NBC is streaming on the web the
premiere episode of The New Normal, the much anticipated new
sitcom from Glee creator Ryan Murphy.
The New Normal features a gay
couple (played by Andrew Rannells
and Justin Bartha) trying to start a family and the surrogate mother
(Georgia King) who comes to their aid.
Last
week, a Mormon-owned NBC affiliate in Utah announced it would not air
the show.
Jeff
Simpson, CEO of KSL-TV parent company Bonneville International, told
Deseret News that the
show “feels inappropriate.”
Simpson reportedly
cited crude dialogue and offensive characterizations as reasons
for keeping the show off its fall schedule.
In a series of
tweets to her followers, Ellen Barkin, a co-star on the show, blasted
the decision, calling it “homophobic.”
“Anyone in Utah
interested in @NBCTheNewNormal please clog up @KSL5TV feed 4 their
blatantly homophic [sic] decision 2 not air the show #KSLBigots,”
she messaged her more than 102,000 Twitter followers.
“So L&O SVU
(rape and child murder) is ok? But loving gay couple having a baby is
inappropriate,” she added. “Shame on u @kslcom.”
The Christian
conservative group One Million Moms has also criticized the program,
saying
it promotes “moral decay in public airways.”
Watch
the pilot episode of the show at NBC. The series premieres
September 11.