The Last Dance: Obama on-screen description updated after it was dubbed ‘disrespectful’
Former US president described as merely ‘Former Chicago Resident’ in previous episodes of series
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Your support makes all the difference.The hit docuseries The Last Dance has updated its on-screen description of Barack Obama, after viewers dubbed it “disrespectful”.
Obama, who has appeared throughout the series as a talking head, was previously described as “Barack Obama – Former Chicago Resident” in an on-screen title card. An episode released last night (3 May), however, saw him described as “President Barack Obama”.
The series explores the basketball team The Chicago Bulls during their 1997-1998 game season, which also served as the final season for sports legend Michael Jordan.
The show’s description of Obama had come in for criticism. Despite many viewers interpreting the description as a joke, others slammed the title card as “disrespectful”.
“Y’all disrespectful as hell,” one viewer tweeted. “Former Chicago resident. Put some respect on his name!”
Speaking to Boston.com, The Last Dance’s director Jason Hehir referred to the title card as “a little inside joke in our edit room”. Former president Bill Clinton, who also appears in the series, was himself described on-screen as “Former Arkansas Governor”.
“I was pretty adamant that when we have a celebrity, we wanted it to be organic to the story,” Hehir said. “We don’t want to just have a president for president’s sake… The reason he was in there is that he was a former Chicago resident.”
Hehir added that he had received online abuse as a result of the title card.
“I’ve seen people who are investigating whether I’m a Democrat or Republican,” he said. “I’m a huge Obama fan, so for people to say it’s disrespectful and I did that on purpose? I mean, come on. I promise you he will be the president by the end of the series.”
The Last Dance, episodes of which are being released two-a-week on Netflix UK, dedicated its most recent episode to the late Kobe Bryant.
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The basketball star, who died in a helicopter accident in January, shot his appearances in the series weeks before his death.
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