January 27, 2005
Culture Wars Pull Buster Into the Fray
By JULIE SALAMON
Wayne Godwin, chief operating officer of PBS, got a bit tangled as he tried to explain the PBS stance on gay characters appearing on children's television shows.
"In fairness I would have to say a gay character is not one we would not include," he said, and then clarified. "The fact that a character may or may not be gay is not a reason why they should or should not be part of this series."
Yet on Tuesday PBS decided not to distribute to its roughly 350 PBS stations an episode of "Postcards From Buster," which was scheduled for Feb. 2 and included lesbian mothers, even though a few days earlier PBS officials, among them PBS's president, Pat Mitchell, viewed the episode and called it appropriate. That was before Education Secretary Margaret Spellings denounced the program, starring Buster Baxter, a cute animated rabbit who until now has been known primarily as a close friend of Arthur, the world's most famous aardvark. Ms. Spellings said many parents would not want children exposed to a lesbian life style.
Buster joined another cartoon character, SpongeBob SquarePants, as a focus of the nation's culture wars. SpongeBob was recently attacked by Christian groups for being pro-homosexual, though SpongeBob's creator said it was all a misinterpretation. Buster's offense was appearing in "Sugartime!," the undistributed "Postcards From Buster" show, in which he visits children living in Vermont whose parents are a lesbian couple. Civil unions are allowed in Vermont.
"Postcards From Buster" is a spinoff of "Arthur" that combines live action and animation and went on the air a year ago. In the series, aimed at young elementary schoolchildren, Buster travels to 24 different states with his father and sends video postcards home.
Buster appears briefly onscreen, but mainly narrates these live-action segments, which show real children and how they live. One episode featured a family with five children, living in a trailer in Virginia, all sharing one room. In another, Buster visits a Mormon family in Utah. He has dropped in on fundamentalist Christians and Muslims as well as American Indians and Hmong. He has shown the lives of children who have only one parent, and those who live with grandparents.
Marc Brown, creator of "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster," said in a statement: "I am disappointed by PBS's decision not to distribute the 'Postcards From Buster' 'Sugartime!' episode to public television stations. What we are trying to do in the series is connect kids with other kids by reflecting their lives. In some episodes, as in the Vermont one, we are validating children who are seldom validated. We believe that 'Postcards From Buster' does this in a very natural way - and, as always, from the point of view of children."
Jeanne Hopkins, a spokeswoman for the show's producer, WGBH-TV of Boston, added, "We feel it's important that we not exclude kids because of what their family structure looks like." WGBH plans to broadcast the episode in March and offer it to other PBS stations.
Like the grown-ups in most of the episodes, the lesbian mothers in the "Sugartime!" segment are mainly background. "The concern really was that there's a point where background becomes foreground," Mr. Godwin said. "No matter if the parents were intended to be background, with this specific item in this particular program they might simply be foreground because of press attention to it and parental attention to it."
The question is, does the episode violate the grant under which WGBH received federal funds? Mr. Godwin said, "The presence of a couple headed by two mothers would not be appropriate curricular purpose that PBS should provide."
The grant specifies the programs "should be designed to appeal to all of America's children by providing them with content and characters with which they can identify." In addition, the grant says, "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."
Brigid Sullivan, vice president for children's programming at WGBH, has been producing children's shows for 20 years, including "Arthur," for many years the top-rated children's show. "This asked for a project on diversity to all of America's children," she said. "We took it seriously and thought that with 'Arthur,' the No. 1 show on television for kids for years, we had something to draw kids in. Buster is Arthur's best friend, the child of divorce, he has asthma. Children sympathize with him. We had a breakthrough format, this animated bunny with his camera getting live-action sequence. Not to present a make-believe world of diversity but a real world."
Explaining the goal of the show, Ms. Sullivan said: "We want to reflect all of America's children."
"This is not about their parents," she said.
_________________________________________________
Dear Friends, Family, Colleagues:
This is my urgent personal appeal for your support regarding a show I directed for WGBH's new children's series"Postcards From Buster," a spin-off of the popular children's show "Arthur." Below you will see the actions you can take, but first I would like you to read.
Right at this moment, PBS stations around the country are deciding whether or not to air an episode filmed in Vermont called "Sugartime!" The controversy, which has made local and national news (articles from the Boston Globe and NY Times are pasted at the end of this email), has been pinned on the fact that two children featured have lesbian parents who appear in the background of the show.
Last night PBS decided to pull the national satellite feed after negative pressure from the new Secretary of Education. This is the first time in the history of WGBH, Boston's public television station and one of the largest producer of PBS programming (including Frontline, Nova, and American Experience), that a show has ever been rejected by PBS for distribution.
Calling your local PBS station and asking them to air it will help them make their decision. There are over 300 stations in the PBS system and all of them decide individually.
I realize this may not be a comfortable issue for some of you, but consider my point of view. A quick primer on the series: The premise of the show is that Buster Baxter (who is an 8-year old bunny) is flying around the United States (and a few locations abroad, including Mexico and Canada) with his dad Bo, a pilot, who is taking around the Latin rock band Los Viajeros (translated as "The Travelers" from Spanish) on their 40-city tour. Buster films his adventures with his video camera and sends back "video postcards" to his friends in Elwood City.
These "postcards" are documentary scenes of real kids in the context of their everyday lives, be it showing a pig at a local county fair in Indiana, doing Tai Chi in Seattle, or clogging in Kentucky. The 40 shows cover a plethora of ethnic backgrounds, religious traditions and a range of urban, suburban, rural neighborhoods as well as kids in different kinds of families: large extended families under one roof, single parents, tribal families.... and in my episode lesbian families
The kids in this episode are great. The two families are great. Like all of the shows in the series, the children guiding Buster around are children who are not often seen on television (and if they have been it's usually in the context of poverty, stereotypes or controversy.) Educators and reviewer of this particular episode who have seen "Sugartime" think it's a great show.
As a producer interested in stories of diversity, as a mom raising children in a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual family, this series has been a gift. The rare opportunity to present diverse cultures and experiences in a non-threatening, non-didactic manner. If WGBH and the producers of "Postcards of Buster" had said they could film all kinds of children in North America except 'those' kinds of children, then the purpose of the series would be lost.
I am very proud of WGBH, the series, and the team of producers. I am especially proud of this show. It represents the best use of my skills as a filmmaker
The good news is that WGBH is airing the episode as planned on March 23. They are making it available for other PBS affiliate stations to broadcast the show as well, and as of today stations are getting on board. Since local public television stations answer to YOU the VIEWER (and taxpayer), your contacting them will help them make their decision.
Just in the way that the kids and families who participate in our show put themselves out there, I think it's important for voices supporting this, be it through the angle of non-censorship, non-discrimination, or simply that you love the show to be heard as well. Even though it's easy to say that this is "just" a children's show, it really does represent something greater.
Here are immediate actions you can take to help:
1. Call your local PBS station and ask them to air the program, or give them a thumbs for deciding to do it already. (You can look up your local PBS station at
http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html)
2. E-mail or call PBS and voice your dissent for their self-censorship. Go right to the top and email Pat Mitchell at
pmitchell@pbs.org. And email the general PBS email at
http://www.pbs.org/aboutsite/aboutsite_emailform.html.
3. Vote on an online poll at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6869976/.
4. Contact Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education. Call 1-800-872-5327, and press 5 for an operator to make a general comment.
5. Call or e-mail your Congressperson.
6. E-mail other people and ask them to voice their opinion!
7. Read more about "Postcards From Buster" at
http://pbskids.org/buster.
Linear Mode
