The Season 22 premiere of the popular PBS children's show Arthur featured a wedding between Arthur's teacher, Mr. Ratburn, and his same-sex partner. However, while the episode was met with much praise, it also received some opposition. In fact, Alabama Public Television chose not to air the episode due to its depiction of a same-sex wedding.
The episode, entitled “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone,” was brought to the attention of Mike Mckenzie, director of programming at APT. Instead of airing the episode, the network aired a re-run and has no plans of running the episode in the future.
“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. "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."
He went onto describe how the episode "doesn't fit" with the trust parents have put in APT.
RELATED: Anne Hathaway's Sesame Street Movie Lands a Release Date
This marks the second time APT has pulled an episode of Arthur from its broadcast. In 2005, an episode that showed Arthur's friend Buster meeting a child with two mothers wasn't aired on the network.
The episode, “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone,” can be found online at pbs.org.
(via AL)