The Soapbox: Rants and Commentary: Ellen: Apathy in America Composed by David Anderson(oommp@webspan.net) I was going over Dan's Rant Page (I do that from time to time) and I saw a wonderful piece by Dan's brother, Michael, on the whole Ellen Degeneres thing. Now, Michael knows a lot more of the history behind the show, and therefore has a much better informed opinion than I do, but that has never stopped me in the past. I just wanted to jot down a quick note (in a three thousand words or less) about my feelings on the subject. Ellen, the sitcom, was canceled. Ellen says it is because the executives at whatever network it is the show aired on is bigoted. The executives say it is because the ratings just weren't there. Hollywood 'insiders' are saying it is because Ellen was fighting with the executives over the show's content too much. What we have is a good, old fashioned, Tarantino-esque Mexican Stand Off here. Everyone is pointing guns at someone else. We, as a viewing public, are supposed to believe one or the other or the other. That is, we're supposed to believe after we start caring. My thoughts go thusly: If anyone in America thinks the decision to keep or nix a show isn't based solely on the almighty dollar, go throw yourself off of a high building, we don't need you in the gene pool. It doesn't take even a triple digit IQ to know TV is based on money, not quality, not statement, nothing but money. Boy Meets World made it to its sixth season because its target audience watched it in sufficient numbers to solidify a renewal. That's it. The whole thing. Now, did the gay message in Ellen make some of the TV executives nervous? Probably, it did. The odds tell us at least one of the people involved in the decision has some sort of anti homosexual prejudices. It is just sheer numbers that tell us that. However, I don't think it was these prejudices that led to the show's demise. In fact, Ellen may have enjoyed a little more time than it would have normally gotten because it dealt with homosexual issues. The gay lobby, as it were, is a loud one, and causes some real media frenzies from time to time. Ellen was a show that was destined not to go quietly into that gentle goodnight because of the issues it raised. Someone, somewhere, was destined to billow out the rainbow colored flag and cry, "They've killed Ellen!" "You BASTARDS!" For once, I'm going to come to the defense of the TV executives. You see, they are too greedy to make decisions based on anything other than market share. However, there is a possibility the gay issues were what killed Ellen. You see, for the most part, America is very tolerant of gays. We accept them. Some of us have relatives that are gay, and we love them very much, and this isn't in spite or because of their sexual proclivity, but because they just love them. I see gay prejudice and homophobia everyday in my job, cops are prone to that sort of thing, but it isn't quite as common as one would think. For the most part, I think everyday straight people say, "It's not for me, but to each his own." Unfortunately for Ellen, this doesn't mean we want to spend our nights watching mildly humorous shows about gays. Acceptance and understanding does not translate into fascination. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is the best statement of acceptance straight America could have made for Ellen and gays; complete apathy. We know, we accept, we understand, therefore, we just don't care anymore. Not enough to tune in, anyway. At any rate, that's my two cents. Feel free to disagree. Back To Rants and Commentary

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