——————————————————————————–

BET VS. BOONDOCKS: ROUND ONE
ADULT SWIM TO NOT AIR TWO EPISODES OF MAGRUDER SERIES

by Steve Fritz

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, http://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.

BET is just doing its job. If black people wanted to see a glorified Cosby show then BET would certainly play it because the bottom line is…either way they make money.

Myke Wayne… Love your post sun… I think like that alot and we love to be dumb sun… even me bangin webbie cause i love the production ~but I bump Mos Def and Stevie wonder too… ;0)~

@ T-cup… great point even though I don’t agree! B.E.T. has capitalized on vulnerabilities of the black community. B.E.T. was a lot different 20 yrs ago, and is a big reason we see ourselves in this way which causes us to dive further into the act and it also gives other people expectations for us to live up to. A black man who went to college takes care of his kids and respects people can’t be funny or “real” and is not worth associating with cause people hang with blackmen cause we thuggin get it poppin and stay gettin “guap”!

Bob Johnson and the rest have done exactly what some people who visit this site glorify. He got to the top and made his money to do the detriment of the general public. Nobody gets on Jay-Z and the other rappers for selling crack to get where they at so why get on Bob when he actually did it legally. They should feature him on American Gangster.

All I know is Catcher Freeman was a bad n!gga…lmao! (As told by Pops)

I had dreams of being that man my whole life… only if I could get that damn time machine finished…lmao!

p.s. it’s funny how Catcher, became catcha… then turned out to be the house n!gga they thought Catcher killed…lmao! Aaron McGruder and Team do a DAMN GOOD JOB!