Tuesday, February 01, 2005

sugartime for buster

some good news for buster, the asthmatic bunny whose pbs kids show recently ran into some trouble with bush's brand new secretary of education:

Defying criticism from the secretary of education and their own network, several large PBS affiliates say they will air an episode of the children's show Postcards From Buster that includes a visit to a home with lesbian parents.

Buster the cartoon rabbit is not backing down.

Postcards From Buster, aimed at preschoolers, was pulled from the PBS schedule last week after Margaret Spellings, the new secretary of the Department of Education, denounced the use of federal funds for it. But WGBH, the powerful Boston public television station that makes the series, said yesterday that it will air the program tomorrow.

WGBH offered the episode to other PBS stations and, as of last night, 18 planned to air it, said Jeanne Hopkins, a vice president at WGBH. They include some of the largest stations in the 349-member Public Broadcasting System - such as New York's WNET and KQED in San Francisco.

indeed, the sf chronicle points out that kqed san francisco will play the episode tomorrow (wednesday, 2/2) (hint for connie in case you want to set your vcr, since it might not air in indy):

San Francisco public television station KQED received the episode directly from the producers at WGBH in Boston, and it will premiere at 4:30 p. m. Wednesday on Channel 9. At that time, Bay Area viewers may feel let down by the lack of controversial fodder in the episode. An early look at "Sugartime" shows more minutes spent discussing dairy farms, making chocolate chip cookies and draining sap from maple trees than exploring same-sex unions.

i would love to see a list of all the affiliates that will air the show... in particular i really want to know if it will air on my own affiliate, wfyi (the website suggests it won't, but if it did it'd be a last-minute change anyway & might not be reflected on the site). the boston globe says at least 24 affiliates will air it (i guess they have more recent info than newsday), but who are those affiliates? i want a full list, dammit. if anyone finds one, pass it on.

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