Alabama Public Television Refuses to Air "Arthur" Episode Featuring Gay Wedding

We learned last week that Season 22 of "Arthur" features the wedding of Mr. Ratburn and his boyfriend Patrick. (Read about it here.) It was a cute episode that actually didn't show the gay wedding itself. Rather, the majority of the story featured the attempts by Arthur and his friends to sabotage Raturn's wedding because they though that his new "bride" (in reality, this uptight sister) would make him an even tougher teacher. Otherwise, the wedding was skipped over in favor of a scene closer during the wedding reception.

"Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone" was ultimately a fun episode and an enjoyable return for a longtime cartoon series. But you wouldn't know that if you watched "Arthur" on Alabama Public Television.

APT decided to preempt the "Arthur" season premier in favor of a rerun and the channel has no intention to ever air this episode:

“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. We also know that children who are younger than the ‘target’ audience for Arthur also watch the program.”

You can watch the episode here for free.