October 26, 2011

Halloween party in Happy Endings

With a Navajo writer on staff, you'd think the TV show Happy Endings would do a better job of representing Indians. Instead the show gives us another woman in a sexy Indian costume.

In the episode titled Spooky Endings (airdate: 10/26/11), the gang attends a Halloween party. A prominent attendee is a woman in a buckskin skirt, braids, and a headband with feathers. She's in the background in roughly half the party scenes--perhaps a dozen shots.

There's also a man in a buckskin outfit and a black wig with braids. I think he's supposed to be an Indian too, although he may be a caveman.

You have to work to include a character in that many scenes. I imagine the director (Fred Savage of The Wonder Years) telling the phony "Indian maiden" to move into the camera shot. "People won't know it's a Halloween party unless they see a stereotypical Indian."

For more on the subject, see "Little Indian Girl" in Community and Halloween Joke in Family Guy.

Below:  Demonstrating how obvious the "Indian maiden" was, she's in two of the six publicity stills.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That costume doesn't look very sexy.

Kat said...

The first one is a man in an Indian costume with braids. In the second still it's a woman.

Rob said...

You may be right, Kat. But we can't tell for sure.