Saturday, January 20, 2007

Isaiah Washington - Dr. McBigot?

Wassup, Y'all!

My boy DLT thought it would be good for ol Ty to weigh in with his thoughts on this Isaiah Washington / Grey's Anatomy dust up and since I was already planning on posting my congrats to under appreciated show creator, Shonda Rhimes *and* since I was quick to jump in when Kramer (Michael Richards) put his foot in it at the Laugh Factory, I decided to take him up on that one. *Sigh*. No doubt Washington (aka I-Dub) turned this whole thing into a hot mess. Not only did he jack up Shonda's big night at the Golden Globes when the show won for Best TV Drama, he also ignorantly decided to spray gasoline on a smoldering issue that was well on its way to burning itself out...

Check that first link for all the actual factuals that you ever wanted to know about this ongoing controversy and Grey's Anatomy in general, y'all. I don't plan on rehashing that ruckus. At issue is I-Dub (who, coincidently, I never really liked - homey just strikes me as high maintenance and arrogant - both qualities that make him the perfect choice for his character, Preston Burke on Grey's...) had an onset dust up back in OCTOBER with Patrick Dempsey, arguable Grey's most popular star, dropped the gay slur F-word during the argument in reference to fellow cast member T.R. Knight and then resurrected the whole incident during the cast press conference at the Golden Globes after their big win by inexplicably refuting the known facts. Shonda needs to spank some a$$ on this one, y'all. Particularly since I-Dub was bold enough to jump in front of the mike when she was about to address a question so he could continue rolling his lie.

That he's a knucklehead, there is no doubt. He has no one but himself to blame for the firestorm burning brightly around him and, in my opinion, he did himself no favors by issuing an apology that seems genetically identical to ones issued earlier by Mel Gibson and Michael Richards for similar bigoted remarks. Damn - a knucklehead *and* unoriginal? Come on, I-Dub! At any rate, I expect him to make the rounds of shows like Ellen and The View to get the word out that he's hard at work reforming his thinking.

Here's what I think needs to happen provided Shonda isn't already hard at work writing his a$$ out of the show. Ol girl's got to still be steaming about all this. However, if she wants to address this ruckus head on, I suggest she work with the writers to pen a new story arc for I-Dub's character where Preston Burke is revealed to be a closet homophobe then, in an ironic twist, finds his career at Seattle Grace as a world class heart surgeon in the hands of a new, gay character and have him go through the process of examining and resolving his thinking in public for the viewing world to see...or just have him walking home late one night after his car breaks down and have him get jumped by the Village People and collect a world class beat down. Either one of those joints would be Must See TV. Seriously.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

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