Posted on 03/17/2017 5:01:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
Just as the liberal "news" media have doubled down on fierce liberal activism since President Trump's inauguration, Hollywood is pushing the leftist agenda. Variety celebrates the crusade -- that is what this is -- in an article headlined "TV Gets Woke: How Scripted Series Are Confronting Social Issues Like Never Before."
It is not that Hollywood should be political; it is that the industry must be political. Even the sitcoms need to be political. "Social media is in a constant conversation about things," proclaimed NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke. "It doesn't feel authentic to not address what's going on in the world and what people are really talking about. I think that's a sweet spot for comedy in general."
She points to "The Carmichael Show" on NBC, which, like so many series advancing left-wing causes, is not a hit but features plots about hot topics like gentrification. A character defined it saying: "Gentrification is essentially when developers look at a neighborhood the way Richard Gere looked at Julia Roberts in 'Pretty Woman.' You know, you see past all the flaws of the past. You see a perfect spot for a Starbucks or an Ethiopian restaurant run by non-Ethiopians."
This is what John Q. Public wants when he wants to watch TV? (Did we just say "he"?)
The new CBS show "Superior Donuts" features one episode plot wherein the neighborhood dry-cleaning shop owned by an Iraqi-American (played by Muslim comedian Maz Jobrani) is vandalized with graffiti that says, "Arabs Go Home." Naturally, another character says to Jobrani's character, "I'm going to miss you when America is great again."
ABC's "Black-ish" drew liberal praise for a January episode in which the black characters confronted the Trump victory. "We didn't just want to be a family comedy show," Anthony Anderson, one of the show's stars, explained. "We wanted to be substantive and have a conscience and have something to say without beating you over the head with that message."
That depends on how you define "beating you over the head." Decide for yourself. During the episode, when a white woman says she voted for Trump, she is shamed for hating women. She fights back by suggesting that since blacks wouldn't vote for Dr. Ben Carson just based on race, she wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton. The black characters slam Carson, saying, "Dude is a weirdo," and "Is he even black?" A character played by Wanda Sykes adds, "As long as she knows that a vote for Trump is a vote for racism!" When the Trump voter protests saying, "I have black friends!" the blacks collectively howl. One hectors, "It's racist to say that!"
The lectures come in the dramas, too. Fox has a new drama coming soon called "Shots Fired," inspired by the Trayvon Martin shooting and the Black Lives Matter movement. Co-creators Reggie Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood were recruited by Fox after the Ferguson riots. "It's not enough to preach to the choir," Gina Prince-Bythewood told Time magazine. "You have to speak to everybody."
She told Variety: "these things were fueling us in wanting to say something to the world, and how we could use our art as a weapon to speak on this. ... One of the mantras we have is that anyone can portray reality, but an artist portrays what reality should be."
Their show was filmed before the election, and since then, "there's been a 180-degree change," says Prince-Bythewood. "Now the Dept. of Justice is absolutely under siege under this new administration. Will it even have the ability or the desire to look into cases of injustice?"
They have consulted with experts like former President Obama's attorney general Eric Holder and, for supposed balance, former New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly. But there will be no balance. As seen on "Black-ish," they may have a marginally sympathetic white character to offer some sign that they've listened before filming. But that nagging ideological temptation to use your art as a weapon is sure to come barging through the TV again and again. And again.
Golden Girls, Frasier, Seinfeld, Three’s Company.
Plenty of laughs, and no political propaganda. I’ll likely start watching the Jeffersons again soon when I run low on those shows.
As though another reason is needed to boycott Hollywood.
PING!
Salke “was involved in the development of hit series including “Glee” and “Modern Family.” She worked at Aaron Spelling Productions and Greenblatt was with the Fox channel, which aired “Melrose Place” and other Spelling series.” In other words she has been — and will continue to be — a garbage lady in the great TV wasteland.
We used to watch Black-ish for Laurence Fishburne who cracks me up.
But we got sick of of the “white people are BAD” lesson
in the start of every show.
This is the problem. Politics is downstream of culture.
Sadly, TV shows have become nothing but bludgeon for the Left to beat America over the head with, pushing their politics. There are very few shows we DVR these days. We used to be avid moviegoers, too. But we are careful about the ones which will get our money. If there is a hint of Leftist politics, we don’t go. The biggest disappointment recently was Hidden Figures. I did get the politics and said to my British husband ‘I don’t remember Blacks having their own restrooms, especially as late as the 60’s’. And he pointed out that I grew up in the north. Then I read a review of that movie in the Telegraph where the reviewer states ‘even the author of the book admits that Katherine Johnson used any loo she wanted’. So, the several times in the movie showing her running a few blocks to her former building to use the ‘colored’ bathroom, was fake. And now the millions who saw that movie, believe that NASA was so racist in the 60’s, that she had to leave her building to relieve herself. I doubt even a handful of the viewers read the movie review in the UK Telegraph. Hopefully, America is awakening to the manipulation by Hollywood and the Entertainment Industry is jumping the shark on it’s ‘racism, sexism, LGBTQXYZ/homophobia’ agenda.
“Arabs Go Home.”
Hollywood is so PC they couldn’t even say Muslims go home
Oh? Is it like how in the Obamunist era the Obama administration and Left Wing organizations were PAYING Hollyweird to insert liberal messaging in their tv programming (even Mad Men's production company received such funds)...
If you want to search such funding, begin by looking for the Obama funding of Obamacare messaging in tv shows (before it passed, if I recall properly).
Hollywood is supported by 100 years of sound (music) and visual (film and television) recordings that should’ve been slipping into the public domain long ago (their creators aren’t seeing any of that money anymore on the majority of the content they are making bank on).
heh heh
“Arabs go home” graffiti. As if Vince Vaughn, Danny Thomas, or Shannon Elizabeth were the same as Sirhan Sirhan!
Salvador Dali wasn't portraying "what reality should be".
“We wanted to be substantive and have a conscience and have something to say without beating you over the head with that message.”
We are all so hyper-sensitive to this “conscience based message” that any mention of it feels like beating over the head.
Phonywood is full of not just #FakeAmericans, but #FakeHumans. #DehumanizeHollywood
That stipulated, consumers could still make other choices for their leisure time, if they wished.
Shows come and go. Shows I’ve never heard of pop up in syndication. What demographic group watches network TV these days. Is there a demographic group for losers?
TV used to be called ‘the idiot box’.
I’m trying to think of any (major) “network television” shows I watch regularly...
There’s Big Bang Theory... But I mostly just watch re-runs.
There’s “The Expanse” on SciFi, “Humans” on AMC, and “Colony” on USA. Then there’s “Game of Thrones” and “Mr. Robot,” though that’s getting closer to jumping the shark.
I like watching “Red Eye” on Fox News, in the mornings as I’m getting ready to go to work, but I don’t like Tom as much as I liked Greg (and Shulz, before he left,) but I really watch it now for Andy. But they’ve been having more and more leftys on the show, like Davore, and when he’s on, I’ll often just delete the show from the DVR.
That’s really about it. I think the last time I watched a major network show faithfully, it was “ER.”
In the past, there have been shows I STOPPED watching because they turned political (and to me, offensive.)
Mark
“Superior Donuts” has as a main character an unemployed black guy who gets a job at a donut shop who tells the owner who has been running the place successfully for 45 years how to run the place. He proceeds to vandalize a Starbucks across the street because they are competitors. He keeps his job....
Judd Hirsch who plays the owner in the show must really need the work to be in this trash.
Someone needs to teach these fools the meaning of the term “escapism”.
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