Austin360 blogs > TV Blog > Archives > 2005 > June > 30 > Entry
Good riddance, ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’
ABC’s decision to pull the ode-to-prejudice reality show “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” filmed in an upscale Circle C cul-de-sac in January, was correct.
The decision to film the show in the first place, however, was just plain stupid.
I was working on a Big Story about this show, which was scheduled to debut July 10. I had talked with executive producer Jay Blumenfield about what the heck he was thinking when he came up with the concept, and I talked with one of the neighbors who spouted off in promos that he “won’t tolerate homosexuals” living next door to him.
To recap, “Welcome to the Neighborhood” was a six-week reality show that had seven “diverse” families competing for a luxury home. Three families living in the suburban Austin cul-de-sac would decide the winner. The competing families included:
A gay couple with an adopted African American child, a Wiccan family, a heavily tattooed family sporting pink hair, a large and loud Latino family, an African American family, an Asian American family and a “normal” family with a stripper mom.
The judging neighbors were all white, Christian, Republican and determined to have only “families that look like us” move into the cul-de-sac. The producer indicated “preconceptions change over time,” and one of the on-air promos showed a tearful neighbor saying she’ll never again judge a book by its cover.
Maybe she won’t, but my interview with one of the Circle C judges, Jim Stewart, did not reflect that sentiment. He said he had “no regrets” about stating his views on homosexuality. Or anything else for that matter. Nor did he change his mind.
I cringed when I watched the first two episodes. Every imaginable prejudice was on display, and every stereotype was dutifully trotted across the screen — including negative stereotypes of the conservative Christians. I know lots of Christians who voted for Bush, and they don’t sound like these Circle C folks.
ABC, without warning, yanked the show last night — sending me an e-mail statement around 7:30 p.m., when, of course, I was home having dinner and not checking office e-mail.
Complaints had surfaced from the National Fair Housing Alliance and Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The negative buzz was getting louder, and ABC finally woke up and smelled the coffee, which turned out to be rancid.
Neither Austin in particular nor TV in general is well-served by this kind of lowest-common-denominator programming. In the spring, “Wife Swap” had an episode that plopped a conservative Christian from Austin into a lesbian family, and that, predictably, didn’t go well. Young people drinking to excess and getting their heads bashed in on “The Real World: Austin” is pretty crummy, too.
Exposing prejudice and celebrating drunkenness just don’t stack up as entertainment in my book. Plus, it makes Austin look dumb.
So even though I lost what was turning out to be a pretty good story, I’m glad ABC yanked “Welcome to the Neighborhood.” I just hope there’s a lesson learned by programmers. But probably not.
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