Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 16, 1995 TAG: 9501170031
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARC GUNTHER KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Linda Bloodworth-Thomason makes no bones about it. She's using her new CBS comedy, ``Women of the House,'' to skewer the Washington establishment, and in particular the news media, that has been tough on her and her friends, the president and first lady.
Tough and unfair and misguided, she says.
``They got everything about us wrong. Everything,'' says Bloodworth-Thomason, whose show airs at 8 p.m. Wednesdays. ``It's frightening that you go to Washington, and you can't find anything that is quoted correctly.''
Or, as a character in ``Women of the House'' puts it:
``There is no such thing as a little mistake in Washington. Even the tiniest little thing can be made into a great big thing. It doesn't matter that George Bush was never mystified by a supermarket scanner or that Bill Clinton's haircut never held up any airplanes. All that matters is that it is repeated over and over again until it becomes fact and/or it sells enough newspapers and the retractions are printed on Page 78.''
What the show doesn't mention is that the press reported that Clinton's infamous haircut was arranged by none other than Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. Reported incorrectly, she insists.
Whatever the particulars of Clinton's haircut, this is an unprecedented situation in the history of politics and television. Never before has a prime-time sitcom set in Washington been written and produced by a close friend of a sitting president. Indeed, Clinton took the time last week, after the show's premiere, to call Bloodworth-Thomason and wish her the best.
``He's very supportive,'' she says.
Because of that, she says: ``People will read things into this show, no matter what I write, and they will tie it into the Clintons.''
The friendship goes back more than a decade, to Clinton's days as Arkansas governor. Harry Thomason, Linda's husband and the director of ``Women of the House,'' is a former high school football coach in Arkansas and friend of the Clintons. She grew close to Hillary. They've remained good friends over the years, and during the 1992 election, the Thomasons produced the now-famous ``Man from Hope'' biographical film that was shown at the Democratic National Convention.
As a house guest of the Clintons during their first week in the White House, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason had the chance to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom - just as her character Suzanne Sugarbaker, a beauty queen turned congresswoman played by Delta Burke, did during an episode of ``Women of the House.''
The press has faulted the Thomasons for just about everything they've supposedly done with the Clintons - from bringing a stream of Hollywood friends to the White House (wrong, says Linda) to engineering the firing of the old travel staff (wrong again, she says) to a request from Harry, wrongly reported in a recent book, that the presidential oath of office be rewritten for the inauguration. That error so displeased him that he got the author, Elizabeth Drew, to issue a retraction.
The Clintons haven't fared much better, Bloodworth-Thomason says.
One problem, she says, is that cynical Washington reporters never give politicians of any stripe the benefit of the doubt.
Or, as a character in her show says:
``Washington is the only town in America where the appearance of something is much more important than the reality. For instance, if you go into a public rest room and come out too soon, you didn't wash your hands. If you stay in too long, you've molested someone. If you stay in just the right amount of time, you're slick.''
Slick as in Slick Willie, that is.
Still, CBS and Bloodworth-Thomason take pains to note that ``Women of the House'' is first and foremost a comedy, and not a political screed.
Peter Tortorici, the president of CBS Entertainment, says: ``If viewers see this as a political platform as opposed to an entertaining comedy, it's not going to work.''
For her part, Bloodworth-Thomason says she feels free to express a strong point of view in the show, just as she has done in other shows for CBS, which include ``Designing Women,'' ``Evening Shade'' and ``Hearts Afire.''
Near the end of last week's premiere, for example, the Suzanne Sugarbaker character gives an impassioned speech that concludes by saying that ``if Mr. Smith came to Washington today, you people would beat the hell of out him. Which is too bad, because sometimes good people really do come here to do good things.''
Bloodworth-Thomason doesn't mention any names, but she had the Clintons in mind when she wrote that, she said.
``I think of this show as a video column,'' she says. ``I think I have as much right to put my opinions in my show as columnists have to put opinions in their columns. Sure, we'll go after people. We may do it clumsily and we may not be successful, but if we think someone is deserving, we'll do it.''
Meanwhile, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call isn't giving the show any slack, calling the show's premise unconstitutional.
The Sugarbaker character is appointed to fill her late husband's seat. Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution, says Roll Call, ``clearly calls for an election to be held to fill a House vacancy.''
Picky, picky.
by CNB