Boondocks cuts season to 13 episodes because of B.E.T.

WeaponX2099

WeaponX2099

CAGiversary!
Feedback
83 (98%)
From NEWSARAMA:

Well, it seems Aaron McGruder can take swipes at Ann Coulter, Rosa Parks, Oprah Winfrey and the Daughters of the American Republic, but if he specifically takes on BET head honcho Debra Lee, that’s another story. One the public is currently being denied.

As fans who have read this column might remember, in a past interview McGruder, creator of the hit Adult Swim series The Boondocks, went on the record to say there would be 15 episodes for his second season of the series.

Also, in past interviews when asked if there would be any subject McGruder could not air, [AS]’s Mike Lazzo said McGruder can talk about anything he wanted.

Now anyone who goes to McGruder’s current MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/amcgruder, will see it is led with the quote, “"Okay, so... maybe it's a 13 episode season..."

The reason for this is two of the planned episode, “The Huey Freeman Hunger Strike” and “The Ruckus Reality Show” have been pulled. The episodes take savage strikes at not only favorite target BET, but also two of its key executives, Debra Lee and former Boondocks producer Reggie Hudlin. In “Hunger Strike,” Lee is made to look a lot like Dr. Evil from Mike Myers Austin Powers films while “Wedgie Rutland” is depicted as a total toadying nerd. “Hunger Strike” takes even broader strokes at the Black Entertainment Television, implying its true goal is to destroy and/or diminish African-American culture, exemplifying what Chuck D’s statement that the networks letters really stand for the “booty ‘en thugs” network. “Ruckus” takes matters even further, working off the premise that the black-hating Uncle Ruckus is given his own show on BET.

Rumors of the shows being pulled began circulating on the internet about two or so weeks ago, primarily at hip hop-oriented sites like YouHeardThatNew (http://www.youheardthatnew.com) and MissInfo, www.missinfo.tv. MissInfo even managed to get some clips, which apparently got pulled real fast.

At that time, McGruder, BET and Adult Swim were contacted for verification, with only Adult Swim stating the missing episode were being rescheduled.

The on January 23, the site hiphopdx (http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/i...ondocks-vs-bet) weighed in with this:

Over the past couple of weeks there has been rumors hovering about a certain Boondocks episode waiting to be aired. A clip leaked to youtube that previewed the episode which takes a critical and humorous look at BET and its programming. The snippet heightened curiosity of when the episode would eventually air. After the rumored original air date (January 7th) had passed, there would be even more speculation as to what happened to the episode. The clips on youtube were also taken down with no explanation.

Message boards ran wild with talk that BET put a halt to the episode ever airing but there was absolutely no confirmation from either sources at BET or Boondocks. It’s no secret that the Boondocks has attracted controversy (ie: last year’s controversial “Return of the King” episode) but to hear that an episode may possibly never air has raised more than a few eyebrows.

Today, an anonymous source close to the situation issued a statement exclusively to HipHopDX.com explaining that not one, but two episodes have been banned from airing. Here's his statement as to what has transpired in recent weeks…

“It now appears official that TWO episodes of The Boondocks second season -- clips of which surfaced on and then were pulled from Youtube -- will not air. At all. Ever.

Fans who were waiting for the show to reach the levels of controversy that last year's Peabody Award-winning "The Return of Martin Luther King" episode achieved will have to cross their fingers and hope that Sony execs don’t also pull the episodes from the second season DVD, which is slated for late spring.

The two episodes were originally scheduled to air on November 16 and December 17, respectively. No official reasons were given for the banning of the episodes from either Sony or Adult Swim as of yet.

Rumor has it the higher ups at BET have been pressuring Sony behind the scenes for months to yank the episodes, including threatening legal action. Now I’m pretty biased as a BET hater, but it’s sad the people in charge over there are more worried about being teased by a cartoon than producing good television. Not surprising, but still sad.

