Alabama Public Television decided not to air a recent episode of the PBS kid’s television show “Arthur” that featured a gay wedding.
Mike McKenzie, the director of programming of APT, told NBC News on May 20 that in mid-April, PBS had sent a message to stations alerting them that there would be “possible viewer concerns about the content of the program.”
After McKenzie and others at APT viewed the episode, they decided not to broadcast it. A re-run was aired instead.
The episode, which aired May 20, was the show’s 22nd season premiere, titled “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone.” In the episode, Arthur and his friends find out that their third-grade teacher, Mr. Ratburn, is engaged.
#Arthur‘s Mr. Ratburn Comes Out as Gay, Gets Married in Season 22 Premiere https://t.co/nMSrNWHeOz pic.twitter.com/Vo4wiSHsVb
— TVLine.com (@TVLine) May 13, 2019
McKenzie said APT has no plans to broadcast the episode later.
“Parents have trusted Alabama Public Television for more than 50 years to provide children’s programs that entertain, educate, and inspire,” McKenzie said in an email to AL.com.
“More importantly—although we strongly encourage parents to watch television with their children and talk about what they have learned afterwards—parents trust that their children can watch APT without their supervision.
“We also know that children who are younger than the ‘target’ audience for ‘Arthur’ also watch the program.”
In the episode, the young animals appear surprised that their teacher, Mr. Ratburn, actually has a life outside of school.
“When they go home, they sharpen pencils, eat kale, and dream up homework assignments,” Buster, a bunny cartoon character, said in the episode. “They don’t even sleep! They just go into low-power mode and watch documentaries.”
So the team of animals decides to spy on Mr. Ratburn. They spot him having lunch with a woman and hear the woman tell him he is “too soft” and “needs to toughen up.” They think the woman is his future wife.
But later, they find out she is his sister, and that Mr. Ratburn is marrying another male character.
Some users on social media were shocked about the episode.
MR RATBURN IS GAY ?!? IM CRYING pic.twitter.com/e9A4ZnnGa2
— Gatsby (@gatsplatt) May 13, 2019
Others were also surprised that Arthur episodes were still airing on PBS.
Oh my god I thought this was a meme but Arthur is STILL GOIng and ratburn really got married pic.twitter.com/6WljbIvfVg
— Bosch™️ 18 Volt Lithium Ion Cordless Drill (@aaron26815911) May 14, 2019
This is not the first time APT has not aired an episode that featured a same-sex relationship. In 2005, APT pulled an Arthur episode when Buster visited a girl who had two mothers.
At the time, the then-executive director Allan Pizzato told AL.com: “Our feeling is that we basically have a trust with parents about our programming. This program doesn’t fit into that.”
The Arthur TV show reemerged in popularity around 2016 when a photo of Arthur’s tightly clenched fist became a trending meme.
This is just a pic of Arthur’s fist but idk how I feel that it’s just so relatable. So many emotions in one fist pic.twitter.com/WHU9o7XeAG
— Kofi???????? (@AlmostJT) July 28, 2016
One social media user referenced the most recent airing of “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone” in an angry fist meme:
Credit to @ImAmazingLucas2 for this meme. How the f?$k are the gonna do Arthur like this. SMH right in the childhood. pic.twitter.com/z4wufrdQ9o
— Big_Jibblets (@Edward12910) May 14, 2019
The fist meme came from what has been called “one of the darkest episodes of Arthur,” when the young aarvark punches his sister for damaging his toy airplane.