Amid old shows pulling episodes, amusement parks pulling old pro-Civil War rides, and white actors giving up their Black voiceover roles, Hollywood is changing right before our eyes and now we can add “Golden Girls” to the mix.
The streaming platform Hulu recently decided to pull an old 1988 episode of the popular show where two of the characters seemingly wore Blackface.
The hit show, which aired between 1985 and 1992 on NBC, was focused on four older women in Miami who would often relive their golden years. The episode in question is one titled “Mixed Feelings”, according to Deadline.
The episode centered around Dorothy’s son Michael (Scott Jacoby) who was getting married to an older Black woman name Lorraine (Rosalind Cash). Dorothy (Beatrice Arthur), objects to the marriage because of the age gap while Lorraine’s mother objects because she doesn’t want her daughter marrying a White man.
However, throughout the whole meetup scene, Rose (Betty White) and Blanche (Rue McClanahan) appear in front of Lorraine and her family in blackface after they both applied mud facials.
“This is mud on our faces, we’re not really Black,” they said.
Hulu, owned by Disney, found it necessary to remove the episode amid the current climate around Black Lives Matter. Other shows have also been seeing their episodes cut. Four episodes of NBC’s 30 Rock where White actors wore blackface were be pulled by NBCUniversal, at the request of actress and writer Tiny Fey and co-showrunner Robert Carlock.
Greg Daniels, creator of The Office pulled a 2012 episode of the sitcom for depicting a character in blackface.
Daniels said he is “sorry for the pain that [he has] caused.”
In addition, an episode of Community, which also aired on NBC, that featured Korean actor Ken Jeong wearing blackface was removed from both Hulu and Netflix.
There have been nationwide debate over white actors and public figures wearing blackface after Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon came under fire over a 20-year-old Saturday Night Live sketch of him wearing blackface during a Chris Rock impersonation.
Fallon apologized on Twitter, saying
“I’m very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.”
Fellow late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, of ABC‘s Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel, also had to apologize for an old skit of him wearing blackface while impersonating NBA star Karl Malone on Comedy Central‘s The Man Show.