I’m a fan of the show and I've seen the episodes and they are undoubtedly the most cutting, brilliant and funny episodes of the season. In the first one: "The Hunger Strike" – Huey teams up with an Al Sharpton-like character (played by Cee-Lo Green from Gnarls Barkley) and goes on a hunger strike to protest BET. In what has since become a bizarre example of life imitating art, BET execs ‘Deborah Leevil’ and ‘Weggie Rudlin’ (imagine Black female Dr. Evil and Reginald Hudlin as Number 2) go through extraordinary lengths to thwart young Huey’s crusade. In the second one, titled "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show”, BET gives Uncle Ruckus his own show, and what follows is one of the most ____ed up and hilarious things I’ve seen on TV in years.

Is this controversy good for the Boondocks? Probably. For McGruder, controversy has never been a bad thing. But it’s doubtful any of this can be good for BET , which seems to be under perpetual fire from community activists and critics alike for its garbage programming. Now with this and BET founder Bob Johnson’s cheap shots at Obama, Huey Freeman may not be the only one hungering for a BET boycott.”

Calls and emails to Aaron McGruder’s office have yet to be returned. An exclusive clip has also been leaked to HipHopDX.

Further inquiries to McGruder, BET and Cartoon Network were sent, with only CN Sr. VP of Public Relations James Anderson responding, to whit: “The episodes are not scheduled to air on Adult Swim. Beyond that, we really don’t have any further comment.”

Informed sources state that have been consulted have told Newsarama that if Adult Swim could air the episodes, they would. They are pointing fingers McGruder’s production partners Sony as the ones who pulled the plug.

In the meantime, the question now is if [AS] won’t air the episodes, will they eventually appear in the upcoming second season DVD set, which is slated for release this spring. In the meantime, a new episode of Boondocks, “The S-Word,” aired last Monday with a repeat slated for tonight at 11:30 p.m. Another new episode, “The Legend of Catcher Freeman,” is slated for Monday, January 28, also at 11:30 p.m. It should also be noted that McGruder is supposed to launch a new live action show on SuperDeluxe.com (www.superdeluxe.com), a new project from Cartoon Network’s parent company, Turner. The new project is called The Super Rumble Mix Show.
Click to expand...

I was wondering why there were reruns. And BET is that bad. Just garbage.
 
I really hope they put them on the Season 2 DVD set or somehow get leaked. I started watching it once it a while last year but it has become one of my favorite shows.

The Uncle Ruckus Reality show episode sounds awesome.

I think there is a 3rd episode missing as well. On Wikipedia for the past few weeks it said the next new episode was one where Uncle Ruckus is Santa Claus again and says Christmas is for white children only, I don't see any reference to it anymore.
 
[quote name='YoshiFan1']I really hope they put them on the Season 2 DVD .[/QUOTE]

heres hoping. im a big fan of the boondocks.
 
This had better at least make it onto the DVDs. Oh and fuck BET. That station should be taken of f the air for its degradation of black people. I don't understand why they don't stand up against that channel and its utter shit programming. It's a mockery of them and really sad to see how their own people are exploiting themselves. Hopefully this bring more to light against BET.
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']fuck BET. I hate that network even more now. They can eat a dick. AS can eat a dick too for not airing those episodes.[/quote]Racist! You're all racists for hating BET!
 
[quote name='CaseyRyback']fuck BET. I hate that network even more now. They can eat a dick. AS can eat a dick too for not airing those episodes.[/quote]

Adult Swim is out of it. It's Sony not sending the episodes to AS because of the Pressure from BET.
 
B.E.T sent black people back 50 years.

Black to the future you may say... Or perhaps... nvm.

It is funny how B.E.T gets insulted by the boondocks when the representation is 100% correct.

STOMPIN ON DEM NUTS.

Did you guys catch that racism episode with the teacher calling riley a $$$$er? lols
 
Sony, grow some fucking balls and show the damn things.

BET stop being little pussies when someone makes a parody of your station. I mean seriously thats just sad that you need to go act like little girls because someone says something bad about you. I already knew your station is crap (as with every other music station out there today), you don't need to go around saying that it is crap.

If those two episodes end up on the DVD, I am sure as hell buying the DVD.
 
Black
Exploitation
Television

They're just pissed because they feel betrayed by "one of their own". I could go on a long tirade about BET but I'll refrain...for now.

