With each attempt of a show to deal with discrimination and the way 'they' are, this episode of Early Edition stands as about the best of all I have seen.
Happy Days with MS native Gary Grubbs as a sheriff, the only thing authentic in the episode. "I just wanted to help," Al Molinaro declares, returning to his all-white Milwaukee job at Arnold's when the weekend ended.
Quantum Leap mirrored Driving Miss Daisy with the inane idea that people who discriminated against blacks were confronted with how they too were discriminated against. Here's a newsflash for those who like this topic; not all 'bigots' were Jews.
Third Watch with its inane episode of a sympathetic priest wanting to give rights to a homophobe, regardless of if that homophobe would appreciate those rights and likewise, convenient that the militant gay knew the priest.
And of course, the Oscar winning Traffic, which apparently purported people develop bigotry when they have a bad day.
As a native suh-thuh-nuh, I know for a fact this was not the case back in the seventies. We were branded bigots for life, there was no sympathy classes, no bad days we were allowed.
South is bigot, case closed.
So I always get a big kick out of Hollywood's dealings with discrimination (We always point out that the south is where the bigots are. Why does it keep resurfacing elsewhere in the country?) Hmmm. There can only be so many OJ Simpson-Rodney King 'isolated incidents' right? Nevertheless, Early Edition so far has the honor of dealing with the subject best.
By far, the big error here was the white guys who were just foaming at the mouth at the Aryan supremacists marching thru the town.
Whether anyone will want to admit it, people like this are simply so objectionable cuz they don't want to see the discrimination in their own backyard.
Early Edition sought to get around this by saying one of these sympathetic white guys, being Jewish (or half Jewish) was incensed because of his own family members lost in WWII by the Nazis.
Okay, Kevin Dobson, portraying the white supremacist, is not old enough to be one of those Nazis. I seriously doubt the character could even speak German. I don't think simply because he said he is a Nazi as were the Germans of the forties that this means he was part of the holocaust or believed the holocaust was good.
In fact, the white supremacist belief in this area is two-sided as well. Some say the holocaust never happened, others will say it was a good thing.
Massive contradiction.
When Gary Hobson (Kyle Chandler) asked the intended assassin how he felt about killing the supremacist in front of his young child, the assassin-wannabe said the child was not his responsibility.
Perfect moment missed to point out to this guy how the Nazis felt the same way about the children they were killing and their parents they did in as well.
Any child who lost his parents in the holocaust, I doubt the exterminator was wondering if that person had kids somewhere.
Still a decently done, surprising episode with no typical clichéd events.
The bumps in the road were hardly effective as the blind woman, who is black, constantly noted that the supremacists are entitled to their rights as well, something that is rarely said in Hollywood.
That the approach was even taken to protect and save the supremacist was worth the watch, and Dobson, bless his Knot's Landing heart, was incredibly believable in the role.
Still, instead of somehow reforming Dobson, once again Hollywood adopted the belief that Mother saves the day, and the boy was returned to his estranged mother. Obviously she would do what is good.
This ideology has always amused me since I saw it in the episode of The Dark Room, with Ronny Cox as a vet still fighting the Viet Nam war with miniature soldiers.
At the end, as long as the child still had his mother, all was well.
Happy Days with MS native Gary Grubbs as a sheriff, the only thing authentic in the episode. "I just wanted to help," Al Molinaro declares, returning to his all-white Milwaukee job at Arnold's when the weekend ended.
Quantum Leap mirrored Driving Miss Daisy with the inane idea that people who discriminated against blacks were confronted with how they too were discriminated against. Here's a newsflash for those who like this topic; not all 'bigots' were Jews.
Third Watch with its inane episode of a sympathetic priest wanting to give rights to a homophobe, regardless of if that homophobe would appreciate those rights and likewise, convenient that the militant gay knew the priest.
And of course, the Oscar winning Traffic, which apparently purported people develop bigotry when they have a bad day.
As a native suh-thuh-nuh, I know for a fact this was not the case back in the seventies. We were branded bigots for life, there was no sympathy classes, no bad days we were allowed.
South is bigot, case closed.
So I always get a big kick out of Hollywood's dealings with discrimination (We always point out that the south is where the bigots are. Why does it keep resurfacing elsewhere in the country?) Hmmm. There can only be so many OJ Simpson-Rodney King 'isolated incidents' right? Nevertheless, Early Edition so far has the honor of dealing with the subject best.
By far, the big error here was the white guys who were just foaming at the mouth at the Aryan supremacists marching thru the town.
Whether anyone will want to admit it, people like this are simply so objectionable cuz they don't want to see the discrimination in their own backyard.
Early Edition sought to get around this by saying one of these sympathetic white guys, being Jewish (or half Jewish) was incensed because of his own family members lost in WWII by the Nazis.
Okay, Kevin Dobson, portraying the white supremacist, is not old enough to be one of those Nazis. I seriously doubt the character could even speak German. I don't think simply because he said he is a Nazi as were the Germans of the forties that this means he was part of the holocaust or believed the holocaust was good.
In fact, the white supremacist belief in this area is two-sided as well. Some say the holocaust never happened, others will say it was a good thing.
Massive contradiction.
When Gary Hobson (Kyle Chandler) asked the intended assassin how he felt about killing the supremacist in front of his young child, the assassin-wannabe said the child was not his responsibility.
Perfect moment missed to point out to this guy how the Nazis felt the same way about the children they were killing and their parents they did in as well.
Any child who lost his parents in the holocaust, I doubt the exterminator was wondering if that person had kids somewhere.
Still a decently done, surprising episode with no typical clichéd events.
The bumps in the road were hardly effective as the blind woman, who is black, constantly noted that the supremacists are entitled to their rights as well, something that is rarely said in Hollywood.
That the approach was even taken to protect and save the supremacist was worth the watch, and Dobson, bless his Knot's Landing heart, was incredibly believable in the role.
Still, instead of somehow reforming Dobson, once again Hollywood adopted the belief that Mother saves the day, and the boy was returned to his estranged mother. Obviously she would do what is good.
This ideology has always amused me since I saw it in the episode of The Dark Room, with Ronny Cox as a vet still fighting the Viet Nam war with miniature soldiers.
At the end, as long as the child still had his mother, all was well.
