Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. - General Discussion

[biakbiak]

I guess I am dumb because I never thought of the phrase “finding your roots” as being solely associate with slavery but rather tracing your family tree to its roots.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

I guess I am dumb because I never thought of the phrase “finding your roots” as being solely associate with slavery but rather tracing your family tree to its roots.

I am guessing HLGjr in part chose the title because it is both reminiscent of Alex Haley's Roots, and it is also more generally evocative of all family tree roots.
(See also Wikipedia's info on the Background of the series.)

[kassygreene]

13 hours ago, ProudMary said:

I can't recall if it was here on FYR or if it was WDYTYA, but Queen Noor of Jordan--the former Lisa Halaby of New Jersey--was descended from Charlemagne. I remember thinking it was pretty cool that an American woman who became a Queen via marriage, turned out to have royal roots of her own.

HLG did two similar series before FYR: African American Lives & Faces Of America.  Queen Noor was on the second series, and if I recall correctly, they traced her ancestry all the way back to the 300s.

[athousandclowns]

Can anyone help me out, I tape these then watch several at a time sometimes. Who turned out 100% something? Gates said in all his years he’s never seen  someone 100%.   I’ve looked at my deleted ones and don’t recognize one it could be. Maybe I watched one On Demand? Usually my memory is better than this. I need to know since a friend is arguing with me. 

[shapeshifter]

41 minutes ago, athousandclowns said:

Can anyone help me out, I tape these then watch several at a time sometimes. Who turned out 100% something? Gates said in all his years he’s never seen  someone 100%.   I’ve looked at my deleted ones and don’t recognize one it could be. Maybe I watched one On Demand? Usually my memory is better than this. I need to know since a friend is arguing with me. 

I'm not sure if anyone was 100% "something," but, IIRC, Kal Penn was overwhelmingly from a particular area of the Indian subcontinent.

[carolibra]

Enjoyed a "crossover" moment when watching Brooklyn Nine Nine this past week. Andy Samberg's character Jake Peralta blurts out, "It's okay, I'm half-Italian!"

[ikmccall]

On 2/17/2019 at 4:34 PM, athousandclowns said:

Can anyone help me out, I tape these then watch several at a time sometimes. Who turned out 100% something? Gates said in all his years he’s never seen  someone 100%.   I’ve looked at my deleted ones and don’t recognize one it could be. Maybe I watched one On Demand? Usually my memory is better than this. I need to know since a friend is arguing with me. 

Stephen Colbert was almost 100% Irish

[OtterMommy]

1 minute ago, ikmccall said:

Stephen Colbert was almost 100% Irish

Actually, I think what HLG said (and what was actually written in Colbert's Book of Life) was 100% White Guy.

I do remember Colbert having a German Lutheran ancestor because his response was "I'm a heathen?"

[athousandclowns]

Thanks for the input on the 100%. I vividly remember Gates just incredibly shocked about 100%. He said as long as I’ve been doing this no one has been 100%.  I’ve watched all but political one and won’t. This isn’t a long ago memory it was from a week or 2 ago  I know I wasn’t hallucinating Don’t get old. 

Driving me crazy so I even started to rewatch one and gave up  I know it was a program with just two guests  at one point wracking my brainI thought maybe it was Who Do You think You Are ? because 3 are on my DVR. 

Very excited about next comics one as I LOVE Tig Notaro. 

[sempervivum]

12 hours ago, athousandclowns said:

Very excited about next comics one as I LOVE Tig Notaro. 

I never heard of her, and thought her dour persona was an odd fit with the 'comedians' group, but I guess I'll have to find some of her stuff to listen to.

This was another uninteresting episode, with zero surprises. My main takeaway was that Sarah Silverman has huge nostrils.

[athousandclowns]

She had Amazon  series One Mississippi after several stand up specials and documentary type comic tours . She went through 3 traumatic events within months. I like her low key approach since manic hyper comics I find tiring. I agree it was not the best show featuring 3 just doesn’t work. Most fellow comics admire her and think she’s a hoot.  

Edited February 20, 2019 by athousandclowns
Not Netflix

[iMonrey]

I thought each of the three comics had interesting stories, but what I find increasingly irritating about this show is how it fails to show the connection between the celebrity and the ancestor time and again. The camera pans up to whichever ancestor they found interesting and you rarely see how exactly the celebrity is descended from that person. 

I'm not sure what that is. It's possible they just don't care or think the audience doesn't care. But the cynic in me says they suspect the story seems less compelling and less connected to the celeb if they have to explain this person is the celebrity's mother's father's mother's mother's father. It just doesn't feel like it's a direct ancestor even if it technically is. The more circuitous route you have to take to get to that person, the less relevant it feels.

