Race, religion and resistance line up
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When in doubt, don't.
Television historically achieved ground-breaking work tackling controversial issues, from "All in the Family's" still-rarely matched exploration of race and politics to the emotional power of "Roots."
So what do we get today? Race-segregated "Survivor," FX's facile "Black. White." and a Christian conservative who's the least convincing aspect of Aaron Sorkin's otherwise bracing new NBC drama, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."
Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein's work has the depth of a butter dish, but he stumbled onto something last week by invoking racial stereotypes in a comical take on "Survivor: Cook Islands," which divides the contestants into four teams based on race. That's because the castaways almost immediately began alluding to stereotypes themselves, with Hispanics talking about sneaking into America and Asians fretting over whether they'd be taken seriously as competition.
Admittedly, sensitivity about race and religion has reached absurd heights, so much so that programs of the 1970s and '80s would likely be met with more organized and shrill resistance today. Part of that has to do with the Internet, which helps magnify and disseminate the voices of society's most polarized quadrants.
What seems clear, though, is that television's need to be attention-getting in a fragmented marketplace requires the sort of provocation that's generally incompatible with nuanced treatment of these thorny issues. And while "Survivor" mastermind Mark Burnett has the chutzpah to contend that his program's racial conceit could actually be healing and enlightening, such claims are met with deserving skepticism as regards a genre that traditionally relies on editing its "characters" into neat little boxes.
Like race, religion also falls into this category, and pretty much always has. God-fearing folk make up the vast majority of Americans, but they remain suspicious of Hollywood -- which, in its need to create drama, recognizes that people adhering to the 10 Commandments tend to be not as much fun to watch as those who break them.
Short-lived series such as ABC's "Nothing Sacred" and NBC's more recent "The Book of Daniel" (newly out on DVD) underscore the pitfalls of exploring clergymen with foibles, struggling with temptation and doubt. "The Thorn Birds" and its wayward priest would certainly be greeted with even greater consternation now, despite being a huge hit in 1983.
Small wonder, then, that "Studio 60's" devout Christian, played by Sarah Paulson, feels like little more than a sounding board for Sorkin -- essentially providing cover to allow her non-believing ex-boyfriend, played by Matthew Perry, to unload on Christian watchdog groups.
Dean Batali, a former producer of "That '70s Show" and board member of Act One -- a nonprofit group that trains Christians to "be ambassadors for Christ in the heart of the entertainment industry" -- viewed the show with mixed feelings, happy to see a character speak of her faith but disappointed in the awkwardness and lack of conviction.
"I'd rather that we be visible than invisible," he says. "I see these things as incremental steps." As for a template of a Christian character, he too looks back to the '70s, citing "MASH's" Father Mulcahy, who expressed his love of God without being a hypocrite or a scold.
Perhaps producers should pass a qualifying exam before stumbling into these thickets. "Boston Legal's" David E. Kelley, say, has earned the right through past performance, and NBC's "Friday Night Lights" picks up where the film left off, where religion is integral to life in a football-mad town. By contrast, when reality TV tries to make "noise," it's easy to wind up with "Welcome to the Neighborhood," the series ABC bumped in 2005 that, having never aired, has become an expensive home movie.
Certainly, hit programs earn the right to take more chances, as "Desperate Housewives" continues to do in its third-season premiere, in which Martha Cross' character, Bree, protests that oral sex is off limits because "I'm a Republican." Can't wait to hear the howls regarding that one.
The need for primetime programs to tiptoe around such sensitive matters is a shame, especially given the void in intelligent discussion within broadcast news. Yet if the choice lies between elevated dialogue and clumsily trampling into a hornet's nest, better to take off the boots and slip on the old ballet shoes.
