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"Secret Truths" was the two-part pilot episode of South of Nowhere that aired on November 4, 2005 on the Teen drama channel, The-N.
Plot
After their mother Paula (Maeve Quinlan) takes on a new job, the Carlin family moves from a small town in Ohio to Los Angeles, California. The three Carlin siblings start at King High School, where they each try to fit in. Glen (Chris Hunter), a talented basketball player, tries out for the school basketball team, upsetting the star player Aiden Dennison (Matt Cohen) and his cheerleader girlfriend Madison Duarte (Valery Ortiz). Tensions between Glen and Aiden escalate into a locker room fight over Aiden's ex-girlfriend Ashley Davies (Mandy Musgrave), and Glen takes the spotlight in his first game, leaving Aiden on the bench. Glen's sister Spencer (Gabrielle Christian) joins the cheerleading squad but ends up doing little more than take orders from Madison. She befriends the rebellious Ashley, but when Ashley indicates her interest in girls, Spencer starts to avoid her, only to admit later that she enjoyed their time spent together. That night, though, she dreams of being taunted by the cheerleaders and called gay, although she denies it. Glen and Spencer's adopted African American brother Clay (Danso Gordon) is smart but naïve, and he finds himself facing the racial tensions of LA that he never experienced in Ohio. After striking up a conversation with a girl named Chelsea Lewis (Aasha Davis), he is beaten up by her ex-boyfriend Dallas (Marcus Brown) when he tries to defend her. He then earns the respect of Sean Miller (Austen Parros), who is cynical about the way African Americans are treated in society, and when they go driving they are pulled over by the police for no apparent reason.
At a school dance, Sean persuades Dallas to make peace with Clay while Clay dances with Chelsea. Spencer convinces Ashley to come despite her disdain for school dances, but when Madison sees them together, she alleges that Spencer is gay and kicks Spencer off the cheerleading squad. It is revealed that Ashley was once pregnant by Aiden and lost the baby in a miscarriage, and when Glen tries to force Spencer to leave, another fight breaks out between him and Aiden. Spencer and Ashley flee the dance with Aiden and end up at a lookout over LA.
Production
Thomas W. Lynch first had the idea for South of Nowhere when one of his close conservative friends told Lynch that his son had just come out to him. The man asked his son, "How do you know you're gay?" and the son responded, "How do you know you're straight?" When Lynch heard this, he says, he "knew there was a series in there about identity." He wondered why such a noteworthy event&mdashan adolescent's coming out to their parents—had never before been explored as an ongoing subject on a television series. He "sat with the idea for a few days" before spending a few weeks to develop the show's characters and write an outline of the pilot. In an effort to maintain authenticity in depicting teenage experiences, Lynch spoke to high school counselors and asked drama students at a Los Angeles high school for feedback. He pitched the series—which he was then calling "Out"—to The N executives Amy Friedman and Essie Chambers, who then commissioned him to write the pilot script.
Gabrielle Christian first auditioned for the role of Spencer (then called "Zooey") in July 2004, though Lynch also had her read for Ashley's part. Mandy Musgrave also auditioned for the role of Spencer, but Lynch liked her chemistry with Christian, so he paired the two up with Musgrave as Ashley. The pilot was first shot in October 2004 and directed by Rose Troche, but after the series was picked up by The N in January 2005, Lynch decided to recast many of the characters; every actor except Christian and Musgrave was replaced. He said that "I didn't pick up right away, I had her keep re-auditioning. ... I to make sure that this combination perfect." Her contract was finally picked up in May 2005 and the pilot was re-filmed with the new cast in July. Filming took place in Los Angeles, with a correctional facility used largely as the high school set. Donna Deitch, who directed the second version of the pilot but no subsequent South of Nowhere episodes said that the pilot is "something I'm really, really proud of, because I think that show has a look, a style to it that really helps". She felt that the style she set suited the material and was "fairly inventive" for a low-budget series.
Promotion
Before the airing of the pilot, The N joined with marketing agency Mr. Youth LLC to promote the show amongst teenagers in Manhattan. On Thursday November 3 and Friday November 4, 2005, street teams with chest-mounted televisions as well as branded Vespas were dispersed around lower Manhattan. They visited various high schools and offered South of Nowhere-branded MetroCards to teenagers who were traveling south on the N subway line.
Reception
Variety's Brian Lowry gave the episode a lukewarm review, comparing it to other teen dramas. He wrote that "the web of relationships doesn't feel particularly fresh, mirroring the recent spate of nighttime teen serials", but he felt the pilot was an "edgier treatment", noting that it "isn't screwing around" by addressing topics including abortion, drugs, homosexuality and racism. Kate Authur of The New York Times also compared the pilot positively to other series, writing, "If you took the plot of Beverly Hills, 90210 (a good-looking Midwestern family moves to Los Angeles), combined it with the identity issues of Degrassi (race, sexuality and class clash in a high school setting) and added a splash of One Tree Hill's basketball backdrop, you would get South of Nowhere ... That's meant to be a compliment." Alessandra Stanley, another critic for The New York Times, mentioned "Secret Truths" in a feature about racial issues on television. She felt that the pilot distinguished itself from other teen shows by including a subplot about race; however, she still found it to be "constrained and politically correct". Maureen Ryan wrote for the Chicago Tribune that "The lack of either cutesyness or condescension shown by this program is promising." She also commended that the pilot "doesn't shy away" from issues pertaining to race, religion and sexuality. Karman Kregloe of AfterEllen.com, a website focused on the portrayal of lesbians in the media, thought that the episode was "well-written, and the storyline for each of the lead characters is compelling". She praised the show greatly for its authentic portrayal of teenagers' questioning of their sexuality and the "big step" taken towards promoting tolerance.
References
- ^ Kennedy, Sarah (November 7, 2005). "The OC? Oh, please". The Advocate. No. 974. p. 27.
- ^ McCallum, Kate (July/August 2006). "The Creation and Making of South of Nowhere". Scr(i)pt Magazine. p. 28–31.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Aurthur, Kate (December 24, 2006). "Enthusiasm that is almost like a kid's". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- ^ Nelson, Courtney (October 2, 2006). "Interview with Mandy Musgrave of "South of Nowhere"". AfterEllen.com. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- ^ Kregloe, Karman (November 10, 2005). "Interview with South of Nowhere's Gabrielle Christian". AfterEllen.com. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- "Gabrielle Christian Interview, January 2010". South of Nowhere Online. January 2010.
- "New TV Series "South of Nowhere" to Feature a Lesbian Teen". AfterEllen.com. June 2, 2005. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- "Ask Tommy Update". SaveSpashley.com. November 18, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- "Tom Lynch Interview 11/2/09". South of Nowhere Online. November 2, 2009.
- ^ Lowry, Brian (November 2, 2005). "South of Nowhere". Variety. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- Kregloe, Karman (June 3, 2007). "Interview With Donna Deitch". AfterEllen.com. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- Hall, Steve (November 3, 2005). "The N's 'South of Nowhere' Promoted With Metrocards". Adrants. Adrants Publishing LLC. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- Aurthur, Kate (October 20, 2005). "The week ahead: Oct. 30 -- Nov. 5; Television". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- Stanley, Alessandra (November 4, 2005). "Two Fictional Families, Neither Colorblind, but Only One Really Sees Black America". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- Ryan, Maureen; Smith, Sid (November 4, 2005). "8 shows to watch this weekend". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 16, 2010.
- Kregloe, Karman (October 31, 2005). "Well-Written South of Nowhere Features Queer Teen Girls". AfterEllen.com. Retrieved November 16, 2010.