jqGrid inline edit: strip HTML before edit

Question

I am unable to strip HTML inserted by the formatter before inline editing. I am using MVC5 with EF6, so my grid definition is in the GridViewModel.

In my jqGridSelectRow event handler (the View's scripts module), I have the following snippet of code, which never seems to get executed:

grid.jqGrid('editRow',
   true,
   function (rowId) {
      var grid = $("#CreditGrid");
      grid.jqGrid('setCell', rowId, "CreditId", $.jgrid.stripHtml(grid.jqGrid('getCell', rowId, "CreditId")), "", { title: null });
      grid.jqGrid('setCell', rowId, "Reason", $.jgrid.stripHtml(grid.jqGrid('getCell', rowId, "Reason")), "", { title: null });
      grid.jqGrid('setCell', rowId, "Color", $.jgrid.stripHtml(grid.jqGrid('getCell', rowId, "Color")), "", { title: null });
   },
   gridEditSuccess,
   '@Url.Action("DoCRUD", "Credit")',
   lastSel,
   gridAfterSave,
   gridEditError
);

I have no more hair left to tear out, so any help would be appreciated.