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JEWISH page 79

§' several shows, Fox ven-
t >- tures full force ahead,
p tackling matters of death
, and mourning, anti-Semi-
and intermarriage.
Fox's "Beverly Hills
90210," for example, has
brought several Jewish
characters to the fore and
touched on religious is-
sues. Over seven seasons,
the two main Jewish
characters became ro-
mantically involved with
non-Jews.
Andrea Zuckerman
(Gabrielle Carteris), who
left the show a few sea-
sons back, was a charac-
ter with a strong Jewish
identification who became
pregnant during college.
She married the baby's fa-
ther, the Catholic Jesse
(Mark Espinoza), and
they raised their daughter in both
religions.
Currently, David Silver (Brian
Austin Green) is romantically
linked with Donna Martin (Tori
Spelling), also Catholic. David
identifies as Jewish, with a Jew-
ish father and non-Jewish moth-
er. He thinks Donna's parents
disapprove of their relationship
because of the couple's religious
differences.
In another episode, Kelly
(Jenny Garth) befriended a Jew-
ish AIDS patient. When he died,
she lit a yahrtzeit candle. An-
other time, a controversial, anti-
Semitic black leader came to
campus, and Andrea protested.
Her grandmother, a Holocaust
survivor, protested with her.
Bet you didn't know a cartoon
could be Jewish. Look no further
than "The Simpsons" for Krusty
the Clown, a.k.a. Herschel Krus-
tofsky (voice by Dan Castellaneta).
Many of the shows writers are
Jewish, which may explain the in-
credible accuracy and impressive
level of Jewish knowledge in the
episode "Like Father, Like
Clown." After the episode aired,
Fox was flooded with phone calls,
requesting copies of the episode
for Jewish organizations and mu-
seums, a spokesperson said.
Krusty's father, Rabbi Hyman
Krustofsky (voice by Jackie Ma-
son), disowns his son because he
aspires to a career as a clown.
The Jewish characters have
curly black tendrils, wear long
black coats and hats, study in a
yeshiva and live on the "lower east
side" of Springfield.
Krusty goes to the Simpsons'
house for dinner and becomes
depressed in the presence of a
united family; he misses his fa-
ther.
So Bart and Lisa approach the
rabbi, beseeching him to reconcile
with his son. They pepper their
arguments with talmudic phras-
es. Finally, the rabbi is convinced,
thanks to a quote from Sammy
Davis Jr. —"a Jewish entertain-
er, like your son," Bart says. ❑

a

8

Paul Reiser's NBC "Mad About You"
family isn't mad about revealing its
Jewishness. "Religion," says Reiser,
is "an issue he doesn't get into
comedically."

condo in Boca; she meets her idol,
Bette Midler, and comments on
Barbra Streisand; Fran gets in a
fight with a woman at Loeh-
mann's over a sweater on clear-
ance.
Yet the show has inspiring
moments. Fran and her mother,
played by Renee Taylor, host a
Passover seder, bringing Judaism
to Fran's adopted family. In an-
other episode, Fran dates her tem-
ple's eligible cantor. Never mind
that he leaves for Broadway with
the help of Fran's boss. The tem-
ple wants him back— so its mem-
bers get mad at Fran.
"Fran completely embraces her
stereotypical Jewish, female role,
is absolutely proud of it and
laughs at it," says the CBS spokes-
woman. "It's a situation comedy.
The writers take examples from
her life and personality and en-
rich them and embellish them and
treat them humorously. All done
in good taste and good fun — def-
initely a good example.
"The show has had no com-
plaints about the portrayal," the
spokeswoman adds.

M

eanwhile network
competitor ABC seems
to have a paucity of
identifiably Jewish
characters.
When ABC's Ellen (Ellen De-
Generes) came out of the closet on
"Ellen," she professed her love for
Susan Richman (Laura Dern).
The name may sound Jewish, but
coming out of the closet, not out of
the synagogue, was the name of
the game in that episode. An ABC
publicist says religion "was never
addressed."

ike NBC, Fox is loaded
with prime-time Jewish
characters. But while NBC
glosses over the Jewish-
ness of most of its characters, in

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