From a Stereotype, a Certain Seize-the-Day Bravura

Clearly Long Duk Dong is alive (and well?) -- as all great characters are. There's a particular thread in the comments on Monday's blog post that I'm really glad to see, since I didn't have a chance to really talk about it in the radio piece. As lyman put it:

I mean, c'mon - things are pretty crappy for him. Grandpa and Grandpa are treating him like [a] servant, the other kids and snotty brothers are laughing at him, but he goes out and has the time of his life.

Asian or not, Long Duk Dong might as well be a stand-in for "carpe diem." I certainly cannot claim, back in my time as an awkward teen terrified of the other sex, to have embraced life's opportunities the way he did. Sure, we all went to school with that guy who was such a dork, he didn't even realize it. But I confess: when that dork found love with another dork, and together they seemed happy, I was a bit jealous.

The icing on the cake here is a comment that's buried way down in the thread -- one with special relevance to Sixteen Candles:

To this day, when I walk in public, throughout the world, people will double-take, then stare, then smile and then yell, "Oh sexy girlfriend!"

That one made me do a double-take: It's from Debbie Pollack, whose first movie role was as Long Duk Dong's "sexy girlfriend!" She goes on to say some poignant stuff:

Like Gedde, I will forever be trying to break from a very strong and defined character. Yet, it is a character/stereotype, good or bad, that gives us moments to be who we are, actors. Love or hate the character, we are hired to do a job, interpret a writer's words and sometimes we get to make people laugh in how we do that.

From talking to Gedde Watanabe, I got a clear sense that he doesn't see himself just as an actor, but as a comic actor. And with Long Duk Dong, he did what actors are so often told to do: "Make it bigger!" He performed that role with a certain "seize the day" mentality -- and we remember the Donger, in part, because he succeeded.

--Alison MacAdam

3:50 PM ET | 03-28-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

 

On Air: Long Duk Dong

» Hear the 'All Things Considered' radio story

Blanche DuBois. Walter Mitty. Captain Ahab. We know, it's been feeling a little like school, maybe.

But just when you thought In Character had planted itself firmly in the literary alps, NPR's Alison MacAdam comes to the rescue with a look at an '80s character who's not so much famous as infamous: Long Duk Dong, the wacky exchange student in Sixteen Candles, the debut film from high-school-movie hero John Hughes.

Ali talks to Gedde Watanabe, the actor who caught no end of grief for playing what many see as an eye-popping example of Hollywood stereotyping.

Also heard in the piece: Giant Robot co-founders Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong. Like many Asian-American kids in the '80s, they grew up being hassled by classmates who'd seen the movie -- and who thought asking an Asian guy to say "Oh, sexy girlfriend!" was the height of wit.

Don't remember Long Duk Dong being that outrageous? I've got the incriminating evidence over on the story page. Enjoy ... though maybe that's not quite the right word.

-- Trey Graham

Bonus info: Did you know there's an '80s cover band called Long Duk Dong? In Kentucky, no less.

4:14 PM ET | 03-24-2008 | permalink | comments (19) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Zack Morris

From Good Morning, Miss Bliss and Saved by the Bell, created by Sam Bobrick
Nominated by Alejandra O'Leary

Zack Morris was both my hero and my heartthrob when I was growing up with television in the early 1990s. Sure, lots of girls wanted to kiss Zack, but I don't think there was any young Saved by the Bell fan of either sex who didn't want to be Zack Morris.

Conniving, blonde, lusty, morally impressionable, and ultimately vulnerable, Zack was the narrator of everyone's life on Saved by the Bell. He could manipulate the universe by calling a "Time out!", invent a "wave meets shave" hairstyle, meet D-list celebrities like Casey Kasem at a Dance Contest, have at least four "best friends" (Jessie, Slater, Screech, and Lisa) and charm the pants off of both his nemesis Principal Belding and the beautiful Kelly Kapowski. (Though he would never literally charm her pants off!)

In Zack's world, a kiss is the apex of all satisfaction. Zack Morris proved that you can be innocent and impressionable, but also intelligent, dynamic, and thrilling, all at the same time. He is the Puck of my generation.

Tags: Comedy | Coming of Age | TV | Teens

10:49 AM ET | 03-18-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

On Air: Jack Bauer

» Hear the 'Morning Edition' radio commentary

Here it is: The one you've been waiting for since, oh, at least Jan. 14.

NPR's homeland security correspondent Pam Fessler, who usually covers real-world developments in national security, goes digging for answers about why 24's corner-cutting patriot Jack Bauer inspires fanboy crushes on both ends of the political spectrum. (You gotta wonder what it is about a serial torturer, however fictional, whose admirers include both an ACLU mucky-muck and the boss-man at the DHS.)

Fessler, being an actual reporter, gets both men on tape -- we critics, having been diligent English Lit students, tend to just riff on what we think the likely answers are -- and also talks with civilian fan Stephanie "Melia" Romanski of 24addict.com and 24 co-creator Bob Cochran.

And with an assist from Fessler's producer, Felix Contreras, I've put a handful of Season 3 clips on the page for you.

Enjoy.

