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Why ‘Mad Men’ is keeping its blackface episode upon its return to streaming

brap

Banned
I wonder if people will complain to get it taken off anyway

Every episode of AMC’s “Mad Men” will be available to stream again later this month, including an episode featuring a character in blackface.

On Wednesday, Lionsgate released a statement explaining its decision not to pull Season 3’s “My Old Kentucky Home” from the “Mad Men” catalog, despite the recent removals of blackface episodes from several other series, including “30 Rock,” “Community” and “Scrubs.”

The statement provided to the Los Angeles Times will double as a disclaimer attached to the episode when the period drama moves to Amazon’s IMDb TV on July 15.

“This episode contains disturbing images related to race in America,” the title card will read. “One of the characters is shown in blackface as part of an episode that shows how commonplace racism was in America in 1963.


“In its reliance on historical authenticity, the series producers are committed to exposing the injustices and inequities within our society that continue to this day so we can examine even the most painful parts of our history in order to reflect on who we are today and who we want to become. We are therefore presenting the original episode in its entirety.”

The third episode of the third season of “Mad Men” sees Roger Sterling (John Slattery) wear blackface while serenading Jane (Peyton List) with a rendition of “My Old Kentucky Home” at a country club Derby party. At one point, Sterling remarks, “I did this at home for her with a little shoe polish. She thought it was a scream.”

While most in the audience laugh at the performance, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is visibly uncomfortable, and asks his wife, Betty (January Jones), if they can leave.

“My Old Kentucky Home” is one of several TV installments featuring blackface to come under reexamination in recent weeks. Last month Tina Fey requested NBC pull four episodes of “30 Rock” featuring blackface from streaming and syndication — and issued a controversial apology “for pain they have caused.”

A slew of other series, including “Scrubs,” “Community,” “The Office” and “The Golden Girls,” soon followed suit, removing multiple episodes over blackface concerns. However, the practice of deleting blackface scenes has drawn sharp scrutiny online.

Instead of erasing the episodes as if they never happened, many have argued that presenting the original content with a contextual note — a la “Mad Men” — is a more productive approach.

“Mad Men” will be available to watch on IMDb TV for free starting July 15, as well as on AMC in the fall.
 
“This episode contains disturbing images related to race in America,” “One of the characters is shown in blackface"
DRSovrk.gif
 

teezzy

Banned
Mad Men is tight. You gotta be down for that slow burn, and genuinely appreciate the time period though.

Imagine being such a pussy you need a literal warning before being shown an image of someone in blackface though.

I don't care what race you are. That's called being 'bitch made'.
 

RPS37

Member
I’ve seen every episode besides the final season. I don’t remember any blackface.
Did I just never get that far?
 
Imagine being such a pussy you need a literal warning before being shown an image of someone in blackface though.
I remember when we were in fourth grade elementary school, we were all into Ninjas and Japan and shit.
And on a party where people were supposed to dress up in costumes (smiliar to halloween in the US), our classes' black dude wore yellow face, dressing up as a japanese.

Would love to see that today, and what the confused reactions would be.
 

DogofWar

Member
Unforgivable sins in the US that will get you blacklisted and shunned:

Killing people
Destroying historical monuments
Threatening people you don't agree with
Stealing and robbing stores
Assaulting people

Painting your face

And to think just a couple of years ago people from the US made fun of Europe for being too stupidly SJW-liberal. :messenger_grinning_smiling:
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Mate, Mad Men was already a turbo-prog's waking nightmare. It's a realistic reflection of what life was like throughout the 60s, it's absolutely rife with misogyny, sexism, racism, all the isms.

What, they gonna throw up warnings before every episode about how "the women are treated really badly in this episode and most other episodes too"?
 

Wizz-Art

Member
I own the first 4 seasons on Blu-ray and bought the complete series on MS Movies & TV the last week when it was on sale for 29.99. Glad that the company doesn't erase stuff like other companies have done under the preassure of those SJW-terrorists.
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
Good. The whole point of that scene was to be offensive. The problem with trying to take that out, would be you'd have to take out a whole lot more.

I saw an article recently that talked about how The Shining hasn’t held up because it depicts abusive relationships. As if that isn’t the point of the film. Somehow people have forgotten that just because something is shown doesn’t mean that it’s endorsed.

There’s been a recent trend of people talking about children’s shows as if they are great works of art and comparable to the actual great tv shows. I feel like that's related to this stuff. That not portraying anything problematic is to some people the ultimate creative expression.
 
what's the problem here? show is still intact, they put a warning out for anyone who's "sensitive" towards the subject matter (which pretty much the whole show is a case study of, right from the first eps). I'm fine with the way they handle it.
 

Tesseract

Banned
I agree it is stupid that we need to add that disclaimer and not let common sense do it's work. but let's face it, these days, common sense is a rare commodity and I rather they keep the show whole that way.
i don't have a great counter argument for this yet, but the slope is starting to feel awfully slippery
 
i don't have a great counter argument for this yet, but the slope is starting to feel awfully slippery

just have them add a little extra in the disclaimer. "this show is a depiction of the time period and a case study of the negative things that was common during those days. if you are triggered by the harsh truth of the past, please stop watching this show and seek consultation."
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
I don’t get why this show gets to keep it and Always Sunny doesn’t.

Like if you want to make the case that “people did blackface in the 60s” well apparently SNL was doing blackface in the 21st century too. Tropical Thunder has blackface and that came out in 200. So it’s still relevant.

Im almost on the side of if we are going to ban it ban it for every show. No exceptions. Otherwise it’s just hypocritical.

I never bought the reasoning behind it anyways. “It shows people it is bad” is such a lame cop out. Lol just admit that libs are racist too. It’s true.

It is real funny tho, all these libs doing blackface to tell us blackface is wrong. Anyone see the right wing doing blackface? No? Hah so we just end up with all these libs telling each other something they already know is wrong is wrong and doing it anyways.

Like lol do we need a blackface skit to tell us the last one was wrong. Repeat to infinity
 
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Tesseract

Banned
just have them add a little extra in the disclaimer. "this show is a depiction of the time period and a case study of the negative things that was common during those days. if you are triggered by the harsh truth of the past, please stop watching this show and seek consultation."
i'd much rather fight to the bitter end for no disclaimers, but it's damned difficult to hold a tide with a broom
 

thefool

Member
what's the problem here? show is still intact, they put a warning out for anyone who's "sensitive" towards the subject matter (which pretty much the whole show is a case study of, right from the first eps). I'm fine with the way they handle it.

Because you're drawing an absurd line on blackface.

Are you putting disclaimers on nihilistic cinema?
Salò? Oh everyone will understand Paosolini message. Let them watch carefree.
Blackface on a random tv show episode? HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN
 
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desertdroog

Member
I dig Mad Men, have seen it about three times total, will probably watch it again in the future I am glad that it won't be altered or censored. It gets that mid-century feel just right and is a low-key car guys show as well. I'm not here for the outrage, rather I want to point out a neat compare and contrast if you watch Mad Men and the Dick Van Dyke show as a series.

The Dick van Dyke Show is what Mad Men would be if Don Draper didn't drink and cheat. Both Don and Dick live in the suburbs (New Rochelle) outside of NYC and both are creative heads as their profession, Draper in Advertisement Van Dyke as a comedy writer. Both have gorgeous wives; whom both have broken out in song at a dinner party and both series complement each other very well.

Here's a neat article on that:
 
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