LEWISTON – Maine fans of cartoon bunny Buster Baxter will get to see his controversial visit to Vermont this weekend.
“Sugartime,” an episode of the series “Postcards From Buster,” will air at a special time – 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
The episode depicts Buster visiting a Vermont family headed by two moms. Conservative groups have balked at the show, saying it exposes children to homosexuality.
Deborah Johnson, Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s marketing director, said network executives decided to air the episode based on public comment and the wishes of its advisory board, which met Saturday.
The board is made up of volunteers from around the state including students, educators, lawyers, accountants and retirees.
The network will broadcast the controversial “Buster” episode at a special time Saturday to give parents an opportunity to watch it as well, Johnson said. The show normally airs weeknights at 4 p.m. and Saturday at 8 a.m.
This Saturday, it will pre-empt “Simply Ming,” a cooking show scheduled during a block of Saturday morning cooking shows.
“We felt that 10:30 a.m. was a time when parents would be more available to watch it with their children and discuss it,” Johnson said. “Or, if parents want to watch it themselves and tape it to show their children later, we wanted to give them that opportunity.”
“Postcards from Buster” features a cartoon bunny traveling from city to city and interacting with real people.
Conservative groups objected to the episode in which Buster goes to Vermont to make maple syrup because he visits a family headed by two mothers. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings criticized PBS for the show, and PBS refused to distribute the episode nationally.
The show’s creators at WGBH in Boston made the episode available in February, and MPBN officials decided to have the Community Advisory Board review it before airing it.
The board met Saturday at the MPBN’s Lewiston offices, and all members agreed that the show was harmless. About 25 people also spoke, some urging MPBN to air it and some asking that it not run.
Johnson said Maine PBN executives received about 1,100 pieces of e-mail regarding the episode. Most of those urged MPBN to show it.
“We felt the best thing we could do for all concerned is to air it when both children and adults can view it,” she said.
This may be the only chance for Mainers to see the episode, she said. Since it is being shown independently of national PBS, Johnson doubted the episode would appear later as a rerun.
“As it stands right now, national PBS has decided to not feed that episode and I don’t think that is likely to change,” she said. “We’d have to get special permission if we wanted to run it again and we’d have to pre-empt something else.”
Protest
The Rev. Doug Taylor, one of the local critics of the “Buster” episode, has planned a protest Saturday afternoon. Taylor said he will show a documentary, “Gay Rights/Special Rights: Inside the Homosexual Agenda,” at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Ramada Inn. The 35-minute documentary will be followed by a discussion led by Taylor.
(Doug Taylor is an employee of the Sun Journal, but he does not work for the news department.)
“What I think, this is the militant homosexuals committing a blatant sexual assault on our children,” he said. “I believe this is an attempt to teach acceptance of homosexuality.”
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