A Woman in the White House -- For 24 Hours

It made some critics here sick. Which just goes to show you can never tell what's on a TV critic's mind:

"I'd like to ask what is it that you interpret in the American psyche, or appetite for entertainment, that will embrace a show in which Americans are depicted as bigoted and stupid to be shown the way by a young man from the Middle East?" one critic asked.

Executive Producer David Guarascio began to prattle about "a mother who cares deeply about her son . . . realizes the error of her own prejudice . . . not an indictment of the American psyche . . . helpful for some people to sort of potentially think about their own prejudices . . . "

Scott Patterson -- that's right, the "Gilmore Girls" Luke, who in one of the saddest bits of recasting in the history of TV, replaced wonderful character actor Patrick Breen as the kid's father on "Aliens in America" because, it was explained to critics, Patterson had a "holding deal," so they had to pay him whether he was put on another show or not and, presto, he winds up playing a role for which he's given no indication in any performance to date he's well suited -- jumped in, swinging.

"I just want to say something," he said.

"I just want to say something" is never good. It usually is followed by something pretty nasty.

"I don't think this show is polarizing at all and there's no evidence of that so far in your comments." Ooh snap! -- okay, maybe not so much.

"Are there any producers from the Midwest?" someone from the mob of critics shot back. We can't actually swear there was foaming at the mouth involved, but when we say the room was electric, you know what we mean.

At this point, the producers made a big mistake:

"I'm from central Pennsylvania and I keep saying that's the Midwest," said Moses Port, thinking a little levity was called for. It was not.

"I grew up in Glendale, which is kind of the Midwest version of Southern California," said Tim Doyle. Even worse.

"Is there a mentality out here in Los Angeles that people in the Midwest are more naive? . . . The idea that there's nobody from Asia that lives in Wisconsin or at least in this small town is not the reality," a critic snapped.