This ought to cheer you up.
Posted on 09/28/2003 6:48:01 AM PDT by WillowyDame
The effect of 30 years of feminism on television is a little like an old folk legend: a crippled peasant asks God to make both his hands the same and awakens to find that both are shriveled.
Women on television are still sometimes squeezed into demeaning caricatures (or at least inappropriate clothing: surgeons, homicide detectives and high school teachers all wear low-cut tank tops to work). But increasingly, so are men. The new fall season shrinks the number of belittling stereotypes they may occupy to just two: cads or dads.
Recent genetic research suggesting that the Y chromosome is devolving — turning men into what Steve Jones, a British geneticist, labeled the "second sex" — has found support in prime time. From CBS to the WB, the fall shows depict men the way women were once depicted: as supporting characters propelled by their biological imperative. And perhaps because science has made it so much easier for women to conceive children without a partner, these television fathers do not know best.
The hottest new heroines have dads, and these dads are old, rumpled and in need of daughterly advice. On NBC's "Miss Match," Alicia Silverstone reprises her "Clueless" persona as a Beverly Hills divorce lawyer who is a matchmaker on the side. A gouty Ryan O'Neal plays her father as the un-Matlock: a sleazy divorce lawyer who is both a dad and a cad. Their relationship is not central, however. He mainly serves as a plot device to get a nice girl like Miss Silverstone into matrimonial law. The rest of the time, he is one of the many tiresome cellphone callers the heroine must humor. (The annoying cad boyfriend is jettisoned after the first episode, however.)
"Karen Sisco," an ABC crime drama, is based on the 1998 movie "Out of Sight," starring Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney. Karen Sisco, played by Carla Gugino, is a federal marshal, and inherited her passion for detective work from her father, a semi-retired private eye played by Robert Forster. As an actress, Ms. Gugino is daintier than Jennifer Lopez, but she is nevertheless cast as a tough, solitary sleuth. Her one weakness, besides Scotch, is a former lover, a married F.B.I. agent played by Peter Horton as a smirking, unrepentant cad.
In a father-daughter scene that would have been counter-intuitive only a few years ago, the two Siscos are trapped indoors, under machine-gun fire from hitmen. It is Karen Sisco who barks out their defense posture, and the dad who meekly backs down. ("Don't argue with me, Dad.") Meanwhile, on "The West Wing," President Bartlet temporarily resigns from office out of concern that his fears for his kidnapped daughter's safety might cloud his judgment.
More women watch television than men, surveys show, and women increasingly select, write and produce the shows that go on television. Advertisers, too, are increasingly represented by female agents, who place their clients' money on shows they think will succeed, and that they themselves like. (Some of ABC's promos for "Threat Matrix," an action-adventure drama about counterterrorism, showcase the female commandos and secret agents defending the nation from attack, even though the lead character is actually a male F.B.I. agent.)
It is not surprising that the feminization of the television industry would give female characters more prominence, but it is a little disconcerting to see how men have waned in the process. Suddenly, sensitive shows are dealing with men as an oppressed minority group. Television writers who once focused on women's dilemmas are now exploring the emotional difficulty of being a man in today's world.
David E. Kelley's new show, "The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H.," is perhaps the most glaring example of the new male disempowerment. The drama, by the creator of "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice," is a challenge to programming orthodoxy: it focuses on three fat, discontented brothers in their 40's. The show is well written and surprisingly engrossing, but that could be because Mr. Kelley, famous for his challenging roles for women, merely inverted classic wifely issues and slapped them on his male characters.
The oldest brother, Garrett (John Carroll Lynch), the mayor, had an affair with a neighbor and is being blackmailed for his transgression — he agonizes like a latter-day Lana Turner. Hank, the police chief (Randy Quaid), is angry and anxious that his wife has outgrown him and their small town. The youngest, Waylon (Chris Penn), is an unemployed, loving father who worries that he is not smart enough to keep up with his intelligent, attractive wife and teenage daughter. The brothers are close, but it is a new kind of male bonding: a Ya Ya Brotherhood of midlife insecurity and consciousness-raising.
