Quiz: Television Couples

Posted on February 12, 2010 at 8:00 am

Another Valentine’s Day quiz about some of the all-time favorite television couples. How many do you recognize?
1. The very first issue of TV Guide featured the real-life baby of this sit-com pair whose on-screen race to the hospital to give birth was one of the most watched episodes of its era.
2. Perhaps inspired by the glamorous and elegant occupants of the White House, this sit-com couple, a writer and a former dancer, lived with their son in New Rochelle, New York.
3. She grew up on one of the top shows of the 70’s and then had a spin-off series of her own about her life with her cute boyfriend.
4. This loving couple broke some barriers by having the first inter-racial marriage on prime-time television.
5. Sparring detectives generated a lot of romantic chemistry in this glossy romantic mystery series.
6. The viewership for the wedding of this soap opera duo broke records and even ended up on a magazine covers.
7. This couple did things a bit out of order — they had a relationship, they were on a break, they got married, got divorced, had a baby, and then ended up together.
8. This couple on a popular new series just adopted a daughter from Vietnam.
9. One of the most loving marriages in television history was between this doctor and lawyer, parents of five children, who loved to dance with each other.
10. A journalist and an aspiring actress became engaged in the last season of this popular series.

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Temple Grandin

Posted on February 7, 2010 at 8:02 am

Claire Danes plays Dr. Temple Grandin in an outstanding new HBO film about the pioneering animal scientist whose autism is a central element of her ability to understand animals and to think visually. Her astonishing and inspiring story first came to public attention in an article by neurologist Oliver Sacks called An Anthropologist On Mars. The title comes from Dr. Grandin’s own description of her sense of bafflement in trying to understand human behavior and communication.

But her understanding of animal behavior transformed the operations of cattle facilities. The movie makes clear that Dr. Grandin faced prejudice not just as an autistic person but as a woman. But her ideas were so compelling that she has become a world-respected authority. And she has been a guide to autism as well, writing and speaking about her experiences as a way of helping neuro-typicals understand those who literally see the world differently.

Temple Grandin

Dr. Grandin herself can be seen in this interview.

And here she talks to NPR about her squeeze machine. Her mother has also written a book about her experiences, Thorn in My Pocket.

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The Battle Over Super Bowl Ads

Posted on January 30, 2010 at 1:48 pm

On February 7, the Saints will take on the Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. And the ads are as high-profile as the game. Companies and groups must pay CBS more than $2 million in addition to the cost of producing the ad, which can be as much per-minute as a feature film.
A lot of people want to reach the Super Bowl audience and some want to sell ideas, not products. CBS, which has refused some “advocacy” ads in the past, this year has said they will permit those that are “responsibly produced.” They have already been criticized for agreeing to run an ad from Focus on the Family that features college football player Tim Tebow and his mother. She explains that though she was advised to get an abortion after she became ill, she continued the pregnancy and gave birth to Tebow. The Women’s Media Center and a group of organizations dedicated to reproductive rights, tolerance, and social justice have protested.
CBS is also getting complaints about what it is not showing. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has called on CBS to explain why it is refusing to run an ad for a gay dating site called Mancrunch during the Super Bowl. CBS issued a statement but did not explain their concerns: “After reviewing the ad — which is entirely commercial in nature — our Standards and Practices department decided not to accept this particular spot. As always, we are open to working with the client on alternative submissions.”
The Washington Post has a thoughtful op-ed by Frances Kissling, the former president of Catholics for Choice and Kate Michelman, former president of Naral Pro-Choice America, on “what Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl ad can teach the pro-choice movement.”

For abortion rights supporters, picking on Tim Tebow and his mom is not the way to go. Instead of trying to block or criticize the Focus on the Family ad, the pro-choice movement needs its own Super Bowl strategy….We’d go with a 30-second spot, too. The camera focuses on one woman after another, posed in the situations of daily life: rushing out the door in the morning for work, flipping through a magazine, washing dishes, teaching a class of sixth-graders, wheeling a baby stroller. Each woman looks calmly into the camera and describes her different and successful choice: having a baby and giving it up for adoption, having an abortion, having a baby and raising it lovingly. Each one being clear that making choices isn’t easy, but that life without tough choices doesn’t exist.

I think CBS should be open to “responsibly produced” advocacy ads on any issue of public concern. I doubt that the Focus on the Family will change anyone’s mind, and I support the right of Tenbow and his mother to tell their story and explain their views. I can imagine gay dating site ads that would and would not be appropriate. And I share the concerns of parents who are uncomfortable with the ads for ED and prostate medication, sexual pleasure aids and other highly personal items during telecasts of sporting events. What do you think?

Blacking Up: Hip-Hop

Posted on January 27, 2010 at 3:59 pm

“Where do you draw the line between influence and appropriation?” “When is it admiration and when is it mockery?”

Blacking Up: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity is a thought-provoking film by documentarian Robert Clift is a sympathetic look at the tensions that surround white identification with hip-hop. Popularly referred to by derogatory terms such as “wannabe” or “wigger,” the white person who identifies with hip-hop often invokes heated responses. For some, it is an example of cultural progress — a movement toward a color-blind America. For others, it is just another case of cultural theft and mockery — a repetition of a racist past. From this perspective, the appropriation of this mode of expression is inauthentic and disrespectful, another in a centuries-long series of takings. And yes, Vanilla Ice is interviewed, along with cultural commentators like Amiri Baraka and Paul Mooney and performers like Chuck D and Power.

For me, the most poignant moment in the film when a girl says she is not trying to be black — she is just trying to be cool. There is nothing more essentially American than the blending of cultures — except perhaps the struggle over the blending or appropriation of cultures. This film perfectly captures and illuminates the central issues of identity and the way it is shaped and shapes the arts, with arrestingly provocative insights into race and American culture and the path from fringe to center. It is very important viewing for teenagers, their teachers, and their parents. (NOTE: Some very strong language including the n-word and other epithets)

Blacking Up: Hip-Hop's Remix of Race and Identity

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What Can We Learn from ‘The Office?’

Posted on January 24, 2010 at 3:11 pm

NPR asks whether “The Office” should be used in HR training.

Though the show is clearly a caricature, there are grains of truth in the dysfunctional conflicts that drive its humor, says Sheri Leonardo, senior vice president for human resources at Ogilvy Public Relations.

“As an HR person, I sometimes cringe,” she said. “Some of the stuff is so outlandish, politically incorrect, morally incorrect and everything else — but at the same time I say, ‘God, I would love to take clips of this and use it for training, because it’s so perfect.’ “

A 30-year human resources veteran, Leonardo says that although the characters’ insensitivities are exaggerated, she can think of real people who fit many of the show’s office stereotypes: the out-of-touch and politically incorrect boss; the peace-keeping secretary; the ambitious underling who doesn’t care whose toes he steps on to suck up.

Does “The Office” remind you of anyone you know? Do you think people who resemble the characters in “The Office” are capable of enough self-awareness to learn from the show?