Kevin Smith’s Comic Book Men premieres February 12 after The Walking Dead on AMC. Friend Zoë Gulliksen (who joined the Action Flick Chick and friends for a YouTube discussion on who got left out of The Expendables) got cast for the show when it was called Secret Stash, but then the showrunners decided, “Estrogen bad,” cut all her scenes from the pilot, and renamed the show Comic Book Men.
From The Beat: “…this did seem like a bit of a wasted opportunity to present a 21st century view of the comic book world.”
On twitter: Smith responded to a few of the questions about this:
Via @TheNerdyBird “Why No Women in COMIC BOOK MEN” Saving them for season 2, to have somewhere to go story-wise. Season 1, we meet the guys.
Via @slackerheroes “Then why is it called Comic Book MEN?” Because it’s about four grown males who work at the Stash, I’m guessing… #wtf
None of which addresses why they cast and then cut a woman. To be fair, the particular tweets he answered didn’t raise that point – ah, the limits of the 140.
Let’s turn this over to another friend, Nerdy Bill Jill Pantozzi at Newsarama, who’s a bit closer to the situation – as you’ll see:
“Where do I start? First, let me be clear, I don’t think having a show for and about men is a bad thing. I think they certainly have their place/market and can be enjoyed by all sexes even if they are made for one demographic. The problem I have with Comic Book Men is – it sounds really boring….”
(continued at Newsarama)
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Women in Action continue to be under-represented. I thought for sure they would have 1 woman in Expendables 2, but come to think of it, since they don’t, then an all-female Expendables would be much much better. Just not scantily clad bimbos. Real women in realistic soldier clothing, no boobage, and no objectifyingl “You shouldn’t think of her as being a woman; that would be a mistake.” Women producers and writers that should be making more movies like Haywire (hope she’s as kick ass as she looks) and not worrying about what the men are doing.
Perhaps… Mr. Smith decided to remove the female roll from the show to break the formula. We’ve seen a slew of “modern” television shows and the like, and all they’ve accomplished in the name of equal representations are Token characters; he may have eliminated the female role because he didn’t WANT a token female character that’s forced to be there just to apease the status quo.
To add a female character, whether to cover the PC Checklist or to pander for Goober Drool, without a reason that makes sense in the writting is dishonest… and I’ve never known Kev to be dishonest, OR to bow to the set standards. He writes from the gut, not pulling puches or considering the angles of his attacks, and if his gut shows him a set of characters he’s not the type to force one of them into another skin just to get a pat on the head.
Let’s wait and see what he has to offer. Maybe then we’ll know why he’s up to what he is.
I think people need to realize that no one, male or female, was added to the cast of this show. This is because they people in the Stash have been working with one another for YEARS. They hang out together after work, on the weekends, go to events together, etc… They are a family. Trying to shoe horn(for lack of a better term) anyone into that dynamic is near impossible. You could drop the funniest female(or male) comedian/comic book nerd into their folds, and it would not work out. And that is the case here. They tried out a woman whom Kevin thought was hilarious. But that was shown not to work. So they didn’t just edit her out in place of a man or CGI a man in, they edited out scenes with her in it because she wasn’t going to be in the show.
I have been on the TESD podcast more than once. I have been called funny by the hosts of TESD. But when I was on their podcast, it was near impossible to keep up with them because they have literal decades of friendship under their belt. They also have their own inside jokes and personalities. You can’t just show up and be as familiar with them as they are with themselves. Bryan Johnson can make a joke about Walter or Ming’s wife that would probably start a fight if a person they had only known a short while made it.
I could understand if they kicked a woman out and replaced her with a man, like Lucas did when he decided that Indiana Jones needed son instead of a daughter in Crystal Skull, but that isn’t the case here.
I not sure what the reason why they didn’t pick a women for the show. I do know Smith was pushing to have one in the shop. I am pretty sure that was the only reason there was auditions. Could be maybe reasons why it didnt work.
Could be it didnt fit well for chemistry. meaning here you have guys thats been friends for 15 + years and now you have a new comer (girl or not) and it might not seem right. Maybe it seemed like things were being forced.
or maybe it was AMC. maybe they didnt like how it turned out.
I just think saying they dont want geek girls on the show is very unfair considering they where talking about getting a geek girl in the shop over a few podcasts. I was even excited to see how it would turn out. was even bummed to hear they changed it. I just dont think the did the auditions to toy with people or that they didnt want women on the show. It just didnt work out.