Children are both a profitable and vulnerable market within the entertainment industry. This expansive audience poses huge potential for studios and producers, but is also significantly more sensitive to scandal than a general audience.
Children’s entertainment calls not only for age-appropriate content, but also for storylines that provide moral and social guidance to viewers. Each piece must meet not only the needs of its young audience, but also the approval of parents and guardians.
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Parents of younger children have long demanded that the actors themselves be held to the same high standard as the characters and film. As a result, scandal can spell disaster for children’s films and shows.
Despite their long-term success, these six popular children’s shows have been shadowed by accusations of abuse, animal cruelty, bullying, and even murder.
The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Peter Pan is a boy outside of reality and time—two concepts that his voice actor, Bobby Driscoll, was plagued and consumed by. Plucked from obscurity and crowned as Hollywood’s golden boy, Driscoll was destined only to disappear back into the unknown when abandoned by the film industry.
After Driscoll was dropped by the studio, he became a heroin addict and was arrested multiple times for drug possession, assault, burglary, and check kiting. Friends and family would often go months without hearing from him.
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Two children discovered Driscoll dead on a cot surrounded by beer bottles in an abandoned apartment. Police took fingerprints but were unable to locate anyone who knew him, leaving Driscoll to be buried in a mass paupers’ grave. It wasn’t until a year later when Driscoll’s family launched a search for their missing son and received a match on the fingerprints that his body was identified.
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- Photo Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Pulling Back the Curtain on the Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz is memorable for more than its award-winning songs and red ruby slippers. This classic film is notorious for the physical and psychological abuse of the studio on its leads.
A constant stream of actors were burned, scarred, and injured by the toxic makeup they wore every day. Buddy Ebsen was originally cast as the tin man before he was hospitalized nine days into filming and replaced by Jack Haley. Ebsen’s makeup was pure aluminum dust, which caused severe cramping, difficulty breathing, and even turned his skin blue. Haley, his replacement, also suffered a severe eye infection despite alterations to the makeup.
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On top of Ebsen, the scarecrow’s wardrobe caused scars, the wicked witch’s makeup left burns, and the cowardly lion’s suit was made of real, suffocating lion fur.
Most famously, Judy Garland, who played Dorothy, was called fat by studio executives and forced onto a diet of soup, coffee, cigarettes, and pills to keep her weight down. Garland struggled with disordered eating throughout the rest of her life, and died by overdose at 47.
It is also rumored that Director Viktor Fleming slapped Garland, and some of the munchkins sexually harassed her on set. Garland and the rest of the cast were also doused with chrysotile asbestos made to resemble snow.
The Abuse and Murder of Ducky the Dinosaur
Judith Barsi is best known for being the voice behind Ducky from The Land Before Time and Anne-Marie from All Dogs Go to Heaven. Although her famous roles have stood the test of time, Barsi herself was murdered by her father at 10 years old.
Barsi spent the last several years of her life tormented by her father, who was both verbally and physically abusive to Barsi and her mother. Barsi’s father hated her growing success and threatened to kill his family on several occasions, as well as threw pots and pans at them. The stress of this mistreatment drove Barsi to begin pulling out her own eyelashes and their cat’s whiskers.
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Her disturbing behavior prompted an investigation by Child Protective Services, but the case was dismissed when Barsi’s mother promised to leave her husband. Tragically, Barsi’s father killed both women and himself before they could get away.
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- Photo Credit: Twentieth Century Fox
The Persecuted Power Ranger
David Yost played the blue ranger in both the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie and television show. His character, Billy Cranston, was known as the intellectual member of the group, and was respected and protected by his friends.
Yost faced a very different relationship with his costars, producers, and members of the show’s production team. Yost, who came out as gay in 2010, claimed he was targeted and persecuted during the show because of rumors surrounding his sexuality. He said that producers began questioning his costars about his sexuality, and members of the production team called him the f-slur, prompting his leave from the show.
Yost, who had become suicidal during this time, attended conversion therapy after his departure. He then suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for five weeks.
One of the show’s producers, Scott Page-Pagter, claims that the homophobia described never happened, but Yost continues to be an advocate for LGBTQ+ representation in the industry.
The Cat-icide of Milo and Otis
Animal abuse allegations are no stranger to Hollywood, but very few of these cases have rivaled the magnitude of the Milo and Otis claims. The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a popular children’s film about the friendship between a kitten and a puppy. Shortly after its release, several Australian animal rights organizations called for a boycott in response to rumors of rampant animal abuse on the set. The organizations claimed over 20 kittens were killed during production, while others were maimed or traumatized.
Other claims made included a cat’s paw that was intentionally broken to change the cat’s walk, a kitten being thrown off of a cliff, a kitten being bound throughout the film to maintain its size, and a pug fighting a live bear.
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The American Humane Society supported and approved the film despite having no officers present at the time of filming.
Although no evidence has confirmed the validity of these claims, rumors continue to surround the cats, as well as the one-eyed pig, the one-horned bull, and the three-hoofed deer featured in the film.
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- Photo Credit: Children's Television Workshop (CTW)
Elmo and the Underage Sex Scandal
Kevin Clash resigned after almost 30 years of portraying Elmo amid accusations of sex with minors during his time on Sesame Street. Several men came forward in 2012 claiming that Clash had abused, manipulated, and preyed upon them years earlier when they were underaged. Four notable cases came forward with similar stories of sexual relationships with Clash when they were 16 and 15.
Clash was also accused of drugging and grooming the minors into a relationship, and seducing them with dinners and trips. Clash admitted to having a relationship with his first accuser, but denied that the man was underaged at the time of their involvement. The first accuser claimed that Clash’s team pressured him into recanting his statement during the trials.
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The case was eventually thrown out by a judge for being made past the expiration date of the statute of limitations. Although Clash wasn’t held legally responsible, he and Sesame Street parted ways when the controversy continued to gain momentum.