I will unload, though, on Reggie Hudlin. He's a hack director and a horrible writer. If you're a comics fan read the spoiler. I'm just putting a spoiler tag on it so non-comics fans don't have to read it.
He's been writing Black Panther for at least 2 years now and the book absolutely sucks. He was hired to write it primarily because he's black. The writer on the previous BP series, Christopher Priest, had the single best run ever in the history of the character. He wrote him as the regal king of a nation that he is. It didn't help that he's a middle-aged white guy. Apparently ethnicity trumps ability. Priest gave multiple layers to the character's personality while Hudlin writes him almost as Luke Cage with a crown. I'm surprised BP hasn't yelled "SWEET KWANZAA!" yet. Hudlin is a garbage writer who has completely ruined the character to the point that I stopped buying the book a few months ago. This is saying something considering this is a character that I love to read. Joe Quesada carries some of the blame as well for hiring Hudlin and letting him stay on the book for this long.
 
fuck BET for pulling this kind of crap. they are by far the worst station on tv (that's a feat in itself).

now that i've said that, i've been rather dissapointed with this season of the Boondocks. The episodes focus way too much on riley and huey has become little more than a supporting character.
 
[quote name='neocisco']Black
Exploitation
Television

They're just pissed because they feel betrayed by "one of their own". I could go on a long tirade about BET but I'll refrain...for now.

I will unload, though, on Reggie Hudlin. He's a hack director and a horrible writer. If you're a comics fan read the spoiler. I'm just putting a spoiler tag on it so non-comics fans don't have to read it.
He's been writing Black Panther for at least 2 years now and the book absolutely sucks. He was hired to write it primarily because he's black. The writer on the previous BP series, Christopher Priest, had the single best run ever in the history of the character. He wrote him as the regal king of a nation that he is. It didn't help that he's a middle-aged white guy. Apparently ethnicity trumps ability. Priest gave multiple layers to the character's personality while Hudlin writes him almost as Luke Cage with a crown. I'm surprised BP hasn't yelled "SWEET KWANZAA!" yet. Hudlin is a garbage writer who has completely ruined the character to the point that I stopped buying the book a few months ago. This is saying something considering this is a character that I love to read. Joe Quesada carries some of the blame as well for hiring Hudlin and letting him stay on the book for this long.
[/quote]

Coudln't agree more on the comics. BP now is garbage compared to what it was. I used to like Quesada, but he is increasingly infurriating (sp) me with his staff/writing moves. Spiderman was the last straw, but at least Messiah Complex was awesome.
 
[quote name='thespamofpower']The episodes focus way too much on riley and huey has become little more than a supporting character.[/quote]

That has been my biggest gripe with them this season.

The episodes this season are still pretty good, and I hope these pulled episodes at least make the DVD set.
 
[quote name='thespamofpower'] i've been rather dissapointed with this season of the Boondocks. The episodes focus way too much on riley and huey has become little more than a supporting character.[/QUOTE]

I have to agree 100%.

I think it's ironic that the cornerstone of the comic strip and show is to highlight and lampoon the stereotypes of the black culture (or, that's how I interpret it, but my tiny skinny white ass might be way the hell off), and yet this entire season has been about nothing but those things. Huey doesn't really factor in right now - he's around, he kind of shows up here and there, but most of the time it's just Riley doing the sorts of things that would annoy Huey (and, I imagine, McGruder). It's pretty much just Riley and whatever things interest him at the forefront, as opposed to Huey's activism.

I still like the show quite a bit, and every episode tends to have at least a few parts in it that are unequivocal. It's just that I'd rather see things more from Huey's perspective, especially since it is so acerbic and sour.

And yet, I love Ruckus. Hmm.

I'll also say that this season has some of the worst episodes in my opinion. The wolf-bitch episode got old about ten seconds after it started. And I didn't care for the one about...I think it was Usher? Ugh.

And yet, Stinkmeaner's reincarnation was excellent.

As for the actual controversy at hand, I'd been wondering where the episodes were also. And I do remember a Christmas episode listed on a wiki, but now I see no mention of it.

I love Sony. They are afraid of Speedy's CC ads and - I guess - hip urban youth oriented exploitative channels.

