In a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter, Alice in Arabia writer Brooke Eikmeier speaks out on the controversy surrounding her controversial ABC Family pilot. The Disney owned network pulled the plug on the series days after picking up the pilot due to backlash based on the description of the show. The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked ABC Family to reexamine moving forward with the series. In her column, she blames the description the network released of the show for not giving an accurate description of what the show is about:
After delivering these five scripts, the network ordered four more and I began to write the outlines, furthering Alice’s desire to stay in the country and having her become part of a movement to strengthen female roles and rights. Then I got the call on March 17 that the pilot pickup was official. However, when I read the description of the episode, I had a sinking feeling. The show is a “high-stakes drama series about a rebellious American teenage girl who, after tragedy befalls her parents, is unknowingly kidnapped by her extended family, who are Saudi Arabian,” the synopsis read. “Now a virtual prisoner in her grandfather’s royal compound, Alice must count on her independent spirit and wit to find a way to return home while surviving life behind the veil.”
I cringed at kidnapped, as it implied some violent action that was never taken (her grandfather simply refuses to let her return to America for a very specific family reason revealed in the last scene of the pilot). Virtual prisoner was an over-hyped phrase I would never have personally used andsurviving life behind the veil was the exact opposite of the cultural tone I was trying to achieve. I wanted to show issues that went far beyond what I now considered a petty argument about a women’s choice of clothing. This clumsy description employed key inflammatory words highlighting Alice’s emotional starting point without any hint at where I was intending to go with her or the show and was written by someone who did not have cultural training or an appreciation of the greater ambition I was aiming for. Personally, I would have simply written: A drama centering on an American teenager who, after her mother’s death must make the adjustment to living with her maternal family in Saudi Arabia. Instead, what was released obfuscated the delicate balancing act I had been working on for ten episodes and I was horrified.