In 2005, the Arthur spin-off Postcards From Buster featured a pair of lesbian moms in Vermont, where same-sex civil unions were legal at the time. PBS, notably, has depicted same-sex couples on a children’s television program before, to significantly less positive reception. (They include Adventure Time, Steven Universe, The Legend of Korra, Gravity Falls, Clarence, and The Loud House.) Still, it’s possible to count on your fingers the number of kids’ shows that have depicted gay characters. According to a report released by GLAAD earlier this year, the representation of LGBTQ characters on daytime children’s television “continues to grow in leaps and bounds,” though the report does not provide exact numbers. Read: The evolution of TV’s “very special episode”Ĭhildren’s shows, especially those on public-access TV, still don’t often have LGBTQ characters on them, despite portrayals becoming more common in recent years. It attracts no quizzical glances from the other characters, nor is it used as an opportunity for a proverbial Very Special Episode that teaches viewers about same-sex relationships. Ratburn is marrying a person (an aardvark?) of the same sex feels, for all intents and purposes, unremarkable.
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But the 2019 Arthur premiere marks a poignant moment in children’s TV history: In an episode where a male teacher gets married to another man, the behavior that the other characters consider most worrisome is his dorky dancing, and the apparent moral of the episode is that kids needn’t meddle in the affairs of the adults in their lives, because the adults have it under control. Portrayals of LGBTQ characters and same-sex relationships haven’t always been so welcome on TV programs for kids. The Arthur premiere made headlines on Tuesday, and most of the attention focused on its positive, normalizing portrayal of same-sex marriage. (They do, however, worry about the overenthusiastic dance moves Mr. Ratburn’s sister, his wedding is revealed to be to another man (a kindly one, who owns a chocolate shop!), and the kids have had no real reason to worry about their teacher’s personal life. Then, the episode delivers a surprise twist happy ending, in which the pushy woman planning the wedding is revealed to be Mr. Concerned for their teacher’s happiness, the students spend the bulk of the episode following him around to meetings with the woman they believe to be his very controlling fiancée and plotting to stop him from marrying her.
Ratburn’s students overhear him talking flusteredly on the phone to someone who seems to be quite pushy about the flower arrangements for Mr.
It’s a disruptive act that incites mass distraction. Ratburn, teacher of the titular anthropomorphic school-age aardvark, answers his cellphone during class. The Season 22 premiere of the PBS children’s show Arthur features some potentially controversial behavior by an elementary-school teacher.
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