What's Going On at ABC?
Welcome to the Neighborhood was part reality show, part sociological experiment. In it seven families competed "to persuade the residents of a cul-de-sac here to award them a red-brick McMansion purchased on their behalf by the ABC television network." The winning family was a gay couple with an adopted son. Curiously, ABC decided, ten days before the first episode was to air, to pull Welcome to the Neighborhood. According to the New York Times, show producer Bill Kennedy suggests that the show might have been pulled to allow "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."
The Times article gives no hard evidence that the cancellation of Neighborhood has anything to do with evangelical support for Narnia. But why would ABC not only pull a show that it had already promoted, but also (the article reveals) refuse to sell the show's rights to a network that would be willing to broadcast it? I have to suspect that Neighborhood's telling the story of a gay couple that ultimately finds acceptance in an upper-middle class conservative neighborhood has something to do with its cancellation, especially given the recent evangelical protest of The Book of Daniel.
As it were, ABC also cancelled Emily's Reasons Why Not after only one episode. I had no interest in watching the Heather Graham vehicle and missed the sole episode, but rarely has a show been so thoroughly marketed by its network. Why did ABC plug Emily during every commercial break for two months only to pull it before episode #2?
Recall also that ABC kept Family Matters on the air for nine years and that it decided to give over Monday Night Football to ESPN after over three decades of success and tradition. Something funny is going on at the American Broadcasting Company.
The Times article gives no hard evidence that the cancellation of Neighborhood has anything to do with evangelical support for Narnia. But why would ABC not only pull a show that it had already promoted, but also (the article reveals) refuse to sell the show's rights to a network that would be willing to broadcast it? I have to suspect that Neighborhood's telling the story of a gay couple that ultimately finds acceptance in an upper-middle class conservative neighborhood has something to do with its cancellation, especially given the recent evangelical protest of The Book of Daniel.
As it were, ABC also cancelled Emily's Reasons Why Not after only one episode. I had no interest in watching the Heather Graham vehicle and missed the sole episode, but rarely has a show been so thoroughly marketed by its network. Why did ABC plug Emily during every commercial break for two months only to pull it before episode #2?
Recall also that ABC kept Family Matters on the air for nine years and that it decided to give over Monday Night Football to ESPN after over three decades of success and tradition. Something funny is going on at the American Broadcasting Company.
posted by Tinley | 8:03 PM
1 Comments:
Actually, this series was cancelled way back over the summer. And, GLAAD was among groups who weren't supportive of the show - I found this quote from GLAAD on the message board at IMDB.com:
"In a statement Wednesday, GLAAD entertainment media director Damon Romine said the gay and lesbian advocacy group had "mixed feelings" about ABC's decision to table "Neighborhood."
"The producers' stated intentions for the show are admirable. But an effort to promote tolerance that requires the rejection of five families in order to transform the attitudes of the homeowners seems unnecessarily cruel and insensitive, given the circumstances families like these encounter in real life," Romine said. "We hope ABC finds another approach to advance the cause of understanding that doesn't send mixed messages by using exclusion to make a point about inclusion.""
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