On Friday, all five seasons of the The Muppet Show began streaming on Disney+. Two episodes of the 120 total are missing and several scenes have been cut, apparently due to licensing issues around the music. Meanwhile, more than a dozen episodes include a warning before the program starts that the show "includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures" and that the "stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now." From CNN:
An episode hosted by Johnny Cash in which the country star performs in front of the US flag and the Confederate battle flag (video above) was among the installments flagged by the service.
Another features folk star Joan Baez doing an Indian accent, while the opening to an episode with Kenny Rogers shows Muppets dressed in Arab garb drilling for oil.
]The warning says that rather than removing the episodes, Disney wants to "acknowledge (their) harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future."
