Moscow nights

Press, 22 September 1987, Page 11

Moscow nights

Ruth Zanker

oh television

Russians seemed to be •fterever you looked on Television Two last Fri*y night There was the cheering aews item outlining the possible United Statesjpviet agreement to abolgb medium-range and *oit-range rockets. Then Here were two American dtcoms, "Night Court” ssd “Brothers,” where Russian defectors gave us some laughs and provided an excuse to wave OLD GLORY. It’s 8.30 Friday evening, time for "Night Court” But first comes a medley of homage to free-enter-prise endeavour: finelooking ads for asparagus and cheese, and then a grubby one for tank-bust-ing missiles in "Combat Survival” magazine. The accompanying plug for radio and TV compaints «as never better placed. "Night Court” opens with the usual 1 a.m. stanging-match between the regulars until Jakov, the very model of a selfabasing Russian defector, arrives. This time he brings his brother, “no rocket scientist,” who trains bears for the Leningrad circus which is in town. He wants to defect too. The K.G.B. lurks. There are lots of jokes about K.G.B. agents and “career opportunities in

this free enterprise system” — cleaning floors at Grand Central. Scene two. Jakov has gate-crashed the circus party and he, the circus, K.G.B. and C.I.A. agents, and two arms negotiators are being booked for chucking canapes. There are lots of old gags about large, oversexed Russian circus ladles, agents with ballpoint pen walkie-talk-ies, and arms negotiators accusing each other of “ducking maliciously.”

Cut to the room where the arms negotiators are cooling their heels. “You’re Russian Karpov. You’re not allowed to be happy,” says the American. But neither of them is. They share a common denominator ... nagging wives.

With crystal clarity they suddenly see the world anew. They agree, man to man, on an arms agreement that works and is fair. And then they rip it up because no-one will buy it.

Gorbachev and Reagan have yet to set the agenda for an elk session on Nancy and Raisa. Meanwhile back at the court Jacov is weeping over a photo of his Sonja. “Looks at her smile,” he says. “Are you sure it's not Brezhnev?” asks the dumb American. “Nice

tooth,” says another. And the female circus juggler’s breasts wobble past as she chases her American prey. Long live the stereotypic “Russian female.”

A child can breathe more individuality into stick figures than this instalment’s script writers managed with their 2-D Russians. Stereotypes are cardinal In creating national misunderstanding.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, the farce flips into good-ole apple-pie sentimentality. Jakov celebrates “Truth, Justice and the American Way” by hugging our wasp judge to his excessively tearful Russian breast. And we are supposed to feel proud to be American ...

Just when I thought it was safe to enter American sitcom land again I made the mistake of watching “Brothers.” What can you say about a plot in which a homesexual younger brother falls for a defecting gay Russian weight-lifter (“Nyet Closets in America”) who has fallen for the homo-sexual-hating elder brother? “Brothers” was made in 1984. It already has a vintage look of that time before A.I.D.S. hysteria bred the new puritanism.

Thirty years ago anyone writing scripts about Russians or gays would have been black-listed. Furniture and bodies fly around the set until all is resolved by international brotherly love. American style. Sitcoms ring the changes in social attitudes. They are the great barometer of middle American values. After all, American sitcoms succeed or fail on how many solid American citizens tune in.

I don’t known whether to laugh or weep at this decade’s freedom to play with stereotypes. Friday night’s freakish juxtaposition of actual arms negotiations and those of formula TV scripting spoke volumes. Aren’t we any closer to understanding?