Hulu has decided to remove an episode of The Golden Girls that contains a scene where two of the characters are in blackface.
What We Know:
- Disney-ABC Domestic Television requested Hulu to remove an offensive episode of The Golden Girls. The episode is called “Mixed Blessings” and it aired in 1988 as the 23rd episode in the third season of the sitcom.
- In the episode, Michael (Scott Jacoby) plans to marry an older Black woman, Lorraine (Rosalind Cash). However, Michael’s mother, Dorothy, isn’t fond of the age difference while Lorraine’s family opposed the interracial union. Both families join forces to stop the wedding.
- Rose (Betty White) and Blanche (Rue McClanahan) are applying mud face treatment when Lorraine’s family arrives, greeted by the sight of the two with their dark mud masks causing Blanche to respond with “This is mud on our faces, we’re not really Black.”
- On Twitter, journalist Erica Williams Simon tweeted that the removal of the episode was not necessary. “First of all, they were in mud masks not blackface,” she wrote. “And second of all, in what world does ‘Stop killing us.’ sound like ‘Please remove episodes of Golden Girls’? I didn’t see that ask on anyone’s protest sign…”
- The Golden Girls is not the only show that had an episode removed. Three episodes of Scrubs were removed from Hulu because they depicted blackface, following the removal of four episodes of 30 Rock for scenes featuring blackface. The Office also removed a scene featuring a character in blackface from a season 9 episode, but the rest of the episode is intact.
- Furthermore, on Friday, Netflix and Hulu removed an episode from Community where Ken Jeong’s character appears in blackface.
In addition to those shows, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon apologized on Twitter after he was blasted on social media because of a 20-year-old Saturday Night Live sketch of him wearing blackface during a Chris Rock impersonation resurfaced.
