12/6/2023 0 Comments Postcards from buster pbs kids![]() The news of the show ending was first floated earlier this month in an interview featured in the July 13 episode of the podcast Finding D.W. At times it was boundary pushing - an episode of the show's spin-off, Postcards from Buster, received criticism from then-Education Secretary Margaret Spelling for a 2005 episode that featured lesbian parents, and Alabama Public Television refused to air a 2019 episode that showed a same-sex wedding. The show had a knack for featuring characters from different cultures, classes and family backgrounds. Was Voiced By BoysĪrthur followed its titular character, an eight-year-old aardvark, as he navigated life among family, friends and school. Which is fine, because "I don't want to watch it and I don't want anyone else to watch it either" is a demand that runs counter to the nature of public broadcasting.įYI, should you want to see what the fuss was about, here's a clip from "Sugartime." If you watch, keep in mind that-aside from a single usage of the word "partner" to describe one of the women in the setup to this segment-what you'll see here constiutes the ONLY reference to the nature of their relationship.Television A New Podcast Explores Why 'Arthur' The Aardvark's Sister D.W. We occasionally get a complaint about this or that show after the fact, but without a determined rally on the part of some self-appointed watchdog, we rarely hear preemptive calls for censorship. In my experience, it takes an orchestrated campaign to get the bile flowing. That was 10 years ago, and it was the last such incident. We received about as many commendations as we did complaints, though one caller delivered 15 straight minutes of rants, insinuations and threats about my willingness to sacrifice our good work "on the altar of homosexuality." WILL-TV was one of dozens that did so.Ĭompared to the previous outrage expressed over Tongues Untied and It's Elementary, negative feedback about Postcards from Buster was minimal. ![]() That might have been the end of "Sugartime," but Buster co-producer WGBH-TV in Boston independently offered the program to any public TV station willing to air it. Whatever, those foregrounded moms had to go. The reason given was that the family, meant only as a backdrop to unthreatening maple sugaring, "continued to find its way into the foreground." And perhaps it was only coincidental that the Ready-to-Learn initiative that partially funded Buster was set to expire that year, and that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was facing a de facto budget cut of approximately 25%. They not only pulled the episode from the national schedule, but refused to distribute it at all. That was too much for incoming Education Secretary Margaret Spellings who, on the second day of her new job, fired off a letter to PBS president Pat Mitchell protesting the national broadcast of "Sugartime" scheduled for March 23, 2005. "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode," she wrote.Īnd.PBS immediately caved. ![]() The dual moms were (very) briefly acknowledged, but the rest was kids doing fun things and learning about maple syrup. Let's be clear, in all other respects this was a garden-variety installment of Postcards from Buster. There was no reference to sexuality or politics, no public display of affection. state to permit same-sex civil unions, and the family featured in the episode "Sugartime" was a two-mommy household. Department of Education request for proposals that sought to "appeal to all of America's children by providing them with content and/or characters with which they can identify." That request went on to say "Diversity will be incorporated into the fabric of the series to help children understand and respect differences and learn to live in a multicultural society." A mixture of animation and live-action, it sent Arthur's rabbit pal Buster around the country to meet real-life children and their families. Postcards from Buster was a spin-off from the popular PBS afternoon kids' series Arthur.
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