Boston Public

Boston Public was a popular American television series created by David E. Kelley and broadcast on the Fox Network from October 23, 2000 through 2004. It centered around the Winslow High School, a fictional public high school located in Boston, Massachusetts. The show was named for the real public school district in which it takes place.

Criticism

The most notable criticism in the series was that major characters would literally vanish from the series without a trace, i.e. Lauren Davis, Louisa, and Jeremy Peters being the three biggest examples. Other characters such as Harvey and Scott often experienced sudden and unexplained changes in their story arc or personality. For example, Scott works very hard to gain Jeremy Peters' trust while dating his mother; however, once he and Meredith are no longer dating, Scott quickly dismisses Jeremy as if the only reason he was fighting to gain his trust was because he was dating his mother. That is an amazing level of selfishness and cruelty from a school administrator that would seem uncharacteristic for him. While Scott often took a stand against homophobia, especially gay-bashing, he took two opposite positions with the "Our Town 2" play with its lesbian kiss so that at first he opposes the play, then for no apparent reason works to defend it.

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Conservative interest groups were unhappy with Harry's indictment against the National Rifle Association and the episodes that were critical of homophobia. They were also unhappy with the sexual innuendoes and dialogue that often made its way into the series. Major television sponsors such as Kellogg's, Southwest Airlines, Merrill Lynch, Wendy's, Qwest, Papa John's, Hallmark Cards, Marriott, Home Depot, Kmart, Warner-Lambert, and Campbell's Soup had stopped running ads during the series.

Related Topics:
Conservative - Homophobia

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