraq"

Makes sense now.

Actually it was a very sweet program at least the parts of it that I saw on the publicity thing they did on CNN

[Lisa]

18. I don't see anything wrong with same-sex parents, or maple sugar!

Or with telling children that these are part of our world. I'm Canadian so we have lots of both up here. (In fact the local school board chair gave me a lift home from a meeting last night, and she spent the entire drive bragging about her son's boyfriend and what a catch he is, and how she is really hoping that they are going to get married.)

Is the Buster episode out on DVD? If so, I will buy a set for the local library.

[Miss Chybil]

19. I think it's very important children be taught to fear and hate

people different than themselves, much as it is important to make sure those who live in situations other than those portrayed on "Leave it to Beaver" learn to fear and loath themselves. What do people think this is, a free country? Jesus Christ. If we all we teach children is openess, honesty, inclusiveness and hope where will we get our closeted-gay megachurch pastors? You know, America would not be the same without them.

/sarcasm