Here's the story on the show:
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Film and television star Jane Seymour ("Live and Let Die," "Somewhere in Time," "War and Remembrance") is Dr. Quinn, the strong-willed, liberal-minded Easterner who befriends an enigmatic mountain loner, Byron Sully (Joe Lando), and winds up adopting three children (played by Chad Allen, Erika Flores/Jessica Bowman and Shawn Toovey) when their mother dies of a rattlesnake bite.
While the headstrong Michaela can be tough, Beacon Hill never prepared her for such a rugged world where the people are as coarse as the climate and their ideas seem from another time. By having Dr. Quinn's sophisticated values clash with the considerably cruder mindset of her Western neighbors, the series is able to explore situations and issues that are very much a part of life today. Whether championing the cause of gun control, exposing environmental polluters, battling disease or sexist cowboys, or liberating oppressed frontier women, Dr. Mike, at great personal risk, bucks the conventional wisdom of the Old West and emerges as more than just a pioneering feminist.
In the tradition of "Little House on the Prairie," DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN is steeped in traditional family values and an understanding of the spirit and strength that built America.
3 comments:
I watched this show a few times when it was on regular programming and I was never really impressed by any of the Indian "portrayals" as they were all seemingly cut from the same stereotypical molds as the Indian depictions (of characters) from the old "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza" series.
YAWN!
True, generally. But over time the Cloud Dancing character grew into significance. Also notable toward the end of the show was rapid change.
This was true of the real West, and Little House on the Prairie did not show much change.
In "Dr Quinn", they had a major storyline with the conflict between the Army and the nearby Cheyenne village, which culminated in the Army anihiliating the civilians of that village. They depicted this in a two-parter. It was a sober and unflinching treatment, especialy for what you might expect of a light "romantic" family Western show.
Cloud Dancing was played by Larry Sellers. It looks like he has done a lot of work, but the bio info on imdb seems rather thin.
I've not seen Dr. Quinn in so long, that I do not remember the stereotype specifics such as those often discussed here: like, did Cloud Dancing talk like Tonto, or dress like a plains Sioux.
Cloud Dancing doesn't talk like Tonto or the erudite Indian in The Last Warrior. He talks like a regular person.
So far he's dressed in a generic Plains buckskin outfit. He's appeared with and without a shirt depending on how warm it was.
Admittedly I can't tell Cheyenne clothing from other Plains Indians clothing. But I don't see anything stereotypical, at least.
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