It also feels disingenuous when the celebrity says "Oh, now I know where I get my so-and-so attitude, drive, etc. from." I know they are more or less prompted to say things like that but the reality is that people don't inherit personality traits genetically. Not through DNA anyway. Only in the sense that you inherit beliefs and baggage from your parents who inherited it from theirs, etc. 

[OtterMommy]

10 minutes ago, athousandclowns said:

She had Netflix series One Mississippi after several stand up specials and documentary type comic tours . She went through 3 traumatic events within months. I like her low key approach since manic hyper comics I find tiring. I agree it was not the best show featuring 3 just doesn’t work. Most fellow comics admire her and think she’s a hoot.  

She is also currently on Star Trek: Discovery.

[tljgator]

It seemed odd to me that Seth didn't know anything of his great-grandparents, even though he seemed to be from a fairly intact family background -- I mean, his relatives still lived in the same house, and yet he was baffled. Since Sarah's mom seemed at least somewhat estranged from her mom (despite Sarah knowing her grandparents fairly well), her lack of knowledge on great-grandparents seemed to make a bit more sense from her descriptions. I guess it just doesn't seem that far back in time to know one's great-grandparents or at least know of them (from your grandparents).  Maybe I'm just clouded by my own experiences.

Edited February 21, 2019 by tljgator
'fair' and 'far' are not the same

[Chippings]

Welll, not my favorite episode but you don't know when you start a family search how interesting the results will be.

There were the children in the orphanage, and the remote Russian villages, with a very nice immigrant-makes-good story.  Anybody should be glad to find that in their history.  

 Dr Gates was a little obscure about Seth Meyers' "family" who told them things about the family history, and still lived in the great-grandfather's house.   Evidently they didn't have an interest in linking up with Seth Meyers or there would have been a reunion a la Andy Samberg ??  (as tljgator mentioned above..) 

My biggest take-away from the episode was getting *really* tired of Dr Gates saying "So how does that make you feel??"   It's a good interview question, calculated to get more than a one-word answer, but Wow, he over-uses it.

[2727]

I loved Seth's answer when Gates prompted him about a possible emotional connection to his bootstraps ancestor: 
"It doesn't seem like he'd be into comedy, so ..."

Seth always jokes that everyone assumes he's Jewish when he's not, but what made me curious is why Seth's paternal grandfather emigrated to the U.S. as a Jew yet his dad doesn't identify as ethnically or religiously Jewish. Maybe the grandfather rejected Judaism and raised his children without any religion or cultural heritage? He evidently married a non-Jew.

If the show is only going back two generations and getting historical details by speaking to other living family members, these are the scoops I want!

[deirdra]

Just because Seth likes to be on TV doesn't mean his newfound relatives want to meet him on the program. We don't know if his father or grandfather left the faith and became estranged or just lost track of the relatives that inherited the house etc.

[carrps]

It wasn't terribly exciting, but we watching on the dvr, and I asked my sister to pause on Sarah Silverman's grandmother's picture. She reminded me of someone. Oh, I said, she looks a lot like Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Ha!

Imagine my surprise when that's who turned up as a distant cousin. My sister said I'm gooooooood.

Edited February 21, 2019 by carrps
Just noticed an extraneous word.

[biakbiak]

10 hours ago, sempervivum said:

I never heard of her, and thought her dour persona was an odd fit with the 'comedians' group, but I guess I'll have to find some of her stuff to listen to.

Her Live set, it’s also a short album, where she went on stage right after finding out she had breast cancer and announced it to the audience and sort of worked through it is masterful. Not sure how it’s currently available because it was  initially available through Louis CKs website and they had a falling out before his career implosion but related to the allegations against him. She even made it apart of the storyline on One Mississippi that was done before he acknowledged doing those things.

[athousandclowns]

2 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Her Live set, it’s also a short album, where she went on stage right after finding out she had breast cancer and announced it to the audience and sort of worked through it is masterful. Not sure how it’s currently available because it was  initially available through Louis CKs website and they had a falling out before his career implosion but related to the allegations against him. She even made it apart of the storyline on One Mississippi that was done before he acknowledged doing those things.

She took off her shirt and showed her scared chest which blew other comics away. How brave. One of my favorites is  Knock Knock it’s Tig Notaro where she  traveled across country in a car with a  male comic friend and did standup in homes basements barns of fans. 

Shes been though a Hell and back and now is happy,married and has twins. 

Hope that’s not OT 

[biakbiak]

1 minute ago, athousandclowns said:

She took off her shirt and showed her scared chest which blew other comics away

That’s from Boyish Girl Intereupted. Live is the show in 2012 where she just found out about the cancer.

It was sort of weird because they covered a lot of Seth’s story when Gates was on the Late Night last week.

[athousandclowns]

12 hours ago, biakbiak said:

12 hours ago, biakbiak said:

That’s from Boyish Girl Intereupted. Live is the show in 2012 where she just found out about the cancer.

