Regarding the article recently posted on Yahoo! about the latest reality show scheduled by ABC “Welcome to the Neighborhood”.
My wife and I were looking forward to watching this new show given the ever present re-runs of the season, although we have been enjoying more “time” in our hiatus from our favorites.
Anyway, the premise is that a collection of families, as diverse as the next cast for The Real World try to win over their neighbors for a really nice house in Austin, TX suburbia. The show has been pulled based on concerns that the gay family wouldn’t be received as well as “Will and Grace” would have made us think was possible. However, this story is interesting because the show had complaints from both wings of the political spectrum. See, a conservative Christian group also had concerns over the way a Christian family would be portrayed as well.
That is my frustration with the cancellation. It seems to me that the complaints for both parties are probably close to “reality” and therefore should cancel each other out. I think the premise of the show was to illustrate how sometimes our stereotypical pre-conceived notions of people can be changed if we really get to know them.
What if the gay couple realized that much of the concern that may have been expressed by the Christian family is out of ignorance. Do I believe the gay lifestyle is wrong? Yes. But as strongly believe that the Christian expression of “love” to that community is far from right too. Maybe this would have been an opportunity for everyone (the audience included) to learn by example how the “real world” can live. We are all dysfunctional, which in my mind then makes us all normal too. So, let’s learn to understand our problems and get over them.
Now to throw another wrench into the post. Although I haven’t completely thought through the idea, I think I’d be attracted to a community/neighborhood where the immediate neighbors could accept/decline a person’s offer for a house. We all know what we mean when we say “There goes the neighborhood”. Now, I’m not being stereotypical by race or religion. I just want to see where you lived before and how well you’re going to take care of your new investment so you don’t bring down the value of mine!