From: larryr@saturn.sdsu.edu (Larry Riedel)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.bh90210
Subject: Re: the video
Date: 16 Dec 1992 02:57:43 GMT
Organization: San Diego State University, College of Sciences
NNTP-Posting-Host: saturn.sdsu.edu
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crystal kile (ckile@andy.bgsu.edu) wrote:
>
> Another besides: the original point of my bitching about under and non-
> represented groups on 90210 was to make the point that arguments about
> how "realistic" a given TV sho is or is not are pretty pointless anyway.

Okay, then let's get back to it.


> Yeah.  But remember that TV "realism" is never "realistic"

Reality is that most high-school cliques are not racially or culturally
diverse.  The show is true-to-life in that sense.  The show doesn't
happen to be about a clique of people of Vietnamese, Mexican or African
descent.  It's about a clique of people of European descent, and since
those people represent 65% of the people in that area of the country
(about twice as many as another other group), and about 80% of the
country as a whole, it makes sense that from a marketing standpoint as
well as from a demographic representation standpoint, it is the most
"realistic" group to portray.

A clique with four whites, one Black, one Asian Pacific Islander, and
two Hispanics might be demographically accurate, but would hardly better
represent "reality."  The government hasn't (yet) gotten around to
mandating EEOC compliance within cliques.


> And while we're making a list of folks who really should  show up on the
> series, let's add Jews to the list (African-Americans, Asian-Americans, 
> Latino/as, et cetera).

Members of all those groups have appeared on the show, but they aren't
the main characters (except Andrea, of course), and most likely never
will be, because the show IS realistic in that sense, unlike shows who
apparently intend to posit that society (as distinguished from schools
and the workplace) is racially integrated;  It's not - especially in
Southern California.  Or at least not nearly to the extent that it
begins to represent the racial demographics.


>                                     I'm sorry, but unless the Af-Am computer
> nerd boy gets a LIFE soon (sort of like David did), he just will not cut it!

Why?


> All in all, though, FACE IT: 90210 is a WASP fantasy nostalgic for the myth
> of California as land of safe, scrubbed-but-wild, rich, beautiful, perpetual
> youth.

Did the Cosby show represent the myth of a land of educated upper-middle
class blacks?  Does that mean the Cosby show was unrealistic?  Isn't
it possible that the Cosby show was about some blacks that happened to
be upper-middle class and educated?

Is it possible that 90210 is about some upper-middle class white people
living in Beverly Hills who actually happen to have some standards for
ethical and social conduct?

Who is so "beautiful" on the show?  They all look okay, but it's the
show that made the actors and actresses as popular as they are, isn't
it - they've been seen before without becoming teen idols.

Where is the "perpetual youth?"  Parents of eighteen year olds are
probably going to be in the early forties range aren't they?  That's
about what they look like to me, and the actors playing the kids are
actually OLDER than the characters.


>         Superficially, the show is hot-n-topical, but its real appeal (IMHO)
> is in the way that it recalls a kinder, gentler, Gidget-A-Go-Go California
> with just a trace of "Less Than Zero"ness added for believability.

Hmm.  I guess so, but there is a sub-culture of California which IS
kinder, gentler, Gidget-A-Go-Go, and it's pretty darn well represented
by the show.  There is a creeping influence in that sub-culture by the
"Less Than Zero" sleazoids.  And we in that culture do have to deal
with the hot-n-topical issues to about the same extent that they do
on that show - i.e. they try to isolate themselves from the decadence,
but can't help but be aware of it, and concerned about it, although it's
not their responsibility to DO something about every hot-n-topical issue.


> Is it really any surprise that the characters who are somehow "Other" to 
> this WASPness are marginal or token at best??

WASPness meaning what?  Kind, gentle, safe, rich, beautiful, and
perpetually young?  That's a quite a compliment to the WASPs, who
represent the largest demographic segment of the population, if by WASP
we mean white person. Maybe California is Gidget-A-Go-Go after all.


> I mean, just consider the way that 90210 glossed decades (and centuries)
> of racism in the "So. Central football game" episode by having everyone
> dance together at the close of the episode.

My Executive Summary of that episode:
  Someone gets shot (possibly related to gang activity) at the XYZ South
  Central high school during a football game soon before a scheduled
  game against West Beverly High,

  Local WBH parents and school board members are afraid more
  gang-related activity will happen at their game, so the game
  is cancelled.

  In the subjective perception of Brandon and a student from XYZ,
  the cancellation of the game was somehow related to race, although
  there is ZERO empirical evidence to support that assertion.

  Brandon thinks that's not right, so he invites the students from
  XYZ school to the dance at WBH which was usually associated with the
  game that had been cancelled.

  Some XYZ students show up to the dance.  After initial tensions
  between some members of the football teams which were to have
  met on the field, the mood becomes more congenial.

  At no time did any member of the WBH or XYZ football teams, the
  student bodies, the administration or the school board state or imply
  that any actions they had taken or not taken were based on or
  influenced by racism, except Brandon and his confederate from XYZ.

  Brandon in his typical lets-just-all-love-each-other / nobody-would-
  hurt-us-if-we-didn't-hurt-them way failed to recognize the real
  threat that the people with common sense at both WBH and XYZ saw.
  Even Andrea my-heart-bleeds-for-all Zuckerman did not avidly
  support Brandon's Spikesque racism-related conspiracy theory.
  

> This was totally laughable, unimaginative, and pathetic!!

The dance scene was pretty lame, but it hardly had anything to do with
ignoring racism.


Larry