South-Central Tunes Itself In : Residents of the Area Give Mixed Reviews to New TV Show About Family’s Struggles

The critics may be lavishing praise on Fox’s new television series “South Central,” but many real-life residents of the area gave the Tuesday night premiere mixed reviews.

“I’m ambiguous about it,” said Bobby Glanton Smith, a consultant for the Marcus Garvey School. “It was intriguing enough that I would watch more episodes, but it had somewhat troubling stereotypical aspects, particularly the son who seemed lazy and had no direction. Hopefully the characters will develop in later episodes.”

Smith’s guarded optimism reflected the doubts shared by other South-Central viewers about the portrayal of the fictional Mosley family, headed by a single mother struggling with unemployment and parenthood. In contrast to glowing notices from newspapers such as the New York Times and USA Today, which raved that its attempt to portray reality “succeeds wildly,” residents were less than enthusiastic.

The Brotherhood Crusade, which had praised the pilot episode in a letter written last year to the producers, withdrew its support Wednesday in a letter sent to the show’s creators, Ralph Farquhar and Michael Weithorn. The group said they were offended by the show’s content and wanted it turned into an “accurate” reflection of the community.

Danny Bakewell, president of Brotherhood Crusade, said he had not seen the show, even though he signed the letter of support sent last year. That letter, Bakewell said, had been written by a former employee who “took it upon himself to speak on behalf of myself and the Brotherhood Crusade.”

Bakewell said he understood from group members that the show contained “a number of age-old stereotypical concepts and phrases” that were “packaged into a 1994 version of ‘Amos and Andy.’ ” He said he was opposed to references to “nappy hair” and the use of the word bitch. He also said he was offended by a punch line used by the teen-age daughter in the series: “Nothing gets me going like the smell of gunpowder in the morning.”

The pilot episode introduced the Mosleys--mother Joan, daughter Tasha, son Andre and foster son Deion--as a family living on the edge. The mother (portrayed by Tina Lifford) has been out of a job for more than a month and is desperately seeking work; teen-age Andre (Larenz Tate) is showing signs of rebellion by buying a beeper; Tasha (Tasha Scott) is clamoring for a jacket her mother cannot afford.

Some viewers thought the episode rang false, too overburdened with sociological problems to allow the characters to let their guards down and function simply as a family. Others acknowledged the reality of those problems but didn’t necessarily think it made good television. A few sided with critics and thought “South Central” managed to strike a balance between the good, the bad and the mythological.

“I was put off in the first few minutes of the show, especially when the daughter joked about smelling gunpowder every morning,” said Dwight Domingue, 35, a lifelong South-Central resident. “But as it unfolded, I found myself getting involved, because I could relate to the situation in the show.

“Not everyone in South-Central can relate to a similar experience, and when I was growing up it was not like it is now,” Domingue said. “But the condition of the ‘hood has gotten to that point. Unfortunately, the show was realistic, right down to the bars on the windows.”

Cheryl Trice, a single mother of three, said that the show echoed real life and may have even underplayed the grittiness a bit. “But I don’t feel we need a weekly reminder of what’s going on in South-Central,” said Trice, 37, a resident of the Crenshaw district. “It’s depressing to see a black family talking about food stamps, not having money to buy things. It’s a reminder of what I go through all the time. Why would I want to see that on TV?”

Weithorn said that because of the dearth of realistic shows depicting African Americans, the series is being unfairly criticized for not being all things to all people.

“The problem is not really the show, but the fact that any black show that comes along has to bear this burden,” he said. “The show reflects one reality--a single mother’s household--that does exist. We spent a lot of time with people in South-Central and tried to portray situations accurately and honestly.”

“We really believe that we did an honest rendering,” said co-creator Farquhar. “And we don’t just dwell on the problems, on the dirty laundry.”

But Tamy Netherly, a 27-year-old single mother and student at Los Angeles Trade Tech, agreed with Trice. “I didn’t like it,” she said. “It was depressing, not motivating in any way. I especially didn’t like the scene in the grocery store, when the mother had to put things back on the shelf because she didn’t have enough cash. Why couldn’t she have gone on and finished USC? Why did she have to drop out of school?”

Netherly also said using words such as bitch and nappy-headed was offensive. “People were laughing, but to me there was nothing to laugh at,” she said.

Trice said the teen-age son was too ill-mannered to be convincing--particularly in using the word bitch in the household--although her 14-year-old son Kelvin said Tate, and the show in general, were generally true to form.

“I know a lot of guys . . . who talk like that,” he said. “I liked it a lot better than (the television show) ‘Martin’ because it seemed more real.”

In his letter to Weithorn and Farquhar, Bakewell said he and other community leaders wanted to talk to the creators about changing the show into a program “that accurately reflects the community which you have chosen to write about.” He also said the letter “serves notice that the types of intolerable images depicted in your present show will be met with vehement opposition.”

In response to Bakewell’s criticism, Weithorn said, “We were always interested in hearing input from any relevant individuals or groups, but what we are doing could be philosophically irreconcilable with the agenda of various individuals and groups. We’re not about to fundamentally change what the show is.

“We’re proud of the show,” he said. “We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response. The comments by Danny Bakewell and others do not seem to reflect the comments of the general audience of the show.”

Some community members had blasted the show during a screening of the pilot last week at 20th Century Fox. Many in the audience said they thought the show reflected negatively on the community.

The national ratings for the premiere scored a 21% increase in total households watching during the 8 p.m. time slot for the Fox network. Nationally and locally the show outperformed NBC’s “Good Life” but lost to “Full House” on ABC and “Rescue 911” on CBS.

Reality versus perception made for a lively round-table discussion at the Van Ness Avenue home of Gerald and Cassandra Clark, who watched the premiere along with their three children and two neighbors. Everything, from the show’s vague geography to its opening theme song that flashed images of streets that were not in South-Central, was dissected.

“Focusing on the teen-age boy and his problems was in itself wrong and misleading,” said Cassandra Clark, 40, a community activist who has led the fight to limit the number of liquor stores in South-Central. “There was too little discipline . . . the mother seemed to have no authority, no foundation as a parent. And she out-and-out lied to a potential employer about her qualifications so she could get a job.”

Gerald Clark was more forgiving. “It gave you something to think about,” he said. “My overall impression of it was that it was pretty positive. . . . It was fairly accurate except for the absence of the male figure in the house. Once again you had a black family, but a broken one. And the profanity was not acceptable for prime time.”