ABC Studios and the producers of comedy series "Desperate Housewives" apologize for racist slur.
- Oct 5, 2007
AceShowbiz - The Desperate Housewives are sorry.
ABC Studios and the producers of American comedy series "Desperate Housewives" have apologized for a slur against Filipino medical workers occurred in Sunday night's season premiere of the show.
In the season premiere Teri Hatcher's character Susan Mayer goes in for a medical checkup and is shocked when the doctor suggests she may be going through menopause. "Listen, Susan, I know for a lot of women the word 'menopause' has negative connotations. You hear 'aging,' 'brittle bones,' 'loss of sexual desire,'" the gynecologist tells her.
Susan then fires back, "OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren't, like, from some med school in the Philippines?"
Online petition of more than 30,000 names calling on the ABC to issue an apology quickly spread through the large Filipino expatriate community in the US, many of them in the medical profession. In addition, the Filipino consul in Los Angeles, Mary Jo Bernardo Aragon, was also among those who complained, pointed out that the U.S. recognizes the students of Filipino medical and nursing schools and demands no additional training.
Responded to those complaints, ABC issued a statement Wednesday October 3rd, saying "The producers of Desperate Housewives and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere. There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines."
The apology was later on sent to Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN's bureau in the United States and aired in the Philippines on Thursday October 4th following protests by the Manila government.
