ABC to Edit Stammering Scenes in ‘Wanda’

After receiving complaints from the National Stuttering Project about the comedy caper “A Fish Called Wanda,” ABC-TV has agreed to cut back mockery of the stammering Michael Palin character when the network runs the film.

The stuttering organization this week released a letter it had received from Robin S. Graham, director of films in ABC’s broadcast standards and practices division, in which she said that “Kevin Kline’s mockery” of Palin will be reduced by editing where possible.

An ABC spokesman, acknowledging that the letter was sent, said that editing hadn’t started since the film won’t be broadcast until next season.

The film, written by John Cleese and starring Cleese and Jamie Lee Curtis, had successful runs in theaters and on cable channels. In it, Ken Pile (Palin) has a severe stammer. A mocking hoodlum named Otto West (Kline) repeatedly makes fun of Pile, including threatening to eat his pet fish Wanda and mimicking his stutter.

National Stuttering Project spokesman Ira Zimmerman said that the organization “does not support blatant censorship” and had not specifically asked ABC to edit the film, although it did express its displeasure over the Otto West character’s mockery. The group had asked Robert Iger, president of ABC Entertainment, to add a disclaimer to the film from its producer and “the addition of programming that explains what is known about the problem of stuttering.” Zimmerman said that Iger had not yet responded to their request.

Graham wrote that she was responding to a letter that the National Stuttering Project sent to Roone Arledge, president of ABC News, protesting a March 26 story on “ABC World News Tonight” about Hollywood portrayals of the disabled. The organization said that the program had misrepresented an apology by actor Kline, who said that his character in the movie “was not meant to be taken as a role model for any civilized person when talking to a stutterer.”

The organization has complained to the Federal Communications Commission that the news report misrepresented its position.

Producer Michael Shamberg said Friday that he has “no illusions about broadcast television” and that ABC has a contractural right to make such edits: “At this point, ‘Wanda’ has been successfully seen on cable and cassettes, and if editing will get it a bigger audience, then I’m for it.” He said that he had not heard from ABC but would oppose use of any disclaimer.

During a recent visit to L.A., Palin related that fans of the movie frequently approach him and ask him to stutter for them, “which I refuse to do.” He said that he took a lot of flak for his role in “A Fish Called Wanda” but countered that “my father spent all his life with a stammer and I was aware of the problem.”