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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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 Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 11:42 am Post subject: Conrad Bain is dead |
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Mr. D from Diff'rent Strokes. A native of my home province, from way down south in Lethbridge.
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LIVERMORE, Calif. - Conrad Bain, who starred as the kindly white adoptive father of two young African-American brothers in the TV sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," has died.
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Granted, he along with the rest of the DS cast were pretty much playing second-string to Gary Coleman. He undertook his task credibly enough.
Also the uptight conservative neighbour on Maude, where he managed to swing a a few more funny lines than on DS, albeit it often at his character's expense.
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:35 am Post subject: |
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| Who'd have ever thought Todd Bridges would outlive the rest of the cast. |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Frankly, I don't see some ulterior motive. I think it was just what it was, a TV show. An enjoyable one for most folks and God forbid if it had a nice message of people of varying econcomic and ethnic backgrounds getting along as well. Not a bad government agenda if there is one since America is a very diverse nation. |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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| caniff wrote: |
There is virtually no message on the boob-tube that doesn't serve one purpose or another, and I'm not talking about just advertising revenue. |
On the other hand, what could possibly appear on television that could not be construed as serving "one purpose or another?" Hell, if one did manage to produce something so bland and empty of meaning that it was in absolutely no way related to any ideological goal, the charge would just be, "They are dumbing us down with meaningless drivel!"
Many (probably all) masterpieces of human artistry or creativity were made with some interest or another in mind. Seriously, when you read through the Aeneid or something, you cannot help but see the agenda. The Iliad? The Mahabharata? Both glorify certain modes of life. Cicero? Pure agenda. All that famous art inspired by Christianity? That's not just pretty pictures.
The problem with modern creative endeavors is not the presence of a message. The problem is that they are all too often mediocre trash, and even that is probably a historically normal phenomenon which is only apparent because we have not yet had a millennia to weed out the trash in modern works the way we had for ancient works. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:00 am Post subject: |
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Diff'rent Strokes was not quite as hard-hitting in its racial commentary as were the Norman Lear sitcoms(which often covered issues that were well outside the comfortable talking-points of white middle-class liberaldom). But they didn't entirely shy away from delicate subect matter. For example, it was revealed in one episode that the Drummond family fortune was originally derived from a slave-trading ancestor.
Plus, old Mr. D was forced on a few occassions to confront his own residual racial anxieties. There was one episode where he had to deal with accusations of racism from the boys, because he was uncomfortable with them going to a birthday party in Harlem. |
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