I had watched "Video Activity" again last night, and I noticed that while Jory Husain was once again underused, I noticed that in a lot of the shots he was in he looked angry and like he really didn't want to be there. When everyone else was supposed to be smiling or saying something in the lines of "Wow!" or "neato!" or whatever, he looked aggravated. And when he did smile, it seemed like a contrived smile. He had some lines (in the "boring" tape sequence), and his only other line was "good morning," which wasn't received by anyone.

I don't think this is the actor's fault by any means. I am finishing up Directing 1 this semester, and I learned a lot about the world of directing. I don't think the directors gave him anything to do, and the actor was probably bored and frustrated with that. And as for the "good morning," that was probably a minor improvised line that didn't have much meaning. Another thing the directors screw up on sometimes with him and his blocking is having him walk into the center of the action (I noticed an episode where I think Dennis or someone was talking, and Jawaharlal walks right next to the talking person), which would make one think that he'd have something to say or give to that scene/moment, when in fact, all he does is stand there.

On the TV Tome site, a man named "accordion" implied that Jory left after season three on his own free will. And accordion is from Milwaukee (Jory's hometown), too. I wonder...it makes so much sense. I don't blame him, if they were gonna screw him over like that. But like accordion said..."If I were him, I'd have left much sooner!"

Ooh! I found this interesting dirt from an old group about Jory...

Manish writes:

|> >If you want to see stereotypical, watch THE PARTY (Peter Sellers) or
|> >SHORT CIRCUIT (something Fisher).

This thread reminds me of the ABC sitcom, "Head of the Class". On that show,
there was an Indian student, quite stereotypical with the accent and all that.
Every other show he would have maybe 2 lines or so. His stage-name was Jory
Hussain, (real name is Johair Hussain). He actually graduated from my high
school (Karachi American School, Karachi, Pakistan) and then took off for
Hollywood. Most of us were really distressed to read interviews of him in
teeny-bopper magazines where he would claim that Pakistan was only his touring
ground for his acting career (far from the truth). The only other time I saw
him on the small screen was as a guest on the "Password" morning gameshow.
I felt really bad for him. Even there, he couldn't get away from the stigma
of being someone with a funny accent.

A couple of years later after "Head of the Class" was cancelled, some of us
got in touch with him and he seemed extremely bitter about the experience. I'm
not sure what he's doing now, but I believe he went back to doing what he
always loved -- Shakespearean theater.

Question then: does someone remember ANY instance where Indians have been
portrayed without the traditional stereotypical attributes? That is, as
members of the American "melting pot" or whatever? The only thing I can think
of is some of Professor Amar Bose's televised lectures (MIT prof and head of
the Bose speaker company). In general, it seems that only academia has
examples of all types of people minus the stereotypes.

BTW, I really enjoy the stereotypical characters in THE PARTY, SHORT CIRCUIT,
"The Simpsons", etc. I find them hilarious. They do offend, but they're also
funny. Do some people find them to offensive to enjoy at all? One that
really pissed me off was PASSAGE TO INDIA. I almost walked out of that.

It's interesting, but I despise mischaracterization of Muslims in the Western
media, while stereotypical portrayals of South Asians don't bother me as much.
Maybe this is because the Indian media itself ridicules the "juht" (villager)?
the uneducated simple-minded thick-accented Indian?