Aliens in America- in public

Aliens in America

and an excerpt from Washington Post article

A Woman in the White House -- For 24 Hours
By Lisa de Moraes
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Beverly Hill, CA

"But we have to admit we were shocked when critics lit into "Aliens in America" on Friday.

The series -- at least the pilot -- is a wonderful little "Freaks and Geeks"-ish comedy about a high school nerd who is so bullied by the "popular kids" that his well-meaning mother decides to get him a friend in the form of an exchange student.

Only the exchange student turns out to be a personable Pakistani Muslim, who also is treated like a freak by the other students and at least one teacher, and Mom decides to send him back. Until, that is, she learns that both his parents died about a year earlier. She then embraces him and they all live happily, if put upon, ever after -- or, hopefully, for five seasons.

It made some critics here sick. Which just goes to show you can never tell what's on a TV critic's mind:

"I'd like to ask what is it that you interpret in the American psyche, or appetite for entertainment, that will embrace a show in which Americans are depicted as bigoted and stupid to be shown the way by a young man from the Middle East?" one critic asked.

Executive Producer David Guarascio began to prattle about "a mother who cares deeply about her son . . . realizes the error of her own prejudice . . . not an indictment of the American psyche . . . helpful for some people to sort of potentially think about their own prejudices . . . "

Scott Patterson -- that's right, the "Gilmore Girls" Luke, who in one of the saddest bits of recasting in the history of TV, replaced wonderful character actor Patrick Breen as the kid's father on "Aliens in America" because, it was explained to critics, Patterson had a "holding deal," so they had to pay him whether he was put on another show or not and, presto, he winds up playing a role for which he's given no indication in any performance to date he's well suited -- jumped in, swinging.

"I just want to say something," he said.

"I just want to say something" is never good. It usually is followed by something pretty nasty.

"I don't think this show is polarizing at all and there's no evidence of that so far in your comments." Ooh snap! -- okay, maybe not so much.

"Are there any producers from the Midwest?" someone from the mob of critics shot back. We can't actually swear there was foaming at the mouth involved, but when we say the room was electric, you know what we mean.

At this point, the producers made a big mistake:

"I'm from central Pennsylvania and I keep saying that's the Midwest," said Moses Port, thinking a little levity was called for. It was not.

"I grew up in Glendale, which is kind of the Midwest version of Southern California," said Tim Doyle. Even worse.

"Is there a mentality out here in Los Angeles that people in the Midwest are more naive? . . . The idea that there's nobody from Asia that lives in Wisconsin or at least in this small town is not the reality," a critic snapped.

"No, that is the reality, because I'm from Wisconsin" interjected Lindsey Shaw, who plays the mom.

"I wanted to play this role so desperately because I felt this was my tribe. I grew up with this. . . . I really wanted to express that small-mindedness."

Doyle, finally sensing the danger, rushed to do damage control:

"You may be drawing too much of a conclusion about the series from the pilot," he billed and cooed.

"You know, the story in the pilot is this young man's arrival in this town, so it's very natural that the fish-out-of-water aspect and people's reactions to it are going to be played up for the comedy initially. But that's not going to be the series in the long term," he continued.

"The immigration debate in this country is getting not only fierce, but kind of ugly. Are you afraid your show is going to plunge into the middle of that, not to its profit?" one critic asked rhetorically/ominously.

"He's just an exchange student -- he's not coming to take your jobs," Doyle said, finally getting tough.

"You are dealing with people . . . from a part of the world that aren't always very tolerant, you know -- the Danish cartoon thing and everything. Do you have a technical adviser to keep you from getting Salman Rushdied?" another critic said.

We'll pause here so you can reread that question.

"When we sort of talk about small-mindedness, there is a billion people in the world who practice Islam and they are really not out to get anybody," Guarascio said.

"That being said, we did have an adviser on the pilot. We happen to have a writer on our staff who is a Muslim and of Pakistani descent." But Guarascio insisted the "Muslim community" so far has reacted to the show very positively. They are very excited to see a Muslim character in a comedy, he said, and "hope to use a little humor to create a dialogue." "

talk about fiery debate...wonder if this will be a media debate only or a larger public one.