Written by by WINSTON CHO at hollywoodreporter.com
Al Roker and his production banner have been sued by Bill Schultz, a former executive producer on an animated kids TV series in development. Schultz (The Simpsons, King of The Hill, Garfield) claims he was fired for objecting to the company’s failure to follow a diversity initiative intended to bring minority writers onto PBS television productions.
The lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, alleges executives at Al Roker Entertainment “callously disregarded” a diversity, equity and inclusion program, commonly called DEI, mandated by PBS, which covered the bulk of the production expenses for animated series Weather Hunters, by attempting to have Black writers touch up scripts written by white scribes to give the appearance of a diverse writers room.