I NEWS I

JDL Does Backstroke
In 'Chicken Soup'

TOM TUGEND

Special to The Jewish News

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52

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1989

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American
Red Cross

11 his is the story of The
Big Confrontation, pit-
ting the all-star cast of
ABC-TV's "Chicken Soup"
against the muscular
militants of the Jewish
Defense League.
Well, it didn't really happen
in Hollywood, but across tin
Studio City, and to be perfect-
ly honest, the confrontation
never came off. But bear with
me, folks. Stay tuned.
The new sitcom, "Chicken
Soup" has already been
touted by critics as the
likeliest megahit of the new
fall season. Its cast of
characters, in front and_
behind the cameras, includes:
Jackie Mason, the rabbi
turned comedian, who has
parlayed an unrivalled
storehouse of Jewish jokes in-
to a smash Los Angeles and
Broadway success called, with
becoming modesty, The World
According to Me In "Chicken
Soup," he plays Jackie Fisher,
a retired Jewish pajama
salesman, who has "a very
close friendship," in the
carefully chosen words of the
show's producer, with — Lynn
Redgrave, who portrays Mad-
die Pierce, an Irish Catholic
divorcee living next door.
Behind the cameras are
veteran Hollywood writers
Saul Turteltaub and Bernie
Orenstein, who did the pilot
script for the show and serve
as two of its four executive
producers.
Enter. Iry Rubin, national
chairman of the JDL, an
organization whose name is
invariable prefaced in the
press with the adjective "mili-
tant." Rubin is a big, well-
built mail with a low.indigna-
tion threshold and no aver-
sion to the public spotlight,
although he seems to have.
mellowed a bit in the past
couple of years.
Rubin soon let it be known
that he didn't like this brand
of Chicken Soup. He explain-
ed his displeasure to this and
other journalists and at
greater length to the
Hollywood Reporter, starting
at some distance from the
main point, but quickly clos-
ing in on the primary target.

"We are sick and tired of
Jewish-American Princess
stereotypes being used to de-
mean Jewish women and we
are just as sick of Jewish neb-
bishes being portrayed on TV
. . . we're very serious about
the very poor image of the

Jewish female and I would
prefer that Jackie Mason
seek out and covet a Jewish
female," Rubin said.
The JDL also issued a state-
ment, which, while lauding
Jackie Mason as "a longtime
supporter of Rabbi Meir
Kahane, the JDL founder,"
warned that "everybody is
capable of backsliding, and
we would be very disap-
pointed, maybe even outrag-
ed, if this new sitcom
emulates the likes of "Bridget
Loves Bernie," a 1970s sitcom
in which a poor, Jewish writer
was married to the daughter
of wealthy Irish Catholics.
Executive producer Bernie
Orenstein countered with a
prepared statement of -.his
own, • which said: "We
welcome everyone to come
and see the show because
we're totally confident that
the show is a truthful, funny
comedy. We can't imagine any
Jewish or gentile people be-
ing offended by it." With the
verbal barrages thus laid
down, Rubin made his next
move. "Chicken - Soup" is
taped at the CBS/MTM pro-
duction facilities in Studio Ci-
ty before an audience of 250
people, and for the taping of
the fifth show on Sept. 8, a
Friday evening, Rubin had
managed to get hold of a
block of 40 tickets.
He let it be known_ to the
press that the JDL would
turn out in some force and
that he would make tickets
available to any media person
who wanted to watch the ac-
tion. Whether this action
would include a demonstra-
tion at the taping Rubin left
uncertain, saying that it
would depend on whether any,
of the material in the show
proved offensive to the JDL.
Rubin's move was shrewd,
at least in principle, because
the justifiably nervous pro-
ducers banned the press from
the studio taping. As it turn-
ed out, though, most of the
press, including the two ma-
jor Los Angeles dailies, ig-
nored Rubin's invitation.
However, a couple of reporters
from Jewish and trade
publications went inside_ with
Rubin's group.
The producers, while beef-
ing up security, also took
-measures to soothe Rubin
and forestall trouble. Pro-
ducer Saul Turteltaub, a
member of an Orthodox con-
gregation and active in the
Jewish Federation Council,
met with Rubin a few hours
before the taping and found
him to be "a very intelligent