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“Be fair.” That’s what The New Normal creator Ryan Murphy said 20th Century Fox TV and NBC execs told him about doing an episode of the NBC sitcom from a Republican perspective. The episode, “Obama’s Mama”, airs tonight. “You have two gay clearly liberal guys at the heart of the show. We all collectively thought it would be great to do an episode where you presented Ellen’s point of view, the conservative point of view, the Republican point of view that hopefully was eloquent and was given equal time,” Murphy said today during a conference call about the show, about a gay couple having a baby through a surrogate. Ellen Barkin plays June, the conservative 58-year-old grandmother of the surrogate (played by Georgia King).
“I didn’t want to do a 100% pro-Obama episode, even though that’s where my political interests lie,” said Murphy, who back in June held a $40,000-per-couple dinner for President Obama’s re-election campaign at his Beverly Hills home. Tonight’s show “was influenced and inspired by my love of Norman Lear and the stuff I grew up watching,” he noted, adding that the episode is “the sweet spot of where I’d like the show to go.” Like Lear’s All In The Family, the show not only is trying to show differing political points of view but touch on hot-topic issues — in this case, race, abortion and Muslims. “I think it is a brave, honest examination of the world,” Murphy said.
Related: Ellen Barkin Says Utah NBC Affiliate Dropping Of ‘The New Normal’ Is “Censorship”
Murphy also said today that Marlo Thomas is joining The New Normal in its 10th episode playing a real estate agent and June’s mentor. “We’re also doing a really great Halloween episode, which I think is really interesting and wonderful, which pays homage to Honey Boo Boo,” Murphy said, teasing another upcoming episode.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
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Yeah. PURE LEFTY PROPAGANDA! Honestly, as someone who started watching ‘Glee’, it wan’t long before it became clear it’s storylines and character-digs were a CLEAR SWIPE at the right (waaaay behond the gay angle, too).
Realy, norman lear, as much of a lefty as he was too, know how to balance. Where Archie was a character who one could’t help but love, any Republican/conservatives from Murphy’s creations are simply two-dimensional scarecrows to poke fun at.
Frankly, if you want political balance in TV drama, go for ANYTHING Greg Berlanti. Evrrwood, Brothers & Sisters, and the short-lived Jack & Bobby all proved you could have real Republican characters, and issue-drivwn plotlines without demonizing the right…
I just knew the Little Edie bit is an early sign of how this show will play out. Ryan Murphy eats some weird food, has a bad campy dream and wakes up screaming the contents to a team of writers who then work it into the show.
“We’re doing Valley of the Dolls this week!”
“We’re doing an homage to Day of the Locust. I want Karen Black in this episode as well.”
“Will the dogfood scene from Showgirls get past network censors?”
The show is terrible. The character’s are more like caricatures. No one is likeable or fully fleshed out.
I’m moving to Salt Lake City just to get away from this awful show.
I was so excited for this show, but it is almost completely unwatchable. Just a train wreck of unfunny-ness.
What’s the matter people, Hollywood not treating you so well? This show is an honest portrayal of one couple and their surrogates life. True, it should probably be less gay but let’s let the folks on charge figure that out. It’s Ryan Murphy. He’s a smart guy. He knows not everything in this world is gay. He’s telling the story he wants. Are you able to do that?
1st. It’s not an honest portrayal of anything. It’s a made up TV show. The least it could do is be funny, but it’s not. 2nd. Ryan may know that, ‘not everything in the world is gay.’ But he sure seems to make shows like he wishes it was. 3rd. ‘He’s telling the story he wants,’ unfortunately not very well. As fewer and fewer people watch/tolerate it. 4th and finally. No I’m not able to do it, ‘yet.’ Because people like Ryan (with past success) will always get the first shot at making a show, no matter how bad or unwatchable it is.
An honest portrayal… LOL Jen, you idiot.
I’m as lefty as they come and actually like the grandmother’s point of view (maybe I’m not really lefty, LOL). They gave Ellen Barkin the best lines in the pilot. She’s the only reason to watch, IMO. I’d totally watch an episode from her perspective.
I’m gayer than Paul Lynde’s hairpiece, but I am SO over Ryan Murphy. His work is the very definition of “coprophagic.” Recycling of recycling of recycling of watered down ideas.
“Gayer than Paul Lynde’s hairpiece” is a line any writer could be proud of.
This show is repellent in every way. Ryan had a chance to show real gay men but instead he went for cliche’d stereotypes, shallow and artificial. Ellen Barkin is a shrieking harpy a maniac a crazed Tea Party cardboard cutout. This show would be better if it just focused on Georgia and her daughter moving to Santa Monica and starting over. The way it is now it offends everyone because it’s so fake just like Murphy. He is not capable of writing real characters they are all so over the top. And his hatred of lesbians is truly disgusting. Why does Ali Adler let Ryan get away with such crap?
After reading Barkin’s republican bashing rant on twitter during the RNC Convention, I wouldn’t watch this if they had Rush Limbaugh as a guest star.
Wait…if you’re a rightie, why would you be reading Barkin’s Twitter feed? Going out of your way to be outraged, I guess.
Republican point of view? You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!
I’ve never seen the show…don’t plan on seeing it, but I must say that the new buzz word seems to be “brave”. “I think it is a brave, honest examination of the world,” Murphy said……Oh, whatever. You don’t know what brave is.
shouldn’t comedies be… what’s the word I’m looking for? FUNNY? This show makes Damages appear like a screw ball comedy.
well at least we didn’t have to suffer through the promise of a good first season of a Ryan Murphy show only to be blindsided by his all too familiar sophomore laziness. The new normal is bad from the start. No commitments necessary.
Well, tonight’s the night it goes up against some real competition, so let the ratings slide begin. It won’t be long for this world, no matter how much of a PR spin its makers try to put on it. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression!
Well all u right-wingers should be beyond excited with tonights episode. It sounds like it was written by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. I heard this was coming and that Fox told Murphy to be fair in his portrayal of republicans but this is ridiculous. They make the right views sound and the left seem fake, pretentious, self-serving and obnoxious. Horrible episode. The show may have lost me.
You are a bad liberal if you really thought that the show favored the Republican view.
Amazing considering Ryan has said, and i quote verbatim “The New Normal is going to change the face of television”
yup.
-RnsW
i’m pretty liberal and it was still so obvious to me that the episode was super pro-obama despite the pro-romney character. it was blatant that the republican character was a crazy caricature and i know so many level-headed conservatives who would be offended that someone like her is what ryan murphy considers to be an “eloquent” defender of the GOP. also, one of the gay partners works on a “glee”-like show called “sing”. real high points for creativity there. i really wanted to like this show, but those political debates just got so boring.