Tonight, Showtime will broadcast a documentary, "The Boys of 2nd Street Park," which is an insightful, affecting look at a clique of Jewish men, now in their mid-50's, and how they came of age playing basketball in Brooklyn (8 p.m. Eastern). But what is most remarkable about the film, which takes its subjects through the psychedelic 60's, Vietnam and other milestones, is how the subjects view the male condition: a little like Wellesley alumnae discussing what the housewife's life was like in the days before Betty Friedan. The boys of Second Street Park share their feelings about the burden of becoming men under the twin pressures of their immigrant parents' expectations and the confusing, sometimes oppressive sexual freedom of the 60's.
Perhaps not surprisingly, CBS's first original movie of the season is "Twelve Mile Road" (tonight at 9 Eastern), starring Tom Selleck as a divorced farmer whose disturbed teenage daughter moves in with him — and his new girlfriend and her daughter — for the summer.
Sitcoms are best suited to cads, which explains the three male characters on NBC's "Coupling." The show's three single women are also promiscuous, but somehow the scripts list in their favor: the men are so silly and unreliable that if the women are predatory, it seems more out of self-preservation than self-indulgence.
"Two and a Half Men" is a remake of "The Odd Couple," refitted for the postfeminist generation. Only one is a bachelor (Charlie, played by Charlie Sheen), and he is not an adorable slob like Oscar Madison. He is a shallow, somewhat seedy single guy — a cad whose biological clock has begun to tick. His brother, a neurotic wimp of a dad (Jon Cryer), moves in when his wife leaves him, and brings along his young son. The two incompatible brothers form their own odd nuclear family — two men and a kid.
"It's All Relative," the ABC comedy about warring in-laws — two prissy bourgeois gay men against an Irish Catholic bartender and his wife — stretches the social boundaries the furthest by suggesting that a man can be a mom and a dad at the same time.
Three of the best-known actors with new shows this season all play fathers. Joe Mantegna is a doting, overprotective father on the CBS drama "Joan of Arcadia." Ron Silver is a doting, overprotective father on "Skin," a Fox show set in the L.A. pornography industry. And James Caan is a doting, overprotective father on the NBC show "Las Vegas." None of them are lead characters. Like aging actresses, these award-winning actors have to content themselves with supporting roles.
There are exceptions, of course. Mark Harmon, who plays a Navy forensics investigator on CBS's "Navy NCIS," is not a father, nor is Rob Lowe, who plays an idealistic lawyer on "The Lyon's Den." And Joe Pantoliano, who just won an Emmy for his role in "The Sopranos," is also childless in his new show, "The Handler," in which he plays an F.B.I. agent who recruits and manages undercover agents. The three leads are not fathers but father figures, men who are forced by fate or job description to nurture and protect an ersatz family of younger, needier protégés.
Presumably that is because in today's climate, anything less would make them seem like cads.
oooh we are just so stong. (eye roll)
that is why the charles angel movies where women kick arses left and right is sooo laughable. the movie ads says it all. what an unrealistice garbage.
most women can't even discharge a gun even when they have their attacker on the floor.
i am sure that there are physically and mentally strong women out there but pls not enough for hollywood to make it look like a norm.
tv shows just wanna make men act and look like homos or sissies. let men be men!
i weigh a 100 pounds and any idiot can kick my arse royally. and i am not alone.
I believe this is intentionally done to tear down the "nuclear family".
A decent Father is the cornerstone of a healthy family. The liberals attack fathers in order to "divide and conquer". Get the women and children to believing thier husband/father knows nothing and who will they turn to? The liberal media, of course.
When was the last time you saw a man, a father, portrayed as wise and noble? Especially a Caucasian man.
I would strongly suspect that the women setting the agenda do not look like you.
I further suspect that the women behind this are probably seeking revenge for the rightful rejection they have earned from men.
But what do I know? I have never heard of any of these programs.
But in real life, I was in a situation where I worked for an appallingly ugly leftist, complete with Hillary Hair, who told me "All white males need to pay for past oppression of women and minorities."
I quietly sat there, mentally measuring the distance between my foot and her throat, made a fast calculation of long-term worth, and passed up the opportunity. In a year she was gone, anyway.
There is a lot of hatred out there.
Also, multiculturalism is emphasized. Parents are encouraged to look to these ratings to determine 'quality' centers. This also applies to NAEYC accredited centers. This is a way to form the ideas and bias of children as early as possible.
The fake Dr. Phil at the bookstore was priceless. He got one of the Dr. Phil fans to agree to go to his room to knock some bottom. Don't know if that was real or put-on, but the skit rocked.
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