That's good information to know.
 
BET has that (or at least had) that show on late nights that pretty much showed videos that were soft core porn, has a show that starred DMX, who by that time was already know for his run ins with the law plus pretty much every episode he was driving wrecklessly and in one episode he even grabbed a handful of bullets out of a jar. The have a show called "American Gangster" which is a good show but it pretty much just glorifies everything they say they don't want black people to fall into, AND on their flagship show, 106 & Park, one of the host isin't even black. She's Puerto Rican. She's hot and all that but you mean to tell me that there wasn't someone that was a little bit more black than her to put on yout flagship show? BET does more to perpetuate black stereotypes than anything else mainly because they can get away with it. If you some of their shows and put them on any other network, black people would be protesting in front of their studios wanting to get them taken down but since it's a black channel it's cool.

I'm not that big of a fan of the Boondocks but when I do catch an episode there's usually one part that makes me think "wow he's right" with the social commentary. Them pointing out the hypocracies of BET would probably be full of those moments.
 
[quote name='Strell']I have to agree 100%.

I think it's ironic that the cornerstone of the comic strip and show is to highlight and lampoon the stereotypes of the black culture (or, that's how I interpret it, but my tiny skinny white ass might be way the hell off), and yet this entire season has been about nothing but those things. Huey doesn't really factor in right now - he's around, he kind of shows up here and there, but most of the time it's just Riley doing the sorts of things that would annoy Huey (and, I imagine, McGruder). It's pretty much just Riley and whatever things interest him at the forefront, as opposed to Huey's activism.

[/QUOTE]

Personally I think the social commentary has been a lot stronger this season than the previous one. Sure the Huey episodes are more political and try to attain a stronger message, but watching all the Riley episodes clearly displays that McGruder is trying to show the flaws in the urban culture and the stuff that is glorified. The two episodes that are pulled clearly go along with this theme.
 
[quote name='Strell']I have to agree 100%.

I think it's ironic that the cornerstone of the comic strip and show is to highlight and lampoon the stereotypes of the black culture (or, that's how I interpret it, but my tiny skinny white ass might be way the hell off), and yet this entire season has been about nothing but those things. Huey doesn't really factor in right now - he's around, he kind of shows up here and there, but most of the time it's just Riley doing the sorts of things that would annoy Huey (and, I imagine, McGruder). It's pretty much just Riley and whatever things interest him at the forefront, as opposed to Huey's activism.

I still like the show quite a bit, and every episode tends to have at least a few parts in it that are unequivocal. It's just that I'd rather see things more from Huey's perspective, especially since it is so acerbic and sour.

And yet, I love Ruckus. Hmm.

I'll also say that this season has some of the worst episodes in my opinion. The wolf-bitch episode got old about ten seconds after it started. And I didn't care for the one about...I think it was Usher? Ugh.

And yet, Stinkmeaner's reincarnation was excellent.

As for the actual controversy at hand, I'd been wondering where the episodes were also. And I do remember a Christmas episode listed on a wiki, but now I see no mention of it.

I love Sony. They are afraid of Speedy's CC ads and - I guess - hip urban youth oriented exploitative channels.

That's good information to know.[/quote]

I agree with what your saying also

Season 1 was Mcgrudger just getting his hands dirty and trying different things, But it also held more character depth in one episode than any of the entire episodes of season 2

also, I feel the animation has gone down as well, It feels like it's gone over to the Dark side and borrows more heavily on...Anime

"Riley Wuz here" is a classic episode in season one, One of my number 1 favorites, funny and also develops more of a character for riley. I'd like to see more episodes like this, Hopefully because season 2 comes off as mcgrudger trying to hard to please so many different people with even more offensive material and gags.
 
thats a damn shame the show is brilliant stuff you dont see many non pc shows liek that on tv ever not since the days of the colin quinn show do you see anyone tackle real topics honestly and openly without worrying about offending people. bet needs to lighten up that channel is complete shit. i dunno when the downhill fall started but man that channel is completly unwatchable. that channel and alot fo the shit on it is a big part of the dumbing down of a people.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top