BET's New Reality Series 'Baldwin Hil... Log Out | Topics | Search
Moderators | Register | Edit Profile

Email This Page

  AddThis Social Bookmark Button

AALBC.com's Thumper's Corner Discussion Board » Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2007 » BET's New Reality Series 'Baldwin Hills' « Previous Next »

Author Message
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya

Post Number: 6187
Registered: 07-2006

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2007 - 07:18 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Lives of the spoiled and the spoiling to make it.

By Jon Caramanica,
Special to The Times
July 8, 2007




"I have no problem with the Hills," 18-year-old Staci assures on this week's premiere of BET's reality series "Baldwin Hills." "They have a problem with me."

Like many outsiders — Staci is the lone female cast member who doesn't live in the titular neighborhood — she is a bit defensive and too proud to really admit it, instead passing judgment on the show's better-heeled girls by feigning disinterest. "Let them do what they do," she says. "Be bougie."

If she is meant to be the voice of reason on "Baldwin Hills" (BET, 10 p.m. Tuesdays), she has accepted a fool's task. Clearly inspired by MTV's "Laguna Beach," "Baldwin Hills" follows a handful of teens who live in and around the so-called black Beverly Hills. "Not all black people live in the ghetto," goes the show's intro. "This is our 'hood — big houses, manicured lawns, amazing vistas."

Or, put more succinctly by Ashley: "When we go shopping for a party, we do it big."

The Unusually Entitled Young Person has become a familiar TV trope in recent years, but save for reruns of "The Cosby Show" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," black teens in this income bracket are largely absent. (Another rare exception is MTV's routinely glorious "My Super Sweet 16," which is equal opportunity in its selection and presentation of spoiled young people.)

The innovations of "Baldwin Hills" stop there, though — these kids are, by and large, just as frivolous as their peers down the 405. They attend parties (thrown by Jordan, one of their own), shop at Christian Audigier (except for Staci, who, natch, shops at Rainbow) and inch tentatively toward romantic mismatches.

But these kids seem particularly conscious of the cameras — even though they are often placed at a distance, as in "Laguna Beach" — and their descriptive voice-overs sound stiff and scripted. They're not wholly at ease, as if they're still carrying some of the burden of representation of their parents' generation — a weight the white kids of "Laguna Hills" never needed to bother themselves with.

Auditioning with Diddy...


Full Article: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-ca-monitor8jul08,1,5275489.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews&track=crosspromo
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya

Post Number: 6189
Registered: 07-2006

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Monday, July 09, 2007 - 12:46 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Network for Blacks Broadens Its Schedule

By FELICIA R. LEE
Published: July 9, 2007


Though no one would accuse BET of suddenly going highbrow, “Baldwin Hills,” which begins tomorrow night at 10, and “Exalted!,” a biography series starting in the fall that will focus on ministers, help answer the long criticism that BET fails to mirror the complexity of black life.

“This is the largest aggregation of black programming in television history,” said Mr. Hudlin, a 45-year-old Harvard graduate who came to BET in 2005, having made a name as a director. His films include “Boomerang” and “House Party,” and he directed the pilot for “Everybody Hates Chris,” the hit television series inspired by the life of the comedian Chris Rock.

“We’re developing a class of creators that will develop the next generation of stars who will transform the game,” Mr. Hudlin said, sitting in his sunny office decorated with superhero dolls and photographs of his young daughter. “Unless you make institutional changes, things aren’t going to be made.”

He continued: “Where’s the black David Kelley or Dick Wolf? That’s how we’re going to grow at BET. The model is Motown.”

The network, which says it reaches about 85 million homes, has an 18 percent nonblack audience, and its core viewers are 18 to 34 years old.

“They are working toward finding a balance,” Mark Anthony Neal, director of the Institute for Critical U.S. Studies at Duke University, said of BET’s new shows. Professor Neal, who teaches black popular culture, predicted that at a network geared toward mostly young people, in a television landscape that shuns complexity, “the analysis is never going to be in-depth, but at least they will begin touching on different subjects.”

The new shows come as television can no longer depend simply on demographics for audience loyalty, said R. Thomas Umstead, the programming editor for Multichannel News, a publication that provides cable-television news and analysis. “African-Americans are not monolithic. They are not going to sit and watch one channel all day long.”



Full Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/arts/television/09bet.html?ref=business
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya

Post Number: 6203
Registered: 07-2006

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 - 09:14 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Advertisers pull out of Ghetto Mess



Amid criticism that BET's upcoming series Hot Ghetto Mess promotes racial stereotypes, State Farm Insurance and Home Depot have yanked ads from the premiere episode, which will air at 10:30 p.m. EST on July 25, as well as from a webpage on BET.com touting the program. Hot Ghetto Mess is a compilation of viewer-submitted home videos and BET-produced man-on-the-street segments showing black people said to be exhibiting excessive hip-hop and inner-city culture. Charlie Murphy hosts all six episodes of the series. The Hot Ghetto Mess website has been a lightning rod for criticism since it launched three years ago, featuring hundreds of unflattering photos of mostly black men and women. BET and Jam Donaldson, creator of the website and executive producer of the series, say the projects are presented in a way intended to encourage black America to question its community standards. Critics say Mess simply perpetuates negative black stereotypes. The advertiser pull-out follows a campaign launched by the blog/podcast What About Our Daughters encouraging people to boycott advertisers of the series, listing a number of companies with ads on BET's website promoting the show. ''This is all a desperate attempt to catch up with their network cousin, VH1, home of Flavor of Love, I Love New York, and Charm School,'' the WAOD site states. ''Faced with the frightening possibility that the top-rated shows for blacks were all on another network, BET has attempted to one-up VH1 by racing farther and faster to the bottom.'' State Farm and Home Depot released statements acknowledging that they withdrew ads as a result of the boycott threat. (Hollywood Reporter)

Full Roundup:
20045241%2C00.html,http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20045241,00.html
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor

Post Number: 1699
Registered: 01-2006

Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!)

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 - 03:36 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Interesting his brother makes a movie demeaning Black women now Charly Murphy makes a movie about demeaning Black ppl. It seems to run in that family.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Nels
Veteran Poster
Username: Nels

Post Number: 863
Registered: 07-2005

Rating: 
Votes: 3 (Vote!)

Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 - 01:04 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

HGM? Nothin' but bluglies; black & ugly.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Sabiana
Regular Poster
Username: Sabiana

Post Number: 146
Registered: 08-2006

Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!)

Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 - 07:05 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Again with the negativity. I'm beginning to think you're

a.) a troll

b.) suffering from depression

c.) just a plain ass


Pick one Nels. I'm going with a.) and c.)
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Brownbeauty123
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Brownbeauty123

Post Number: 2060
Registered: 03-2006

Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!)

Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 - 09:22 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I don't think that he is a black person at all.

Topics | Last Day | Last Week | Tree View | Search | Help/Instructions | Program Credits Administration

Advertise | Chat | Books | Fun Stuff | About AALBC.com | Authors | Getting on the AALBC | Reviews | Writer's Resources | Events | Send us Feedback | Privacy Policy | Sign up for our Email Newsletter | Buy Any Book (advanced book search)

Copyright © 1997-2008 AALBC.com - http://aalbc.com