Television Cul-de-Sac Mystery: Why Was Reality Show Killed?
[A] bit part of the religious right’s problem with the reality show is that many of the neighbors of the gay couple in the show were quite homophobic Christians and by the end of the show they ended up loving their gay neighbors. The religious right objected especially to the fact that real Christians embraced their gay neighbors. And it looks very strongly like ABC/Disney caved to the religious right in order to ensure that a reality TV show didn’t show real Christians embracing gays.
You know, I’d always wondered what happened to the ABC reality series “Welcome to the Neighborhood”. Sure, it was a silly premise, and I couldn’t imagine that the ratings would have been much to write home about, but it did seem like it disappeared into thin air, didn’t it? Well, the truth is that it DID disappear into thin air, and the reason why should be enough to anger any reasonable person.
ABC/Disney made a business decision, pure and simple. They decided that it would be simpler and more lucrative to groups practicing hate-based theology such as the Southern Baptist Convention. They had a movie (“Narnia”) that they hoped would be a big hit among Evangelicals, and when they did the math, they realized that a movie could potentially be much more lucrative than a reality show. From a numbers standpoint, certainly, you can’t fault ABC/Disney, but you certainly can fault them for the message their action sends. And that is what makes this story so despicable.
The reality is that groups like the Southern Baptist Convention are as much about Christianity as Saddam Hussein was about democracy, and ABC/Disney has just validated their tactics. These folks wouldn’t know how to lead a Christ-like life if you handed them a manual and a flashlight.
AUSTIN, Tex. - A year ago, Stephen Wright and his partner, John Wright, embarked on a sociology experiment that only a reality show producer could concoct: theirs was one of seven families competing 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 unscripted series, “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” was heavily promoted and scheduled to appear in a summer time slot usually occupied by “Desperate Housewives.” Stephen Wright, 51, who was already living in a nice house a few miles away with his partner and adopted son, said he participated primarily for one reason: to show tens of millions of prime-time viewers that a real gay family might, over the course of six episodes, charm a neighborhood whose residents overwhelmingly identified themselves as white, Christian and Republican.
Wow…you mean Da Gayz aren’t universally out to convert our children to their insidious sodomite agenda? That’s not what we learned in church last Sunday….
As it turned out, the Wrights did win - beating families cast, at least partly, for being African-American, Hispanic, Korean, tattooed or even Wiccan - but outside of a few hundred neighbors (who attended private screenings last summer) and a handful of journalists, almost no one has been able to see them do so.
Ten days before the first episode was to be shown, ABC executives canceled “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” saying that they were concerned that viewers who might have been appalled at some early statements made in the show - including homophobic barbs - might not hang in for the sixth episode, when several of those same neighbors pronounced themselves newly open-minded about gays and other groups….
Bill Kennedy, a co-executive producer who helped develop the series with his son, Eric, suggested an alternative explanation. He said that the protests might have been most significant as a diversion that allowed 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.” Disney hoped that the film, widely viewed as a parable of the Resurrection, would be the first in a profitable movie franchise.
In the months and weeks before “Welcome to the Neighborhood” was to have its premiere, as Disney sought to build church support for “Narnia,” four religious groups lifted longtime boycotts of the company that had been largely prompted by Disney’s tolerance of periodic gatherings by gay tourists at its theme parks. Representatives for two of those groups now say that broadcasting “Neighborhood” could have complicated their support for “Narnia.” One, the Southern Baptist Convention, with more than 16 million members, lifted the last of the boycotts against Disney on June 22, a week before ABC announced it was pulling the series.
Just a wee bit TOO convenient, don’t you think. Four groups drop their boycotts of Disney, and just a short time later, ABC cans “Welcome to the Neighborhood”. And if you think it wasn’t a business decision, consider ABC/Disney’s desire that “The Chornicles of Narnia” be a big hit among the Evangelical community. Do you think that might have had ANY chance of becoming a hit if good, God-fearing Christians had been seen embraced homosexuals as full members of their community?
Since when are hatred and discrimination Christian values?
Apparently, this “Love They Neighbor As Thyself” concept has not really tested particularly well among Evangelical Christians, who still seem bent on demonstrating that while they profess to love the Lord, they haven’t a clue as to what his teachings actually are.
When asked to respond to Mr. Kennedy’s contention about “Narnia,” Kevin Brockman, an ABC spokesman, said, “That’s so ludicrous, it doesn’t even merit a response.” But Mr. Kennedy said he found ABC’s stated reasons for canceling the series unconvincing. Although he acknowledged that he had “no smoking gun” to prove the link between “Narnia” and the fate of “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” “I don’t believe in coincidences,” he said.
“Narnia,” a joint venture with Walden Media, has gone on to earn almost $600 million since its release last month, on an investment of more than $150 million. “Neighborhood,” by contrast, cost an estimated $10 million.
Do the math, and you’ll find that the fate of “Welcome to the Neighborhood” was no coincidence. Then again, what could one reasonbly expect when hate-based theology such as that professed by the Southern Baptist Convention seems to have little to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Most Baptists wouldn’t know how to lead a Christ-like life if Billy Graham walked them through it step by step.
The sad thing about the story of “Welcome to the Neighborhood” is that it truly is the story of what happens when people begin to see each other as people and not as symbols- and no one will ever see it. Apparently, Christian love and tolerance was just a bit too much for good, God-fearing Baptists to be able handle. How sad…and how typical of Christian hypocrisy.
