Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 16, 1992 TAG: 9201160012
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL HILL THE BALTIMORE EVENING SUN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SITCOM EPISODE FOCUSES ON INTER-RACIAL VIOLENCE
This week's episode of "A Different World" has a plot that's a bit weightier than the usual lighter-than-air fluff that passes for stories on most half-hour sitcoms."We wanted to do something on inter-racial violence," the show's co-executive producer, Susan Fales, said over the phone from Los Angeles. "So we came up with this script that was written by Gary Miller, our supervising producer."
In this episode of the NBC show, which airs tonight at 8:30 on WSLS Channel 10, regular characters Dwayne and Ron go to a football game at a nearby school that's mainly white and end up in a fight in the stadium parking lot. They are thrown into detention with three white students who were on the other side.
"We wanted a situation that would set up a dialogue on the issue," Fales said of the discussion that ensues among the students. "We use a Rashomon-type device to show how the two sides have different versions of what happened in the fight.
"What we hope is that seeing this will set up a dialogue within the audience, to get people on both sides to look at themselves. They might identify with one of the characters and recognize some of the prejudices they carry."
Fales said that she feels a special responsibility to do shows like this on "A Different World."
"We have a large youth audience. Face it, we are America's baby sitters," she said. "We want to reach them with messages like this.
"When we did a show last year on AIDS, you should have seen the letters we got, people saying they always assumed it was something that only happened to someone else until they saw our show. So I think a TV show can make a difference."