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'Cavemen' pilot hints at race issues


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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...n2.4301f76.html

 

 

(by TOM MAURSTAD | Dallas Morning News Media Critic)

 

LOS ANGELES – What happens when cavemen go from 30-second TV commercial to 30-minute sitcom? Judging from Wednesday's panel, a lot of funny things, but not for the right reasons.

 

The upcoming ABC sitcom, called Cavemen, is based on a series of Geico ads in which some erudite and sensitive cavemen lament the cold, cruel depictions of their kind as stupid and primitive. As 30-second spots go, they're funny and clever. But stretch the concept to a weekly 30-minute series and, well, smoke starts pouring out from under the hood.

 

First, there's the decision to treat the cavemen as "the world's oldest minority," thereby using them as a way of examining and poking fun at the racial and cultural stereotypes that divide us. Does that strike you as funny? Well, it didn't strike a lot of the TV journalists in the room as funny either, particularly since so many of the stereotypes emphasized in the pilot seemed to make specific associations with black people.

 

A woman pointed out that it was eight white guys sitting on the stage and that all of the caveman stereotypes had to do with things such as "being a naturally great athlete" and "having a reputation for being good lovers," and she wondered aloud how they couldn't have anticipated that people would make that connection.

 

The producers tried to explain, in that effusively expressive way of saying nothing that is a Hollywood trademark, saying things such as "Is it about race relations? No. But that is a background theme of the show" and "It's distinctive stories about three guys in their 20s who happen to be cavemen."

 

So think of it as sort of an Unshaven Friends. One of the producers tried to explain that subsequent episodes will get into a variety of issues, while, he acknowledged, the pilot may have focused on stereotypes most often associated with black people. (ABC entertainment president Stephen McPherson announced that the pilot will be held back and used later in the series, after some retooling and that another pilot is being shot.) The producer went on to name a couple of the issues, such as an episode in which one caveman gets mad at another caveman for dating a non-caveman woman (a – gasp – #### sapien), and another in which a caveman runs into problems on the job because he really doesn't like to work.

 

"So," another in the audience asked, incredulously, "you're saying that conflicts over dating outside their group and being lazy at work are going to help diminish that perception?"

 

Another controversy threatened to break out when, informed that these cavemen are Cro-Magnon, someone pointed out that their cavemen look a lot more like Neanderthals, adding that "not all cavemen look alike, you know."

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I thought it was the Italians that were the best lovers, wait it's the French, wait it's the Mexican, wait it's the American, now it's the Cavemen. I thought the American's were the best atheletes, or is it the Russians, the German's, the British, or the Kenyan's.

 

I'm confused. Doesn't every country and race have pride ?

 

I haven't watched T.V., except for an occasional A & E, History Channel, ESPN, Football, Baseball game, "Hell's Kitchen", and "The Bronx Is Burning". I see this as a remake, in a way of "Encino Man", but... Are we a generation, that compares everything to race ?

 

To me, the screenwriters of today, don't have a clue, thus all the reality shows, that are generally boring. To be honest, the last show, until "The Bronx Is Burning", that I had to see was "Seinfeld", how many years ago was that ?

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