Dick Tracy is taking heat from Asian and Hispanic groups, who say his sidekicks in a 29-year-old cartoon series are offensive stereotypes.
The series has been broadcast weekdays at 8 a.m. for the last four weeks on Disney-owned KCAL-TV Channel 9 to coincide with the release of Disney's film, "Dick Tracy."The characters considered objectionable are "Jo Jitsu," a buck-toothed, squinty-eyed, crime-fighting assistant who can't pronounce the letter r, and "Go Go Gomez," a heavily accented Hispanic who spends a lot of time taking siestas and saying things like "Ay, chihuahua."
"I thought this was no longer acceptable in the public media," said Raul Ruiz, a Chicano studies professor at Cal State Northridge. "This city is composed of human beings and all of us have differences; what this does is point out that differences are not necessarily positive."
Ron Wakabayashi, executive director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission and a member of the Japanese American Citizens League, said he is dismayed by the depictions.
A team of KCAL executives have begun reviewing the series and episodes deemed offensive will not be broadcast, Jim Saunders, KCAL vice president and station manager, said Thursday.
An employee in the station's programming department screened the series before the promotional broadcast began four weeks ago, and found it suitable for television, Saunders said.
Since the concerns have been raised, Saunders said, "we are rescreening them all."
Saunders said the station had received only one private citizen complaint about the cartoons.
The cartoon series is distributed by Sachs Finley Programming.
Shelly Hirsh, president of programming at Sachs Finley, said the company is concerned about a possible unfavorable reaction to the "Dick Tracy" cartoon series.
"We're monitoring it in other stations around the country," Hirsh said.