‘Equalizer’ Episode Draws Fire From Deaf

Acoalition of organizations for the deaf and hearing-impaired has launched a letter-writing campaign to block the airing of an episode of CBS-TV’s “The Equalizer” in which a hearing actress portrays a hearing-impaired character.

“We are all sick and tired of this particular form of discrimination,” Tony Award-winning actress Phyllis Frelich says in editorials airing on the Silent Network, a basic-cable service for the deaf.

“They say they could not find a hearing-impaired actress capable of carrying the role. We know better. We know well the many talented actors and actresses who have represented our people so well in recent years. . . . By their actions, they tell us that we’re not good enough to play our own roles. For the dignity and respect of us all, we ask that this episode not be shown on television.”

A CBS spokesman said Tuesday that the network intends to air the episode as scheduled March 8 and that it had no response to the coalition’s complaints.

In the episode, a string of robberies and assaults against hearing-impaired people prompts a deaf woman to contact the Equalizer (series star Edward Woodward), who ends up saving the woman and her hearing-impaired fiance from murder.

Jim McAdams, executive producer of the series, said Tuesday that the producers did audition many deaf actresses in the New York area for the role of the woman who seeks out the Equalizer, but could not find one “who was right for the role.” They finally settled on Cynthia Nixon, a hearing actress.

McAdams said they did cast a hearing-impaired actor, Howie Seago, in the other leading guest role and several other deaf actors in supporting roles.

“We did earnestly look for a hearing-impaired person,” McAdams insisted in a phone interview from his New York office. “If we didn’t consider any deaf actresses, if we slammed the door in their face, then they’d have a point.

“I’m sorry if we offended anyone. I’m sorry that they are taking it this way,” he continued. “But I think their charges are unfounded and unfair. We’ve done everything we could to make the episode as authentic and sensitive as we could.”

He added that he believes the program “makes a positive statement about breaking down the walls of communication between the deaf and the hearing world.”

Though McAdams said he has explained his position to Frelich and others who have written to him, the coalition--composed of the National Association of the Deaf, the Greater Los Angeles Counsel on Deafness and the Association of Hearing-Impaired Performers--is still calling on all concerned to write to McAdams and CBS Entertainment President Kim LeMasters “so that they will understand better the full measure of our anger.”

“Would anybody even consider hiring a white actress to paint her face black and pretend to be black?” Frelich asked. “Of course not. Then why do they do the same thing to us? Why must we be subjected to this insulting and demeaning discrimination? . . . If all of us write, we can stop them.”

McAdams said that Frelich’s public outrage was “unfortunate” because it will probably only serve to discourage other television producers from “tackling pieces about handicapped people.”