Sweet 'Buster' is far from radical
The most incendiary thing about the controversial lesbian episode of the kid's show ''Postcards From Buster" may be the food. I mean really, who puts a pickle on a plate with maple syrup, shaved ice, and a plain donut? And then eats it all together? It's disgusting and deplorable.
But seriously, the most incendiary thing about the half-hour, which stirred debate when new Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings denounced PBS for producing it with public funding, may be its nonchalance.
The Vermont-set episode, which will air March 23 on Channel 2, gives us two lesbian couples, their cheerful children, a community that appears to embrace them, and a general atmosphere of profound ordinariness. Against the pastoral
A&E's ''Run Arnold Run" lacks muscle. Page E8.
glories of Vermont, with maple trees dripping and cows in need of milking, the lesbian families are almost Waltonesque in their rural charm. For those who'd rather pathologize and exclude same-sex couples and their children, that normalcy must spark a lot of anguish. To them, showing and telling about lesbian families is the same as promoting.
But ''Postcards From Buster" is a series that's specifically about cultural diversity, as an 8-year-old cartoon rabbit travels the continent with his pilot father. He meets everyday people and keeps a video diary about them and their lifestyles. The mood is nonjudgmental and innocent. In the offending episode, our sweet, big-eared hero is on an educational journey to a state known for, among many other things, syrup and civil unions. It makes perfect sense that he'd hang out with the children of one lesbian couple and then meet another. ''Boy, that's a lot of moms," Buster exclaims, looking at his new pal Emma's family picture.
Fittingly, the episode also features a subplot about Buster's search for a perfect Mother's Day gift to give to his own mom when he sees her next. Alas, Buster's parents are divorced, although I don't think the show is promoting marital breakup.
With all due respect to Spellings, her decision to come down on ''Postcards From Buster" is one of the emptiest cultural attacks we've seen in a period that's been filled to bursting with agenda-filled hot air. As Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont said yesterday in a statement, ''Of all the challenges we face in education, Buster Bunny's visit to Vermont is not one of them. It's too bad that people can take a sweet story on maple sugaring and turn it into something so sour."
And it's even sadder to think that Spellings's petty attack -- along with her support of antigay critics of ''SpongeBob SquarePants" -- is among her first official acts. ''Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode," Spelling wrote to PBS, which is now spinelessly refusing to distribute the episode. (Local affiliate WGBH says it will make it available to interested stations.) Of course, many parents would not want their children exposed to Muslim, evangelical Christian, or Mormon families, all of which Buster has encountered in past episodes.
Should those parents get to shape our children's understanding?
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com.
