Since the beginning of August, Netflix has been broadcasting the entire American series, with the exception of one episode that showed “blackface”, without informing its subscribers or justifying this choice.
On the occasion of the rebroadcast of the series Mad Men On its streaming platform since August, the company Netflix has multiplied the messages indicating that “the integral” of the program following the universe of New York advertising in the 60s was accessible to its subscribers. The original series, broadcast from 2007 to 2015, was a global success. Its broadcast rights were bought in turn by major streaming platforms, such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.
But while Netflix promises its subscribers to watch the entire series, this is actually false advertising. Because instead of the 92 episodes that the original program had, the Netflix version only has 91.
The missing episode, noticed by netizens on Reddit, is the third episode of season 3, titled My Old Kentucky Home. In this episode, the main character Don Draper goes to a party organized by his boss, Roger Sterling. To amuse his guests, the latter sings a song while making up his skin black in front of his young wife. If the guests are laughing, the embarrassed main character asks his wife to leave. No message indicates to the Netflix subscriber that an episode has been removed from the series.
Racist theatrical practice
The act of dressing up in black has a name: blackface. This process refers to a 19th-century theatrical practice in the United States, where white actors painted their faces black to play the roles of black people, often stereotyped as being retarded. The character of the disabled black slave Jim Crow would give his name to the Jim Crow laws that justified racial segregation in the United States between 1876 and 1964.
At a time when racial issues have become more important in the American public and media debate, the caricatured and pejorative representation of African-Americans on television has pushed many actors and producers of television or film content to question their practices. Now, the fact of making a blackface is considered racist. TV hosts like Jimmy Kimmel have since regretted painting their faces black in popular sketches and series like Scrubs, The Office or even 30 Rock have chosen to remove scenes, or even entire episodes, where white actors darkened their skin. In France, football player Antoine Griezmann apologized after “disguising” himself as a black basketball player at a party.
Actress and executive producer of 30 RockTina Fey had apologized and justified her decision to delete certain episodes to the media USA Today. “As we strive to do the work and do better when it comes to race in America, we believe it is best to remove from circulation these episodes featuring actors in race-change makeup. […] I now understand that “intent” is not a free pass for white people who want to reproduce these images.”
“Disturbing images”
At the time, the series Mad Men had also been questioned about the broadcast of a blackface in its program. In July 2020, the production company Lionsgate explained to the Los Angeles Times that the episode was not going to be cut but that the following message was going to be added at the beginning of the episode on streaming platforms: “This episode contains disturbing images related to race in America. One of the characters is depicted as black in an episode that highlights how racism was rife in America in 1963. By drawing on historical authenticity, the show’s producers are committed to exposing the injustices and inequalities in our society that continue to this day, so that we can examine even the most painful parts of our history to reflect on who we are today and who we want to become. We are therefore presenting the original episode in its entirety.”
This message was added from July 15, 2020 and therefore appeared at the beginning of the episode, as it was broadcast by other streaming platforms that had acquired the broadcast rights, such as Amazon Prime or Roku. By removing this episode from its catalog, Netflix has therefore gone beyond the wishes of the production company Lionsgate.
How did Netflix justify this choice? Since the beginning of August and the broadcast of Mad Menthe streaming platform has not publicly responded to the episode’s disappearance. When contacted by the British news site Metro in early August, Netflix did not comment.
In 2015, actor John Slattery, who played the role of the boss who blacks his face, returned to this scene with the Hollywood Reporter. He said he was surprised and uncomfortable when he was asked to do the scene in blackface pour Mad Men. After initially hesitating to refuse, he eventually complied despite his reservations. On the day of filming, he remembers the palpable discomfort, including the shocked look of an African-American police officer he encountered before his scene.
Contacted by CheckNews, Netflix France did not respond to our request. We will add their explanation if they respond.
