#xyhank

I grew up watching NBC and still watch more shows on that channel than any other. Due to this fact, I take NBC’s missteps personally in the way that I would a celebrity’s exploits. I bring this up because of two current NBC programs: SMASH and Whitney. Both have cast presumably Indian/Sri Lankan characters in extremely well to do and incredible put together rolls. At one point NBC had managed to cast minorities in “normal” rolls without any stereotypical leaning, see: The Office, Parks and Recreation. SMASH and Whitney’s characters seem like a direct result of Outsourcing’s racial biased humor. To compare it to another NBC presence, it feels like when Michael Richards/Kramer used the N-word hoping it would be funny when it was not. Dissimilarly, Richards had not made any known outreach to the African American community. He essentially just hadn’t said the N-word yet. After burning their own bride for the sake of comedy, NBC now looks like they feel the need to promote such minorities in these sort of reverse racism rolls.

I don’t understand the need for nearly everyone on the show to continuously rave about how this Michael Swift fellow was born to play Joe Dimaggio. As a regular viewer of television, cinema and theatre, I am fully prepared and readily willing to suspend my belief in the similar appearance of an actor and the character he or she is portraying. (Even more so when a singing/dancing version is necessary.) That said, if the rest of the cast is going to repeatedly insist that Michael Swift was a natural choice to play Joltin’ Joe, then the fact that Dimaggio looks completely different in the SMASH universe needs to be explained. Furthermore, after looking at Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and other white Yankees, I would argue that Michael Swift might be more qualified to play any historical Bronx Bomber other than Joe Dimaggio. While they’re at it, the SMASH universe should also mention that Martin Starr was never born there, because if he was, he would have been in order to play one Yankee.