All five seasons of Jim Henson The Muppet Show took the Disney + stage Friday and viewers young and old quickly spotted a content warning ahead of 18 of the series’ episodes. “This program contains negative portrayals and / or abuse of people or cultures. These stereotypes were then wrong and are now wrong, ”reads the indemnity. “Instead of removing this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and foster conversations to create a more inclusive future together.”
Add the content warning, “Disney is committed to creating stories with inspiring and aspiring themes that reflect the rich variety of human experience around the world.” The episodes preceding the release include debates by Debbie Harry, Joel Gray, Jim Nabors, Johnny Cash, Alan Arkin, Kenny Rogers, Steve Martin, Peter Sellers, Cleo Laine, James Coco, Spike Milligan, Crystal Gayle, Beverly Sills, Jonathan Winters, James Coburn, Joan Baez, Wally Boag and Marty Feldman.
Although the streaming platform does not specify for which “negative images” each episode is tagged, it rotates briefly The Muppet ShowIn the run, which aired between 1976 and 1981, Johnny Cash appears in front of a Confederate flag, Jonathan Winters posing as an Indian singer while wearing a headdress, and a subplot in which Arab Muppets oil in the dressing room of Kenny Roger drill. among other similar dated stereotypes.
Interestingly enough, like Entertainment weekly points, two of the program’s 120 episodes are currently absent from Disney +: those presented by Brooke Shields and Muppet Show author Chris Langham. Although segments have been processed from different episodes due to music rights issues, EW attributes the absence of the Langham episode to his 2007 conviction for possession of child pornography.