The first episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie aired this evening on CBC.
CBC has high hopes...
The show, a comedy about Muslims trying to interact with their small-town neighbours in a fictional Canadian prairie town called Mercy, has been written up in the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle, with CNN and Stephen Colbert, the fake late-night talk-show host, also taking notice.
Crossposted at: The Next Agenda
It is the creation of Zarqa Nawar whose entertainment career began in 1996 with her film debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. BBQ Muslims was about two hapless Muslim brothers who are suspected of terrorism when their BBQ explodes. It was inspired by the first response to the Oklahoma City bombing, suspicion of Muslims, although eventually it was connected to Timothy McVeigh.
Little Mosque is a gentle comedy told from the perspective of a small rural Canadian Muslim community. I've already read some blog reaction that criticizes the show for not taking on the bigotry of the Muslim community and not confronting the anti-Israel stance that must surely be in the hearts of the characters. But enough about people who can't tell the difference between fact and fiction, comedy and commentary.
In the first episode a scheming roofing contractor has finally been able to attract a young, rather naive Toronto Imam, Amaar, to his small community. Their little mosque is established in the basement of the almost congregation free Anglican Church with a bit of unnecessary deception. Eight more episodes have been ordered with rumors of a second season in hand.
I'm no TV critic. I enjoyed the first episode and I'd like to think the televison universe is big enough to give this series the audience it deserves. How is success measured in television today?
In 1975 the BBC aired a 12 episode series that would later be chosen by the British Film Institute as the #1 televison program of all time, of course it is Fawlty Towers. I don't suppose Fawly Towers would be made today. Certainly not in the USA.
The short series is a specialty of the BBC. Among their "ethnic" comedies I've always enjoyed shows like Desmond's, the story of a Guyanese immigrant whose barbershop is the neighborhood meeting place for the African diaspora.
More recently Canadian television producer Leda Serene Films created an "ethnic" Church based series Lord Have Mercy The link is to a review on the Toronto based South Asian website My Bindi.
Lord Have Mercy! , set at the fictional Mt. Zion, a Caribbean storefront church office on Eglinton Street West, centres on the friction between the ambitious Youth Pastor Gooding ( Arnold Pinnock ), his senior counterpart, Pastor Cuthbert Stevens (Dennis Hall) and the array of eccentrics and misfits who congregate there.
This new production is a groundbreaking attempt to portray multi-culturalism in Canadian television, specifically sit-coms. According to series director Frances-Anne Soloman, "the show is the first of its kind in Canada and it's about time," Solomon, who founded her Toronto-based production company Leda Serene Films in 1990, is known for placing people of colour in front of and behind the camera. "We are delighted to be breaking ground in Canada, working with broadcasters and Telefilm to bring Canada's diversity to the small screen in strong original Canadian comedy,"
The Lord Have Mercy! cast features Jamaican star and icon Leonie Forbes, Trinidadian comedian Dennis "Sprangalang" Hall, accomplished aboriginal actor Gary Farmer, as well as local talent including actor Arnold Pinnock as Pastor Dwight Gooding and DJ Shawn Singleton of Toronto's Baby Blue Soundcrew. In his first principal television role Singleton plays Kent, a beloved grandson and musician. Kent struggles with balancing his life in the church with his life in the music business.
It aired in 2003 on Vison TV and has been seen since on Aboriginal People's TV Network in Canada.
Isn't it time for televison to produce more diversity? More quality?
Otherwise we're stuck with Bruce's dilemma from 15 years ago.
Bruce Springsteen 1992
57 Channels and nothin' on
I bought a bourgeois house in the Hollywood hills
With a trunkload of hundred thousand dollar bills
Man came by to hook up my cable TV
We settled in for the night my baby and me
We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn
There was fifty-seven channels and nothin' on