Disney Pulls "Jessie" Ep. That Mocked Gluten Intolerance

[JamesG]

Disney Channel Pulls Controversial "Jessie" Episode That Mocked Gluten Intolerance
by Megan Masters
5/22/13


Disney Channel has pulled a recent installment of "Jessie" amid controversy surrounding its approach to a recurring character’s gluten intolerance.

“We received your feedback about tonight’s Jessie episode which some of you accessed early on Video-on-Demand,” the kiddie cabler said via a Facebook statement posted Friday. “We are removing this particular episode from our regular programming schedule and will re-evaluate its references to gluten restrictions in the character’s diet. Please accept our apologies for the upset this episode caused you and your family.”





The episode 'Quitting Cold Koala', which was to premiere last Friday, finds Debby Ryan’s titular nanny tasked with minding Zuri’s frenemy Stuart (played by J.J. Totah), who follows a gluten-free diet.

Upon learning the food restrictions that come with his condition, jokes are made, one of which involved pancakes being tossed at Stuart while he screams, “Gluten!”.





Disney Channel’s apology was partly in response to a petition posted to Change.org, which stated that Stuart was portrayed as “annoying, sniveling and demanding, repeatedly teased and excluded by the other children.”

The complaint asked the cabler to “stop using gluten-intolerance as an excuse to bully children with any disease, disorder or disability.”

http://tvline.com/2013/05/21/disney-...e-controversy/

[D-Dey]

Yes, but this had nothing to do with his intolerance for gluten. Robbie Shapiro (Matt Bennett) in Victorious had the same problem, and nobody complained back then.

[robyrob]

geez, its just a silly kids show - maybe they could have just changed the ending to give a more positive message about bullying.

i hate it when they pull episodes because of stuff like this, maybe they need to vet these things better than this in the first place if parents are going to be so sensitive; they have to play to their market and they have already had to pull several episodes of other shows for similar reasons.

[Schmoopie]

Interesting.... I've never seen anything offensive on Jessie and I watch it quite a bit but it's nice. that Disney is sympathetic to people's wishes. But I don't think younger kids would even understand what gluten intolerance is. It's still such a new subject anyway. I wonder if the same would be said if one of the characters had, say, high cholesterol?