I CLOSE-UP
"CHICKEN SOUP" •
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SUSAN SALTER
Special to The Jewish News
stranger in a
strange land,
Jackie Fisher
roams the living
room of his girl-
friend's brother. A moose
head is mounted above the
mantlepiece.
Bagged it myself, the
brother brags. He looks at
Jackie. "Do you hunt?"
"Jews don't hunt," Jackie
sniffs. "We shop. This way we
could buy whatever we want
to eat, and we don't have to
hang up the leftovers on the
wall?'
Is America ready for Jackie
Fisher? That's the question —
and the controversy — behind
"Chicken Soup," a situation
comedy that recently debuted
on ABC. Slotted on Tuesday
night after the network's
powerhouse hit "Roseanne,"
"Chicken Soup" was one of
the most highly touted new
series this season. But some
A
"Chicken Soup"
was one of
the most
highly touted
new series
this season.
viewers would just as much
like "Chicken Soup" to
change its act — or leave the
air.
The comedy stars veteran
comedian Jackie Mason as
Jackie Fisher, a 52-year-old
New York Jewish bachelor,
living with his mother, who
engages in a casual romance
with his next-door neighbor,
an Irish-Catholic widow nam-
ed Maddie. But their relation-
ship must bear the wrath of
both Jackie's mother ("Call
up a nice Jewish girl and go
to the movies," she demands)
and Maddie's brother, the Ar-
chie Bunker-ish Michael. The
fact that Jackie just quit his
job as a pajama salesman to
join Maddie in her job as a
social worker adds fire to the
conflict.
Any underlying anti
28
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1989
Jackie Mason is the star of a controversial sit-corn.
Semitism, however, ("He's out
of work! He's not our kind of
person," Michael declares at
one point), dissolves in pure
sitcom style. In the "moose
head" episode, though Jackie
and Michael trade antago-
nistic barbs, they eventually
come to a detente over a game
of cards.
distinguishes
What
"Chicken Soup" from the raft
of other sitcoms is Jackie's
heavily "Jewish" identity.
Pulled almost entirely from
Mason's popular monologs,
the Jackie character seems a
stereotypist's dream — a
squat, paunchy, aggressive
philsopher who shrugs
through his lines with Yid-
dish inflections underlying a
pronounced New York twang.
Then there are the inter-
faith, multi-ethnic zingers
that pepper "Chicken Soup"'s
broth. Informed that Maddie's
brother wishes she "would
dump the little Jewish guy,"
Jackie is assured by Maddie
that it doesn't mean Michael
doesn't like him. "I suppose
among the Irish this is a
tribute," Jackie replies. Some
viewers like this brand of
banter; others don't.
Among those who don't is
the vocal Jewish Defense
League, which started public-
ly protesting "Chicken Soup"
almost before the series had
its premier in September.
Citing "negative stereotyp-
ing" and "Jewish neb-
bishness," the organization
has vowed to attend every
"Chicken Soup" taping to
monitor the show's content.
In interviews, Mason has
maintained that it's Jews, not
gentiles, who find his persona
"too Jewish!'
Chief among the JDL's pro-
test is the interfaith relation-
ship at the show's core. James
Anderson, a public relations
coordinator for Carsey-
Werner Productions, which
produces "Chicken Soup" as
well as its lead-in "Roseanne:'
says that overall audience
response has been "wonder-
ful," while acknowledging,
"we are getting people not