A producer of a notorious animated series has filed a lawsuit against a famous weather expert Al Roker and his production company in retaliation while neglecting to hire variety television.
In the lawsuit filed this week and shared by Hollywood ReporterAl Roker Entertainment and its subsidiary WeatherHunters, Inc. dismissed “wrongfully and illegally” Bill Schultzfamous people with The Simpsons' golden years, King of the hilland countless cartoons for children such as Ed, Edd and Eddy And Courage for the cowardly dog. Schultz, who is white, claims that he reported alleged racism directed at people of color and was ultimately terminated.
“Surprisingly, the man in control here was Al Roker, a leading African-American media personality and [Weather Hunters] The concept focuses on an African American Family and was fully developed for PBS's key diversity children's audience, an issue that frustrated Mr. Schultz and led to his wrongful termination. as well as a breach of contract that is a racial diversity issue as a whole,” the lawsuit states.
In 2014, the company, led by Roker and with the support of Schultz, launched Weather huntera children's animated series that was eventually picked up by PBS.
“Mr. Schultz conceived, conceptualized and created the entire business plan for [Weather Hunters]. Mr. Schultz was integral to the creation of the Program and worked tirelessly to create a financial plan in which one hundred percent (100%) ownership of the Program would be retained under control and ownership of Al Roker,” the lawsuit reads.
Throughout 2022, Schultz worked on the series for PBS, which implemented a diversity provision to increase the hiring of writers of color in programming aimed at Black audiences.
According to the lawsuit, Schultz is a staunch believer in “racial diversity and inclusion,” striving to find culturally sensitive writers to write. Weather hunter.
“Mr. Schultz has always maintained the vision of staffing and producing the Program with a diverse group of creators and artists, and is fully cooperative as PBS takes it a step further and makes it a collaborative mission.” agreement as a condition for green-lighting the entire production,” according to the lawsuit. “PBS created the DEI policy and made it a contractual requirement for all new programming for your children.”
However, Schultz accused Al Roker Entertainment and WeatherHunters of facilitating an environment that allowed “the wholesale deconstruction of diversity, equity, and inclusion ('DEI') programming aimed at bringing in minority writers participate in PBS television production.”
Instead of complying with diversity initiatives, Schulz accused Roker's companies of trying to circumvent policies.
“They saw the use [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] individuals as an unfavorable or unwanted obstacle that can be ignored if necessary and that can be avoided or overcome—even if that means using deceptive and deceptive tactics,” the lawsuit states. “Furthermore, management at Al Roker Entertainment does not consider PBS DEI to be a mandatory requirement.”
According to the complaint, management falsely claimed that writers of color lacked experience and that white writers were hired instead.
Schultz said that management lied and claimed that hiring qualified black writers would take too much time and would slow down their production.
“Instead of giving opportunities to BIPOC writers as planned, the story editor, echoing a previous strategy advocated and advocated by Al Roker Entertainment management in writing, wanted to let the writers 'not must BIPOC' write the story, and then bring in a 'BIPOC' writer,” the complaint reads, adding that BIPOC writers will review the material and add some flavor to the writing seems culturally authentic.
“This is a deceptive and cynical tactic that creates a false appearance of diversity in writing and presents 'numbers' supporting diversity while hindering efforts to recruit, develop and working with BIPOC writers whom he falsely and insultingly characterized as less competent,” states the complaint.
Schultz warned Roker and production management, but he was fired in February 2024 for alleged breach of contract.
“After implementing the DEI Policy, Defendants attempted to disregard and minimize it and retaliate against Mr. Schultz when he objected to issues surrounding Defendants' conduct related to the DEI Policy and race, ” the lawsuit reads.
Schultz has asked for a trial and payment of at least $10 million.
Roker did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast's request for comment on Wednesday.