-- Trey Graham

5:36 PM ET | 03-17-2008 | permalink | comments (12) | e-mail post

 

On Air: Catwoman

» Hear the 'Weekend Edition Sunday' radio commentary

NPR's Allison Keyes takes a look at the ever-alluring Catwoman. The lady in the black suit may have made her debut nearly 70 years ago, but you'd never know it, what with her new outfit, martial-arts moves and even a daughter. The Cat's enduring appeal may well rest in her basic identity as an independent, no-nonsense woman, equal parts crook and (more recently) courageous heroine.

"This was one of the first female characters we saw on television that really spoke to empowerment," Suzanne Colon, author of a book on the life and times of Catwoman, tells Keyes. "Not only empowerment; a proto-feminism that was very sexy and pretty and female, and yet very take-charge."

2:18 PM ET | 03-16-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

 

On Air: Blanche DuBois

» Hear the 'Weekend Edition Saturday' radio commentary

I love that the streetcar never gets mentioned again. (Unless I'm forgetting something; y'all correct me if I'm wrong.)

It shows up in Blanche's opening lines: "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields." And that's the last we hear of it.

But oh, how much distance that streetcar travels: Desire, that irrepressible impulse of the living, stops at Cemeteries, and our bruised but indomitable heroine ends up in Elysian Fields. New Orleans landmarks, all of them, but metaphors, too: the Elysian Fields is the resting place of dead heroes in Greek myth, and Blanche DuBois is nothing if not grand enough, mad enough to be a mythical character.

And yes, her struggle -- the entire arc of the play -- is nothing less than the struggle of individual vitality against universal entropy, which makes it at once magnificent and banal, ordinary and extraordinary. What makes it magic is Tennessee Williams' incomparable language, those purple prose-poems knitting the stuff of life and death together.

In today's installment of In Character, NPR's Lynn Neary asks why Blanche DuBois is such a tantalizing role -- and such dazzling actresses as Shirley Knight, Rosemary Harris, Laila Robins and Glenn Close offer answers.

Enjoy.

-- Trey Graham

7:00 AM ET | 03-15-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Jeffrey Lebowski (aka The Dude)

From The Big Lebowski, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Nominated by Mat Cloak

How can a single, unmotivated and unemployed bum possibly be appealing to the masses?

Because despite having his favorite rug urinated upon ... despite being forced to take a bath with a weasel ... despite having a nut-job friend who cannot stop relating everything to Vietnam, The Dude seems to always keep his cool.

The Dude (Jeff Bridges) is such an idealistic character because he is everything that the workingman is not. His life is stress-free, without restraints such as a job, a woman -- or pretty much any obligations. His time is consumed by "rolling" (spending time at the bowling alley) and drinking white Russians.

The Dude reminds America that if he can stay calm while in the mix of an unbelievably sticky ordeal, we can make it too.

So as the wise Dude likes to say, "Just take it easy man."

Tags: Comedy | Movies | Reluctant Hero | Underdogs

6:06 PM ET | 03- 4-2008 | permalink | comments (8) | e-mail post

 

On Air: Harriet the Spy

» Hear the 'Morning Edition' radio commentary

NPR's Neva Grant takes a look at Louise Fitzhugh's kid-lit classic Harriet the Spy this morning. Turns out she's a role model for outsiders of all stripes.

"She gives us permission not to be one of those bridge-players sitting around the table acting like your mom," children's book expert Anita Silvey tells Grant. Much more, including what happens when classmates steal Harriet's spy notebook and read all her secrets, over on the story page.

11:20 AM ET | 03- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Francie Nolan

From A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Nominated by Susan Bell

It was my mother who introduced me to Francie Nolan, the main character of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She read the book to me when I was 11, Francie's age at the start of the novel.

Though I lived in a small town in 1960s California, completely different than pre-World War I Williamsburg, I felt connected to Francie. She was a bookworm, visiting the library for entertainment, vowing to read every book in the collection -- one of my childhood goals. Though our environments diverged dramatically from that point on, I shared many of the same feelings of disappointment and joy that Francie experienced.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Francie Nolan" »

Tags: Literature | Movies

11:00 AM ET | 03- 3-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

 

On Air: Hester Prynne

» Hear the 'All Things Considered' radio commentary

We promised you a Scarlet Letter essay, and boy, did we deliver. Video clips (from two, count 'em two, movies separated by 60 years), plus half a dozen readings from Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel.

A note for audiobook connoisseurs: If you think you recognize the superb consonants of actress Jennifer Mendenhall, who came to NPR last week to record the Scarlet Letter passages we used in Andrea Seabrook's piece (plus the extended excerpts we're serving up on the story page), it might be because you've taken a road trip or two with Mendenhall's alter ego, Kate Reading. She's recorded Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series, among other titles.

Or, if you're a theater geek, you may have seen her in Ethan McSweeney's new staging of Shaw's Major Barbara, running now at the Shakespeare Theatre Company here in D.C. She's playing the Salvation Army boss lady, Mrs. Baines.

Either way, enjoy.

-- Trey Graham

4:29 PM ET | 03- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (9) | e-mail post

 

Your Turn: Jay Gatsby

From The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nominated by Denise Abbe

Jay Gatsby epitomizes the American Dream. Here is a man who grew up in poverty, always wanting to be somebody, meeting the love of his life in Louisville before leaving to fight in World War I, having that woman (Daisy) profess her love for him and promising that she would wait for him ... only to find her later married to Tom Buchanan while Gatsby fought overseas.

Continue reading "Your Turn: Jay Gatsby" »

Tags: Literature | Romantic Heroes

1:42 PM ET | 03- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post