It was sort of weird because they covered a lot of Seth’s story when Gates was on the Late Night last week.

12 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Yep I had it confused with her performance at Largo which was  mentioned that Louie CK sold on his web site.  

In One Mississippi she showed  then girlfriend who was victim to gross sexual harassment in the workplace (Indicating what was going down with Louie CK) 

really perfree when just have 2 guests and dig deeper. 

Edited February 21, 2019 by athousandclowns
Unreadable sorry

[Jadzia]

On 2/17/2019 at 4:34 PM, athousandclowns said:

Can anyone help me out, I tape these then watch several at a time sometimes. Who turned out 100% something? Gates said in all his years he’s never seen  someone 100%.   I’ve looked at my deleted ones and don’t recognize one it could be. Maybe I watched one On Demand? Usually my memory is better than this. I need to know since a friend is arguing with me. 

I seem to recall Larry David was like 100% Ashkenazi Jewish because I remember him laughing about that.

[Silver Raven]

On 2/20/2019 at 11:59 AM, 2727 said:

Seth always jokes that everyone assumes he's Jewish when he's not, but what made me curious is why Seth's paternal grandfather emigrated to the U.S. as a Jew yet his dad doesn't identify as ethnically or religiously Jewish. Maybe the grandfather rejected Judaism and raised his children without any religion or cultural heritage? He evidently married a non-Jew.

Seth's wife is Jewish, and they are raising their kids in the Jewish faith.

It's interesting, when I looked them up, that both Seth and Sarah grew up in Bedford, New Hampshire, and both graduated from Manchester, NH High School, but the show didn't comment on that.  Seth is three years older than Sarah.  I wonder if they knew each other.

[shapeshifter]

I finally saw the current episode, 5.7, "No Laughing Matter." I guess I should've realized from the title that it would focus on difficult aspects of each of the comic's ancestors. 

I found all three of them to be more thoughtful than most other guests. Sarah Silverman, for instance, openly expressed her disdain for her difficult grandmother, but then went beyond that sentiment to have compassion for a woman so negatively effected by a childhood as an immigrant whose father was absent for many years. Tig Notaro saw futility in her Confederate soldier ancestor's efforts and wished he could have chosen a different path. And Seth expressed perhaps the most broadly philosophical view of any of the heretofore seen FYR guests with regards to the significance of this whole ancestry quest. 

As has been repeatedly stated by many posters, I wish they had not crammed three of them into one episode. I wonder if there is enough unaired footage to have done an episode on each one. It seemed that there were bits that had been redacted for public viewing—maybe that's why it was a 3-in-one.

Anyway, the editors did a good job of creating a cohesive episode from three disparate stories.

[Driad]

There is a 6-page article "A Community Betrayed: The Fate and Legacy of Slaves Sold by Georgetown University" in the winter 2019 issue of American Ancestors, a publication of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Many public libraries carry this journal.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Driad said:

There is a 6-page article "A Community Betrayed: The Fate and Legacy of Slaves Sold by Georgetown University" in the winter 2019 issue of American Ancestors, a publication of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Many public libraries carry this journal.

The print version isn't very widely held in libraries, but with this link, if you are clicking on it without anything blocking your geo-location, you should be able to scroll down and see which libraries near you have American ancestors online: https://www.worldcat.org/title/american-ancestors/oclc/850784777
In my case, I'd have to drive 10 miles to use it.

But interlibrary loan is an option too.

Edited February 26, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Driad]

19 hours ago, Driad said:

There is a 6-page article "A Community Betrayed: The Fate and Legacy of Slaves Sold by Georgetown University" in the winter 2019 issue of American Ancestors, a publication of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

If you go to the NEHGS site https://www.americanancestors.org and sign up for a free guest account, you can use some of the databases and apparently look at American Ancestors magazine.

[sempervivum]

Last night's episode with Michael Moore, Laura Linney and Chloe Sevigny- Chloe wins this one, with the ancestor who was one of French King Louis XIV's 'girls'! I had never realized that the French had a sort of mail order bride thing going on in an attempt to populate Canada, very interesting. 

Laura is super charming, and she certainly had a string of hard-luck female ancestors.

M. Moore credits his own (perceived) 'virtues' as a legacy from some ancestor, in this case a Quaker dissident. (I think Ashley Judd was the previous winner in this area, deciding that her social justice warrior crap was the result of her descending from some 17th century religious oddball, as I recall). 

Moore was also descended from a Scotsman who was a POW in the Jacobite rebellion (I think) and was sent to the 'colonies' as an actual slave, although only for a limited time, 6 years or something. This was also news to me.

[iMonrey]

I thought the stories were interesting, although I find Chloe Sevigny rather odd. She's got a flat, "dead behind the eyes" thing going on. 

