ABC's The Practice

[Adoumri]

ABC intends to air an episode of "The Practice" featuring a middle-aged Japanese American man who is injured in the buttocks at a gas station. To add insult to injury he rants and raves in broken English and is dismissed by the lawyers as inconsequential. As a result, he is only aided by a third year law student on the show. People, ABC has had a decent track record in the past with regard to depictions of Asian Americans, but this is preposterous and offensive. Check out this posting from the link below. This information was gathered from one of the members at the Ban Banzai forum who is an Asian American actor and who had considered auditioning for The Practice.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/banbanzai/message/190

"I just got some updated info from Nick about this
future episode of ABC's "The Practice."

Based on his info, I can tell you that I am disgusted
at ABC for even considering this script. This episode
involves an older Japanese male who speaks exaggerated
broken English. Like the Banzai characters, I don't
know anyone who speak likes this. The writer clearly
wants to make the audience laugh *AT* the Asian actor
and his use of broken english. In addition, the
actor's words are carefully chosen to make him sound
like a fool. Other characters laugh at him throughout
the episode.

This episode also has a monologue about how the Asian
character sounds funny and how Americans are bigots
that expect the whole world to speak English.

We need to protest the airing of this show. We need
you all to write, telephone, and e-mail ABC and it's
sponsors to stop this episode from taping and airing.
We need to get a list of advertisers of The Practice
get them to pull their advertising before this episode
airs."

[Ogumo]

This is bad but this is not as bad as another thread that I read with some asian man robbing people (or was it robbing the bank) in a ninja mask and with sword. I will give that a 10 on the ridiculous scale. But this only gets a 7.

[kimpossible]

It's not a dignified portrayal of an Asian American considering the lack of other portrayals to provide a variety of images of Asian Americans on TV, but what is so unbelievable about this character? There are cranky old Japanese who talk kind of nutty. I'm related to some. If they are airing it with a monologue about discrimination based on English ability and American bigotry and expectations of spoken English - how is that bad again?

Maybe I'm not reading this correctly. I understand that it's a very undignified representation, but protest-worthy? Personally, if they openly challenge Americans notions of expecting the world to speak English and their small-mindedness towards immigrants who don't have great English, I would think that a good thing.

[SunWuKong]

It's not a dignified portrayal of an Asian American considering the lack of other portrayals to provide a variety of images of Asian Americans on TV, but what is so unbelievable about this character? There are cranky old Japanese who talk kind of nutty. I'm related to some. If they are airing it with a monologue about discrimination based on English ability and American bigotry and expectations of spoken English - how is that bad again?

Maybe I'm not reading this correctly. I understand that it's a very undignified representation, but protest-worthy? Personally, if they openly challenge Americans notions of expecting the world to speak English and their small-mindedness towards immigrants who don't have great English, I would think that a good thing.

i agree, but at the same time, there's not enough portrayal of Asian people who are fluent in English and are acculturated. and we're talking about a Japanese person here. there are plenty of Japanese Americans who have been here for generations.

i'd have to watch the episode itself to judge, but another thing to keep in mind here is that the "foreign" portrayal may be written to be that way to induce humour.

[kitty]

it's also possible that the characters' mistreatment of the man becomes seen as a bad thing -- I also would rather see the episode first.

[kitty]

edited thread title to make more explicit

[>:^|]

I don't know ... I'd love to give people the benefit of the doubt, but every time I do I'm disappointed.

I find it really interesting that the character's name is "Herbert Wakabayashi" and he's described as being 40-60 years old. Japanese Americans are one of the groups that have been in the U.S. the longest and have one of the largest English-speaking percentages (something like 75%). I have friends who are fifth-generation Japanese Americans. Certainly the average person of Japanese descent in that age group speaks English as a first language.

This role seems designed to poke fun at this character. He gets blown up and suffers butt injuries while on a toilet, and then people laugh at him throughout when he speaks his fractured, funny English. So the Funny Oriental Guy is played for laughs, but then there's a monologue at the end about how we shouldn't make fun of people for their accents and how we shouldn't be bigots.

This sounds more like somebody trying to get away with something than it does with any real teaching moment.

And just as a random thought ... I always wonder where the writers get the character names from. Sometimes they have a "Japanese" character with a non-Japanese name, but Wakabayashi is an actual Japanese name. Makes me wonder if the writer had a grammar school teacher with that name who was mean to him or her. :dry:

[janqb]

Be sure to read the thread at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/banbanzai/message/190 before responding. One might give the major networks the benefit of the doubt, but after they keep putting out offensive shows, like Banzai, Jay Leno's comments on Asians eating dogs, Chinese food delivery boys, and gangsters, I would elect to do the opposite--assume that the networks are misrepresenting Asian Americans first. I'd wait until they prove otherwise. There are too many negative images of AAs on TV. For Americans who have never met Asians, their preconceptions of us don't differ much from those days of Fu Manchu and Susie Wong.

