01/23/2006
For ABC, Tolerance May be Bad Business
The ill-fated ABC series Welcome to the Neighborhood is back in the news again. If you'll remember, the realtiy show featured a cul-de-sac of conservative Christian families in Austin, Texas who were to choose a family to live on their street from among a pool of "alternative" contestants — African-American, Hispanic, Korean, Wiccan, tattooed, gay, and a strip-tease artist.
While the show was cancelled because it was said to be too controversial, the real-life drama that played out between the gay family that won the show and a Christian family on the cul-de-sac revealed how bigoted attitudes can be turned around by lifting the veil of ignorance. The show's real life happy ending revealed an amazing turn of events, as the cul-de-sac's most virulently homophobic resident tossed his bigotry aside and became close friends with the gay couple, made amends with his gay son, and spoke at a vigil against an anti-gay amendment that would ban gay marriage.
Now, one of the producers of Neighborhood has come out and said that ABC cancelled the show because of fears that Christian objection to its content could hurt its plans to promote Disney's holiday film The Chronicles of Narnia.
He said that the protests might have been most significant as a diversion that allowed the Walt Disney Company, ABC's owner, to pre-empt a show that could have interfered with a much bigger enterprise: the courting of evangelical Christian audiences for "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." Disney hoped that the film, widely viewed as a parable of the Resurrection, would be the first in a profitable movie franchise.
An ABC spokesman responded to the charges: "That's so ludicrous, it doesn't even merit a response." But an official with the Southern Baptist Convention doesn't think its too ludicrous. Says Richard Land: "I would have considered it a retrograde step. Aside from any moral considerations, it would have been a pretty stupid marketing move."
ABC has been inconsistent in its responses as to why the show has never aired according to Hank Cohen, a former president of MGM Television Entertainment.
So why won't ABC air a show whose central theme is tolerance and enlightenment?
"The neighbors' attitudes toward homosexuality constitute the dominant theme" of the show, says the NYT, whose writer viewed the entire series:
That the tide may be shifting is telegraphed in an all-male scene in a hot tub, of all places, when one neighbor, John Bellamy, observes that Mr. Stewart appears to be softening his views toward gays. "I love you for that," Mr. Bellamy says, before cautioning, "Not in a weird kind of hot-tub love, with no chicks in the hot tub."
Why is it not surprising that the wingnuts may not want America to see any of this?
Television Cul-de-Sac Mystery: Why Was Reality Show Killed? [nyt]
Previously
A Look Inside ABC's Welcome to the Neighborhood [tr]
A Happy Ending for Austin's Reality Cul-deSac [tr]
Posted 3:05 PM EST by Andy in Film & TV | Permalink
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I'll tell you why. I have a friend at ABC who has seen the show. It's not going to air because it sucks. It's that simple.
Posted by: Mitch | Jan 23, 2006 3:21:19 PM
Mitch, excuse me, but 'sucking' has never, in the entire, suck-filled history of network broadcasting, been in any way responsible for the pulling of a show. NEVER.
Posted by: Jacko | Jan 23, 2006 3:28:18 PM
I have to agree with Jacko. I thought the pulling of the show rather surprising but I'm not quite sure what I believe the reason why is.
Posted by: Rob (lrdarystar) | Jan 23, 2006 3:51:07 PM
well, instead of griping....spend 5 minutes writing to ABC and telling them that you will boycott watching their shows till they buckle under like Ford and Microsoft did. Let them know that we have more disposable income than the wingnuts and in the end money is what matters for a network......their advertisers would not like the 1 group in america with the largest amount of disposable income boycotting them
Tell abc to air "neighborhood"
http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html
Posted by: jimmyboyo | Jan 23, 2006 4:11:45 PM
well, instead of griping....spend 5 minutes writing to ABC and telling them that you will boycott watching their shows till they buckle under like Ford and Microsoft did. Let them know that we have more disposable income than the wingnuts and in the end money is what matters for a network......their advertisers would not like the 1 group in america with the largest amount of disposable income boycotting them
Tell abc to air "neighborhood"
http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html
Posted by: jimmyboyo | Jan 23, 2006 4:12:26 PM
>>Why is it not surprising that the wingnuts may not want America to see any of this?
Lots of good shows get cancelled. By "good shows", I mean shows that I would like to see, so I guess it's all pretty subjective. This was not a show I would have watched. I'm not a fan of "family" shows, whether they are alternative or conventional in nature. It's just not my "thing".
Basically, the show had a lame premise, and like dozens of other lame and boring shows, it didn't attract enough advertisers or audience interest.
It would be irresponsible and pathetic to suggest there was any vast conspiracy that kept this show off the air.
If you want educational shows, watch educational TV. Most of us tune in to prime time TV for diversion, not life lessons.
Posted by: Jay Croce | Jan 23, 2006 6:34:31 PM
actualy if one looks at when it was supposed to be released and when Disney the owner of ABC was corting the wingnuts for narnia.......it all does make perfect sense....and many quotes from the wingnuts say it is so
"it would have been foolish for them to air the show while trying to interest us in narnia" FRC
etc
etc
Posted by: jimmyboyo | Jan 23, 2006 6:53:09 PM
I had actually heard that HUD forced ABC to drop the show because it would have violated all kinds of fair housing laws.
Then again, I live in DC, so maybe folks were just trying to feel important.....
Posted by: huh? | Jan 23, 2006 9:15:18 PM
Good news for those gay republicans who are embarassed by any gay representation in the media that allows straight people to distinguish between us: they cancelled Will & Grace.
Posted by: Chad Hanging | Jan 24, 2006 12:03:33 AM
>>they cancelled Will & Grace
I actually watched Will and Grace, twice in fact.
For people who don't personally know any Gay men, the show presented a sad caricature of urban Gay men. It certainly didn't reflect my life, or the lives of any Gay men I have ever known.
I'm sure a lot of people found it funny, and they laughed at the clowns, but as far as being beneficial to enhancing the image of Gay people, I'd say it was a flop.
I'd hate to think of some Gay kid at home, watching that show, and thinking, "If I'm Gay, then those are my role models. That's how I should act." Archie Bunker would have been a better role model.
Posted by: Jay Croce | Jan 24, 2006 1:49:58 AM
I am not so sure about this allegation either. First of all, ABC has plenty of programs that the right-wing nuts can protest by not seeing Narnia. Plus, these groups have threatened Disney in the past for supporting GLBT issues in the workplace and events like Gay Days, which Disney doesn't officially recognize. However, their protests and boycotts have never had an impact on Disney profits or corporate decisions.
Posted by: Dr. Christopher Blackwell | Jan 24, 2006 2:30:21 AM
THANKS, Jay Croce. I thought I was the only one who thought W&G the 'Amos 'n' Andy' of gaydom.
Posted by: Jacko | Jan 24, 2006 3:37:39 AM
Who cares why they cancelled it? If the Wiccan family ended up being the focus of the show instead of the gay men, would any of your Marys being cluthing your pearls about it? No! Potential shows get scrapped all the time for one reason or the other. Gay or not I'm just glad another Reality TV show is not making it to the air. Now if they Christian Family Coalition could just get American Idol off the air...
Posted by: Blue | Jan 24, 2006 8:13:32 AM
Now it all makes sense...the same executive that stopped Neighborhood from airing didn't say a word about the multiple scenes and storyline regarding Bree van de Kamp's minor son and his hottie boyfriend or Crumbs, which centers around a gay man and his crazy family and has become a modest hit for ABC.
Posted by: Mitch | Jan 24, 2006 10:19:41 AM