7/28/2019 Deck the Halls with Boughs of Challah (interfaith TV couples)

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TheHallsDeck(NBC, Wedaeday), Paul (Paut Beier) Dfate English ud her produs, J@lflalis back to his ed WASp wife Ja- Sa"U""$-lrt-"'ei""tiJrji?ti"g:;1"^(Fg:,"_Igq tu *k: "t r,* *.et*ft "o_*ili'i,it1i"Eipr,.SilXii.Hli'i;1[ril_.!*"i;"3;t"h1ili ffi,,X.'1ff : A #"ffi:.fr; ffi[i&L"**]i$5Hm;ii-*ggl*t?"'.;r3,Hfltr,Ti"Jt]tff fl"t 4ul"y t.ril Eikenberry) o* u"a" "ii"l-as;,;i;;i;;#'iil t"-b_min-danaged @te Stuart tilqLowitz trsting ,el-;;;.;(Michel T\lcks) at home- In "Sirram.Teach You Children We[" ilmCllii- flf H lS BEING ret evision. ofurday), the l4tASP-bom Frulie (Ju- | ow, tlte relationehim'@lime Pbillipa), who hq onvqted 6 ! lw a mtter of relitv tiru ofJudaitm, preprc for her f6t bic Cha- I fetasy. "A ld oft}te ilows uenukah gathsiDg witb hq husSand,s mittan by Jryish men " note Richardqnily. And in the E@y Awad-win- R@nstek, @tor md mtive oening l'Northern Expoeure" "u"ur duoof "FlyingBlin4" sdhins;lfa'lteoul (CBS, Jew.

7/28/2019 Deck the Halls with Boughs of Challah (interfaith TV couples)

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eotypical, hoady EggErdd Jdsh.Aoerien Princees."Tbis is sfigl mgnf of the Jerlsh-Americaa writers popular in the 1960sa$d i?-0s rcre writia&" qtr WmdeBffiA, drector o16lrlsl uuse-um's National Jewish Archive ofBroadcasting. "Philip Both's rumenwere the most extreme- h. nrt yi-cious Jewish women. And be's fuuy.which made it worse," she sa-s. chud-ling. The other extreme- of -canre, isthe insecure, self-deprecaring Jerishq9m?n epitomized by Valerle Hrpa'sRhoda Morgerrstern on "The XaryT$er Moore Show" and "Rbo&" inthe 1970s - who ironic"lly renaiDd afurny character until she gw ber ltfetogEther, at which time sad-sacl oqsBrcnda (Julie Kavner) begBn gqringdltbe Lm'ghs.And without strong Jewish femaleaTfs interfaith relationships will kecptiqg one'way only. Aside from Te*frrfrnrn (who'S dating an Israeli mrnEarhen laughingly describes as "rigbrct d'Exodus'"), there's a dearth ofd characters. TV writer-producesrfaelvss are hard-put to explnin i1{aybe," suggests "Sisters" co-ctatr Ron Cowen, "it's a meEter of

* br self-esteem or insecurit-v thet-ft.om being a minority in a coun-E tbat's predominantly W.{SP: If youhe tlat feeling and you're writing ahrle character who's Jewish, a lot ofrbes you may end up with a stero-ttfncal Jewish female character -hat aggressive, somewhat inse.anre about herself, always hunting for anan. Certainly Rhoda Morgensterncrmpared to Mary Richards was muchless secure about her femininity andsexuality."

" There are female Jewish writer-pro-ducere in television who could writefromtheir own experience and perspec-tive," says Roen$ock- "I don't knowwhy they don't do it more."More? Look back m interfaith nla-tirships after Bhoda's ad yan'll 6n tvirttJslly n EF gith e Jerit ulm-

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:rdtrqt(l{*r l:*. jl-i :li'., INTERFAITH COUPTES

There likely have been isolat'ed ex-amDles in an ePisode of this ortttai, Uut nothing the caliber ofJack and WallY on "Love & War,"Stuart and Ann on "L'A' Law," orsuch antecedents as MartY Goldand Hannah Miller on "AnYthingBut Love" (ABC, 1989-92), MichaelSt"ad*at and HoPe MurdochSt"ud*att on "thirtysomething"(ABC, 1987-91), or Bernie Stein-bere and Bridget Theresa MarYColieen Fitzgerald Steinberg on,,Bridget Loves Bernie" (CBS,\972-75). (On "Cheers," Dr' LilithSiernin-Crane was referred to asJewish in one ePisode bY the Gen-tile Dr. Frasier Crane, but it wasnever mentioned again')Depictions of Jews themselves'of course, go back almost to themedium's dawn, with the seminalsitcom "The Goldbergs"icss I NBC / Dumont / syndicated1949-55). MoreY Amsterdam's suP-porting character Buddy Sorrell-orri'Th" bi"k Van DYke Show" (CBS,1961-66) was demonstrablY Jewish'with one ePisode centered on hismuch-delayed bar mitzvah' TV'sfirst specifically Jewigh leading-man character was ProbablY AaronSilverman, PlaYed bY actor-crrm-Droducer Zilman King on "TheYo.rttg LawYers" (ABC, 1970-71)'And fhen there have been whatJeffrey Shandler, who moderated a1991 Jewish Museum serres on"EthnicitY in Prime Time," calls"cr;pto-Jews: characters who are

Jewish but You're not zuPPosed toknow it," such as Phil Silvers' leg-endary Sgt. Bilko or' more recent-lv. Elaine Benes and George Cos-t"rrru ott "Seinfeld."These sort-of-Jewish charactersat least don't conform to stereo-types anY more than do real-lifeJews. Diane English can take somecredit for giving us a BritishJew-ish character, Miles Silverberg'ssometime-girlfriend Audrey Levineon "MurPhY Brown." But the cur'rent Jewish leading-men charac'ters are with the excePtion of EdMarinaro's sery and self-possessedMitch Margolis on "Siste1s" - gi-ther loud urban neurotics or, inthe case of "L.A' Law's" StuartMarkowitz, a PaunchY PuPPY dog'

For Jewish New York CitYteacher Toni Cohen, at least thatmeans the shiksas can have them'"They're stereotYPes' A lot ofthem aren't tall' A lot of them aretoo nervous. A lot of them haveNew York accents. A lot of themcomplain too much. A lot of themmake derogatorY references totheir familY' A lot of them havephysical Problems when theY getups"t - 'MY stomach! MY head!' Ifind it annoYing. I mean, there areblond Je'wish men, and tall Jewishmen, and Jewish men withoutNew York accents. And there are"'she notes wrYlY, "Jewish men whodate Jewish women." E

Frank I'ovece is a free-lance writer'