wood: "They do not want to risk their
position by being identified as a Jew."
One expert who agreed with that blunt
assessment was Harvey Schechter, director
of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation
League in southern California.
Schechter said it has always been diffi-
cult to round up Hollywood actors or exec-
utives for Jewish charitable causes.
"Where do their charitable hours go?"
Schechter asked of Hollywood's Jews. He
said a few major Hollywood personages
have always been active in Jewish causes.
Thlevision personality Monty Hall, studio
chief Sherry Lansing and director Arthur
Hiller are standouts, he said.
But on the whole, he said, "It's easier for
someone to be active for the homeless than
for Ethiopian Jews or Soviet Jews."
Despite those bleak assessments, Jews
and Jewish characters have been featured
in numerous television programs over the
years.
One of the earliest series on television
was "The Goldhergs," which was a carry-
over of a radio series of the 1940s. Moshe
Waldoks, a Jewish studies scholar from
Boston, said "The Goldbergs" accurately
depicted the tensions between the second
generation of American-born Jews and
their parents.
"There was a husband and an uncle in
the garment business and a daughter who
wanted a nose job," Waldoks said. But he
lamented that it was the first — and last
— show to feature a full Jewish family as
the main characters.
Other early shows where Jews were fea-
tured included the long-running 1950s
comedy "Car 54," which depicted a Jewish
character, a police officer named Leo
Schnauser.
Such talents as Mel Brooks, Woody
Allen and Sid Caesar played important
roles in television in the 1950s and 1960s
on "Your Show of Shows."
In the 1970s, television tried for a break-
through show, "Bridget Loves Bernie," in
which a Jewish man and his Catholic wife
were the featured players. But that show
lasted only one season.
Such serious-minded television films as
"Holocaust," "A Woman Called Golda,"
and "War and Remembrance" have ex-
plored Jewish themes and issues in recent
years.
But some point out that Jews are more
often seen on television as victims than as
heroes.
"What Hollywood and TV does is por-
tray Jews as weak and perpetuates the
image of the Jew as someone who needs a
non-Jew to go to battle for him," said the
ADL's Schechter. The exception to that
rule, he said, is Israelis, who are uniformly
portrayed as fighters.
Another complaint heard often in Holly-
wood is that Jewish actors are not per-
mitted to play Jewish characters.
"TV takes Jewish actors and gives them
non-Jewish names," Schechter said. "Jack
Klugman becomes Quincy. Peter Falk is
Colombo. What would be wrong with him
being Weinstein or Cohen?"
Such Jewish actors as Gene Barry,
Beatrice Arthur, William Shatner and
Edward Asner have had few opportunities
to play Jewish characters over the years.
But things are changing in the world of
television. In the last few years several
daytime soap operas have featured Jewish
characters. Leah Laiman, who is Orthodox,
wrote a story line that included an Ortho-
dox wedding, for "General Hospital."
Last year, an episode of the award-
winning show "The Wonder Years," cap-
tured the imagination by depicting a bar
mitzvah with charm and accuracy. The
messages implicit in that episode, accord-
ing to Jewish scholar Waldoks, was of the
importance of carrying on tradition and
continuity through the generations.
These shows may not have been evidence
of a change in attitudes, but many believe
a new generation of Jewish actors, writers
and producers feels freer to work on Jewish
characters and themes.
The 1989-1990 television shows will fea-
ture as many Jewish characters as any in
recent years.
William Finkelstein, a supervising pro-
ducer and writer at "L.A. Law," said in an
interview TV has become less homoge-
neous in its approaches to people it is will-
ing to portray.
"Part of that is that TV is maturing," he
said. "People are tired of doing shows
where they saw only a perfect, composite
American life."
Comedian and actor Richard Lewis, who
is co-starring in a new weekly television
series this fall, put the same feelings in a
more humorous way. "People will now let
a Jew into their living rooms," he said.
Lewis will portray magazine writer
Marty Gold in "Anything But Love," which
will run on ABC.
Lewis said in an interview on the set of
his show he has never been uncomfortable
about portraying his Jewishness on stage
and screen.
"It's important to have your essence
come out in what you do," Lewis said in a
rare serious moment. "I won't be repressed
in this role."
The show's co-producer, Robert P.
Myman, said the character of Marty Gold
was not originally created as Jewish, but
has evolved into a Jew since Lewis was
given the role.
Lewis said he has made the character
more closely resemble his own comedic —
and Jewish — persona.
"I certainly have been called a Jewish
humorist and I am proud of the label," he
said. "But I am not as ethnic as all that.
I deal with therapy, religion, health. An
Amish person can relate to that."
One show last spring featured Gold's
mother, a stereotypical but funny domi-
Comedian and actor Richard Lewis co-stars in a new series called
"Anything But Love" on ABC-TV this season. He plays a magazine writer
named Marty Gold.
Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry, who are husband and wife offscreen,
return to NBC-TV's prize-winning "L.A. Law" series for another season as
partners in a mixed marriage.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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