Monday, May 17, 2010

"Desperate Housewives" Done to Us, Deaf People Again!

Marc Cherry, the producer of ABC-TV's "Desperate Housewives" done again to us, deaf people by paternalistic attitude with the given dialogue - "Oh God, he's deaf!" by Mike Delfino character.

The storyline involved the deaf kid when the Susan and Mike character accidently sold M.J.'s favorite toy, "rubber dinosaur" to Roy, the elderly neighbor. M.J. asked where was his T-Rex??

Susan stumbled and told M.J. - "Remember that you put your unwanted toys in the "sell" pile?" M.J. asked the question "what is "sell" pile?" Susan said "Oops, we sold the T-Rex to Roy". Susan and Mike went to Karen McClusky's house where Karen and Roy, the elderly couple
live together.

Roy answered the door (you could see the 17.00 running time scene where the deaf kid appeared) as Roy's grandson). Yes, the ABC-TV.com finally caption its tv shows on the official ABC-TV website -
http://abc.go.com/watch/desperate-housewives/93513/261154/i-guess-this-is-goodbye?cid=fullepisodeaccess Forward (FF) to the 17:00 if you want to see the presence of deaf kid.

Danik Soundakoff, the California School for the Deaf, Riverside (CSDR) appeard very brief in less than 3 minutes as Roy's grandson. He held the T-Rex toy.

The real question about the questionable dialogue like "Oh God, he's deaf!" What you make out of this dialogue? Is that acceptable to you or what?

To me, that was not really necessary to say "Oh God, he's deaf!" Why can't the Mike Delfino character said something like "Oh well, another kid to be dealt with"? The presence of deaf people ought to be the "non-issue" and treated like everyone else, instead of being callous about the deaf kid.

Another question - "Will Roy's grandson be a regular character on ABC-TV's "Desperate Housewives" next television season?

For your information, Actor James Denton, who played Mike Delfino character. James' real-life uncle had been the principal of the Tennessee School for the Deaf. That's how the Carlos character had been temporarily blind on the "Desperate Housewives". The info about James' uncle being the principal of the TSB came from the Bonnie Hunt Show, the syndicated weekday talk show - http://www.bonniehunt.com/promos/2010/05/02/


ASLize yours,

Robert L. Mason (RLM)

RLMDEAF blog

rlmdeaf@hotmail.com
















1 comment:

  1. I question the reason for Deaf/HH actors accepting works on the show if that kind of attitude is displayed on the show.

    ReplyDelete