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crazy about the relationship;'
and that most of those calls
have been from Jewish
viewers.
Locally, "Chicken Soup"
also has generated numerous
complaints to the Anti-
Defamation League, accord-
ing to its Michigan regional
director, Richard Lobenthal.
He says his group is in the
process of examining the
show's issues as part of its
media committee.
A viewer's enjoyment of
"Chicken Soup" seems to de-
pend almost entirely on his
fondness for Mason, whose in-
imitable persona dominates
the show. Ken Rochlen, a
stockbroker 'from Bloomfield
Hills, likes what he's seen so
far.
"That's his shtick," says
Rochlen of the Mason
delivery. "You either get it or
you don't." If anyone should
be offended by the early
episodes, it should be the
Catholics, Rochlen says. "I
- didn't like Lynn (Redgrave,
who plays Maddie with an
Irish brogue). It was like (the
show) was trying too hard to
make them look like a conflic-
ting couple." But for all his
reservations, Rochlen still
finds "Chicken Soup" a "fun-
ny show that should appeal to
a wide audience."
You don't have to be Jewish
to critique "Chicken Soup."
Janice Morris, an advertising
production buyer from Pon-
tiac, brings a black viewer's
perspective when she com-
pares the outcry to protests
she remembers surrounding
"The Cosby Show" when it
first aired several years ago.
"Some blacks had said that
the Cosby family didn't reflect
real black families. They were
reacting to stereotypes." For
her part, Morris finds
"Chicken Soup" refreshing.
You can see something
besides black/white situa-
tions on television. It helps
people see different aspects of
Jews."
Neither Rochlen nor Morris
has the problem some viewers
have reported with the show
— that is, that they can't
understand Mason's rapid-fire
speech. To that end, the pro-
ducers have stated that it can
take the uninitiated about
five minutes to catch on to the
comic's distinct delivery. In
fact, they think Jackie-esque
catch phrases (like "dis is fan-
tastic") will soon sweep the
country.
That's both good and bad
news, according to Alan
Bayer, the director of In-
t ergroup Relations at the
Anti-Defamation League's
New York headquarters.
While he's encouraged by the
more prominent Jewish
themes in television, Bayer
finds it regrettable that "we
still use stereotypes to
highlight our differences."
Bayer, for one, thinks
Mason is going overboard in
his characterization in search
of laughs. "Ethnic humor in-
variably ends up with people
being hurt;' he says.
For all the publicity sim-
mering in "Chicken Soup,"
the series is just one of several
featuring
interfaith
romances. For example, the
ADL reprts no formal protests
against the Jewish male
characters on the dramas
"LA Law" and "thir-
tysomething" who have mar-
ried gentile women. Indeed,
these series have taken ad-
vantage of religious conflicts
to spark plot lines in the same
way "Chicken Soup" does.
On "LA Law" the Jewish
man, Markowitz, faces down
his openly anti-Semitic
mother-in-law in one episode.
In another segment, the in-
terfaith marriage is called in-
to question when the couple
seeks to adopt a child. The
"thirtysomething" marriage
of Michael and Hope has pro-
mpted the annual "Christ-
mas vs. Hannukah" show as
the couple decide what and
how to celebrate with their
child.
And on ABC, the network of
"Chicken Soup," the schedule
also includes a sit-coin called
"A n ything But Love," in
whi eh two magazine writers
(he' s Jewish, she's not),
eng age in the kind of platonic
cour tship that also fuels
Jack ie and Maddie's
relat ionship.
Th e main difference be-
twee n these couples and the
"Chi cken Soup" pair is that
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