Even as AAs become the wealthiest and most educated racial demographic in this country, it still does nothing to negate these terrible stereotypes about us. We will always be seen as somehow inferior. Even the word "Chinese" sounds like an oath. Look at Jewish Americans with their clout in politics, entertainment, and pretty much every profession. In spite of their influence and power in US society, negative stereotypes about Jews still abound though they are slowly disappearing with the help of shows like "Seinfeld", etc. What we need is an Asian Seinfeld, or some kind of show to portray us in a more realistic and positive light. It's too bad Margaret Cho's All American Girl got canned a while back. That had potential.

Does anyone know how to sell an idea or script to Hollywood?

[>:^|]

This episode airs this evening, December 7.
I wonder if the date is a coincidence. :wink:

[TB4000]

This episode airs this evening, December 7.
I wonder if the date is a coincidence. :wink:



A day, or evening, which will live in infamy, huh? :wink:

[>:^|]

Did anybody see this?

[ellsworth81]

Did anybody see this?
I did actually. Despite poking fun at his obvious lack of English, I think they kind of reconciled it in typicaly Hollywood fashion. Man, that law student chick is so hot.

By the way, for a Japanese guy, he speaks pretty damn good Cantonese. :biggrin:

[>:^|]

I did actually. Despite poking fun at his obvious lack of English, I think they kind of reconciled it in typicaly Hollywood fashion. Man, that law student chick is so hot.

By the way, for a Japanese guy, he speaks pretty damn good Cantonese. :biggrin:

What? Was he speaking Cantonese in the episode?!

Ahhh, all those languages are all the same anyway. Chinese, Japanese, what's the difference.

Ellsworth, can you give more details about the story line and how it was presented? You can talk about the law student chick too, if you must. :tongue:

Anybody else?

On a side rant, have you ever noticed how in American movies the foreign-language dialogue will often have some major flaw? Like the actor doesn't speak that language fluently, or is speaking just some made-up crap? One of my friends who is African saw a movie in which she said one African was speaking Swahili and the other was speaking Twi. :wink:

[ellsworth81]

What? Was he speaking Cantonese in the episode?!

Ahhh, all those languages are all the same anyway. Chinese, Japanese, what's the difference.


Yea. Those slant-eyed bastards speak the same gibberish anyway. :confused: Ok, can't tell if you are just pooh-poohing it, or being serious in your comment...


Ellsworth, can you give more details about the story line and how it was presented? You can talk about the law student chick too, if you must. :tongue:


basically, the dude was dropping the kids of at a gas station restroom and he lit a cigarette, finished it and tossed it in the bowl, kaboom, something catches on fire and his ass gets 3rd degree burns. Dunno about any of the legalistics though ...

However, his vocabulary was pretty decent for someone who had no grasp of sentence structure whatsoever. Clearly, the shit was so exaggerated, but I guess it was necessary for the punch line at the end of the episode. It would've been the same thing if they brought in some rural Scotsman/Irishman, Asian Indian, or any other race/ethnicity with non-standard english (according to US standards that is).

One of the main lawyers tells the law student that she can "defend" him since she's established a "connection" with the client. Naturally, she fucks up during the questioning by laughing at his testimony, causing everyone to perceive his case as a joke. Of course, she makes up for it with some "heart-felt" lah-de-dah closing statement and expresses her sincere apologies.


On a side rant, have you ever noticed how in American movies the foreign-language dialogue will often have some major flaw? Like the actor doesn't speak that language fluently, or is speaking just some made-up crap? One of my friends who is African saw a movie in which she said one African was speaking Swahili and the other was speaking Twi. :wink:

nope. they seem to use a real language one way or another. or they butcher it royally like in Wayne's World 2. But I can forgive that since the movie was hilarious.

[>:^|]

Yea. Those slant-eyed bastards speak the same gibberish anyway. :confused: Ok, can't tell if you are just pooh-poohing it, or being serious in your comment...

Thanks for the synopsis. I was curious if he spoke Cantonese in the episode. According to the script, he was supposed to be of Japanese descent. Was his name "Herbert Wakabayashi" in the aired episode?

I was trying to be funny in my comment but it isn't conveyed very well in typing. :wink:

[ellsworth81]

Thanks for the synopsis. I was curious if he spoke Cantonese in the episode. According to the script, he was supposed to be of Japanese descent. Was his name "Herbert Wakabayashi" in the aired episode?


Yea, he lost his temper and started ranting in Canto. I didn't pick up most of it... but the gist of it was "This is bullshit"



I was trying to be funny in my comment but it isn't conveyed very well in typing. :wink:

oh :-/

[Rogmok]

i saw it last night. I wasn't offended by the portrayal of him as an asian..

i did, however, think it was really cool when the girl switched from her english accent to american accent during the closing statement.