Proswatch Community Viewing: Klansmen

[agentxpndble]

I don't really know what to say about this one. I can't imagine why they banned it - The Klan/racist theme has been around in American television forever and I didn't see anything that was too terribly ban-worthy. In fact, it seemed like a terribly sophisticated treatment of the theme, compared to the usual American TV show of, say, the early 80s

Comments

[probodie]

Regarding Bodie's attitude, I think it could stem from Africa. I hear what you are saying; that he should been more accepting given his worldwide wanderings, but supposing he'd been abused in Africa? Raped/jailed/torture - that would lead a man to hating anyone black.

That's not to say it's acceptable - and yes, he does get the girl - but it could be one reason he has the attitude he has.

[agentxpndble]

Yeah, maybe something in Africa... Could be any of a dozen reasons.

Just the attitudes of the times even - No matter how many positive experiences you have with the "other", one is always prone to old patterns if the culture supports it. My Grandma was like that - She had dozens of friends over her lifetime that were of diverse cultures and yet, she would still make terribly racist remarks. It's like they were two completely separate groups in her own mind - People of color she personally knew and people of color in general. Sometimes it wasn't easy talking to her.

[probodie]

Sadly, that sounds like my dad! Must be a generational thing.

[towerbridge2006]

"...the fact that his big, humanizing turn-around ended in him getting a piece of ass. Pig."
Good point. I saw that as way too much of an about face, perhaps to get into the nurse's knickers.

"And I really liked Doyle all throughout the episode - He, at least, seemed to come across as a solid character and it fit in with the ongoing character-arc." Agree. I had a problem with racist Bodie feeling too far off the mark. Doyle seemed very much himself.

[agentxpndble]

I don't think his big turn around was an act to get the girl, I think it was sloppy writing. But to *then* follow that up with a cheap "get the girl" shot (in this case) was really, really wrong. I might have let the whole thing slide if they hadn't jabbed me with that at the end. >:-P

[sc_fossil]

You stated that nicely. So we do have that as canon, but your explanation about Bodie's background and his wide experience works for me. I suppose we could put down his hospital actions to pain and fever, although we are still left with the remarks to Cowley and Doyle. I think the "turn around" was supposed to make the guys feel all good about being manly studs. Gotta love the 70s.

You know, I was around then, and we had I Spy! which showed a black man and a white man sharing a room and being equal partners. We had The Mod Squad. There were Starsky & Hutch episodes dealing with racism. There's one where Starsky slugs another cop for making a remark about a black man. (I hope it was Starsky! My mind is full of head cold!) So it was on television here.

[agentxpndble]

I forget that you had so many American shows almost real-time... The availability/popularity of British shows *here* didn't really kick in until the mid-80s. Until the availability of VHS and DVD, you could only really see them on PBS and each of those station's priorities varied wildly across the country.

Anyway, I have this *very* fuzzy memory of reading that this episode was dropped more for the violence than the race stuff (don't quote me - I really can't remember.) I'll need to dig thorough all my articles and see if I can find what I think I read. ;-)

[eveningblue]

I hate the ending so much that it ruins the whole episode for me. It's way too facile. This ep reminds me of the S&H episode "Death in a Different Place," in which the boys have to deal with a dead cop who turns out to be gay. Starsky, it turns out, is a homophobe. Hutch sort of prods him to re-think his stance. In the end he's coming around, but it's not at all the ridiculous turnabout that happens here. It's slower and more realistic. Here it's like, really? Bodie never realized there were black doctors and nurses? It just feels ridiculous to me.

I would guess that one of the reasons it was banned was because maybe at that time it was not okay to have a tv series hero shown as racist. But I'm just guessing at that.

[agentxpndble]

I'm beginning to have this *very* fuzzy memory of reading that this episode was dropped more for the violence than the race stuff (don't quote me - I really can't remember.) I'll need to dig thorough all my articles and see if I can find what I think I read. ;-)

If they had toned down Bodie just a little, it might have been a really great episode. But I guess they wanted a big impact when he turns around at the end. It was the trend in American TV at the time. That first season of Pros did have a slightly more bigger-than-life feel to it - It wasn't until season two that the show seemed more realistic and gritty (in my opinion.)

[byslantedlight]

I wonder if the ban-worthiness wasn't so much due to the fact that it portrayed racism (because it was the bad guys who were racist, and when good-guy-Bodie was Taught His Lesson, and made to think about his assumptions, he became a Better Person) - as to the fact that it added a typical-Pros greyness to the issue. Because it turned out that the bad guys weren't all white racists either - some of the bad guys were black, including the "top" bad guy. Maybe the PTB felt that occluded a message that society still needed given to them in big capital letters. As you say - perhaps too sophisticated, at least for the perceived audience of the time.

I actually wasn't bothered by the characterisation of Bodie as racist here (well, yes, obviously I'd like him to be much smarter than that, but that's not how people work!) - it's often such an ingrained, thoughtless thing, something that people use as an excuse for what's gone wrong in their lives rather than actually meaning - like when Bodie points out that he can't afford an expensive car

[schnuffi]

Holy Moses, how much coffee did you have??? *VEG*

[agentxpndble]

- as to the fact that it added a typical-Pros greyness to the issue.

Yes - I imagine you are right. (Although I'm starting to have this *very* fuzzy memory of reading that the violence may have been the problem.) Which is pretty sad - That you can potray this issue on TV unless you actually make people *think* about it. :::headdesk:::

I actually wasn't bothered by the characterization of Bodie as racist here...

It doesn't actually bother me either - I just thought they destroyed any impact that may have had by making him so completely over the top with it. That insidious, low-level, every day sort of racism that people often have is so much more...wrong. And believable.

And yeah, then he goes off and treats the black woman like a woman, because late '70s society hadn't quite worked its way through racial equality to sexual equality...

That wasn't out of character in any way whatsoever - I get it - but because they treated this episode so seriously (and I thought with quality,) it just rankled me.

Actually, to me, Doyle's