Alabama Public Television showed a re-run of Arthur rather than the groundbreaking episode in which Mr. Ratburn is revealed to be gay and married.
NBC News reports: “Mike McKenzie, director of programming at APT, told NBC News on Monday that PBS sent a message to stations in mid-April alerting them ‘to possible viewer concerns about the content of the program.' After he and others at APT viewed the episode, they decided not to broadcast it and showed a re-run instead. McKenzie said the network has no plans to air it.”
Said McKenzie in a statement: “Parents have trusted Alabama Public Television for more than 50 years to provide children's programs that entertain, educate and inspire 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.”
Former Trump adviser and FOX News commentator Sebastian Gorka, who left the White House shortly after Steve Bannon's departure in 2017, evangelist Franklin Graham, and the American Family Association's subgroup One Million Moms were outraged over the episode, and the latter launched a call to boycott PBS.
