I CLOSE-UP
ews In Televiso
What Are
They Hiding?
Television has seldom dealt forthrightly with
fictional Jewish characters, and there is
clearly an aLLempt among Jews in the industry
to keep a low prbfile. But there is
some progress .. .
Comedian Jackie Mason co-stars with Lynn Redgrave in ABC-TV's new
sitcom, "Chicken Soup," which revolves about the premise of a Jewish
bachelor romantically involved with a Catholic widow.
Ken Olin plays Michael Steadman, a Jewish advertising copywriter mar-
ried to a non-Jewish woman in "Thirtysomething," ABC TV's Emmy-
winning series that returns for another season this month.
24 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1989
ALAN D. ABBEY
Special to The Jewish News
os Angeles — Iblevision has pro-
vided a home to creative and
talented Jews since the day it
started beaming into American
homes 40 years ago, but despite
a few notable instances, the vast majority
of Jews have been behind the scenes, not
before the cameras.
'Iblevision actors, producers and writers
say that many in the tight knit Holly-
wood community are unwilling to portray
Jews on the small screen because they are
inhibited by a complex series of fears
and beliefs.
Chief among the concerns is the one that
has existed in Hollywood since the days of
the Jewish movie moguls. Many in TV fear
criticism that their industry is run by
Jews.
"People here are very defensive about
charges that Jews run the entertainment
business," said writer Shimon Wincelberg.
"They can't control the names in the
credits, but there is a strict rationing on
the number of Jewish characters."
Wincelberg, who is Orthodox, has writ-
ten for television since the late 1950s. It
is a point of pride with him that he created
a Chasidic character on the old television
Western "Have Gun Will Travel."
But that character was one of the few
Jews Wincelberg was able to create for
television.
"There was this tremendous discomfort,"
he said in an interview in his home. "If
you put a Jewish name in a script, a pro-
ducer would suggest you make it a neutral
name."
Wincelberg also believes many in the
entertainment business are rebelling
against their upbringing and bring a
rebel's dislike for religion to their careers.
"Their own attitudes toward their youth
and their origins play a role," Wincelberg
said.
Others knowledgeable about TV suggest
American demographics provide the cruel
but simple reason that Jews are rarely por-
trayed on the small screen.
Gene Secunda, a former executive at
several major advertising agencies, said
advertisers are reluctant to support pro-
grams featuring minority characters of any
type for fear of losing the mass audience.
Secunda, now a professor of _marketing
at Baruch College in New York, said adver-
tisers control television and they care more
for statistical and demographic analyses
than for creative ideas.
But several well-known Hollywood fig-
ures said demographics play a secondary
role to the discomfort many Jewish exec-
utives and producers in Hollywood feel
about their own Jewishness.
"Deep down inside people think it will
hurt their careers to be identified as
Jewish," said Charles Powell, a longtime
studio executive.
Said Powell, who helped found the Syna-
gogue for the Performing Arts in Holly-