Quote

I had never realized that the French had a sort of mail order bride thing going on in an attempt to populate Canada, very interesting. 

I think they covered this on another show, probably Who Do You Think You Are, since that's the only other genealogy show I watch.

Quote

Moore was also descended from a Scotsman who was a POW in the Jacobite rebellion (I think) and was sent to the 'colonies' as an actual slave, although only for a limited time, 6 years or something. 

He was a prisoner of the English civil war, which pre-dates the Jacobite movement by about 60 years. I think that "slave for six years" and "indentured servant" is sort of a distinction without a difference. I wish they would have explained this better. 

[tljgator]

8 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I think they covered this on another show, probably Who Do You Think You Are, since that's the only other genealogy show I watch.

I'm almost positive someone on WDYTYA actually went to visit some kind of Canadian monument/memorial to these women -- just can't remember who it was (it was quite a while ago, though, I think).

[meep.meep]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

He was a prisoner of the English civil war, which pre-dates the Jacobite movement by about 60 years. I think that "slave for six years" and "indentured servant" is sort of a distinction without a difference. I wish they would have explained this better. 

An indentured servant chooses to be while a slave for six years has no say in the matter.   People wanted to immigrate to the Americas but didn't have the money to pay for the passage.  They would "indenture" themselves to big landowners for a set period of years, and the landowner would pay for the ship.  Moore's ancestor was shipped over involuntarily and told to work for six years with no wages.

[deirdra]

It was Tom Bergeron on WDYTYA who had ancestors who came to Canada as les filles du roi.  And I think Tom went inside the dormitory where his ancestors stayed for a couple of weeks before finding husbands.  ~800 young French women came to Quebec as "daughters" of the king.

Edited February 28, 2019 by deirdra

[Jadzia]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I think that "slave for six years" and "indentured servant" is sort of a distinction without a difference. I wish they would have explained this better. 

I was really confused by that scene and ran it back several times and was still confused. Gates was really shocked that they used the term "slave" but the quoted passage included the word "NOT". It said something like "not as a slave but for a period of 6 years". So I was really confused why they were saying he was a slave.

[shapeshifter]

I have always found Michael Moore to be an abrasive personality, but now I see him as having a soft nougat center, heh. He might have not become a priest, but he is what, I suspect, many priests envisioned for themselves when they were still young and idealistic.

The other two seemed surprisingly amused by aspects of their ancestors' hardships. I had an old friend who would laugh when she was upset. Maybe that's it? But I also have had wealthy friends and relatives who are so distant from want that they cannot fathom it.
  

2 hours ago, Jadzia said:

It said something like "not as a slave but for a period of 6 years". So I was really confused why they were saying he was a slave.

Here's the transcript with that part bolded:

• "The Scots, whom God delivered into your hands at Dunbarre, and whereof sundry were sent hither, we have been desirous (as we could) to make their yoke easy. Such as were sick of the scurvy or other diseases have not wanted physick and chyrurgery. They have not been sold for slaves to perpetual servitude, but for 6 or 7 or 8 yeares, as we do our owne; and he that bought the most of them (I heare) buildeth houses for them, for every four an house, layeth some acres of ground thereto, which he giveth them as their owne, requiring 3 dayes in the weeke to worke for him (by turnes) and 4 dayes for themselves, and promiseth, as soone as they can repay him the money he layed out for them, he will set them at liberty."

Even with the exact words, I can see many interpretations. Perhaps studying more about the history of that time and place would give clarity, but with no cell phone videos, all we have are someone's interpretations--including the interpretation of the situation as recorded by John Cotton here.

Edited February 28, 2019 by shapeshifter

[ShelleySue]

Didn't WDYTYA also do an episode with the Scottish "slaves"?  I remember someone being in a large church in which his (or her) ancestors had been housed before they were transported to the "colonies."  

Was I the only person who loved the fact that Chloe was wearing a sweater with Daisies and her ancestor was named "Marguerite"?  

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, ShelleySue said:

Was I the only person who loved the fact that Chloe was wearing a sweater with Daisies

I want the daisy sweater.

[carrps]

23 hours ago, tljgator said:

8 hours ago, ShelleySue said:

Didn't WDYTYA also do an episode with the Scottish "slaves"?  I remember someone being in a large church in which his (or her) ancestors had been housed before they were transported to the "colonies."  

Jon Cryer.

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I want the daisy sweater.

It was cute, but dang it really emphasized how broad Chloe's shoulders are.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, carrps said:

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I want the daisy sweater.

It was cute, but dang it really emphasized how broad Chloe's shoulders are.

My shoulders are narrow. 😉

[Cress]

Question: on a recent appearance of Late Night with Seth Meyers, Professor Gates discussed stuff about Seth's episode, but he also mentioned a new DNA match that allowed Gates to find out Gates's white ancestor that he has been seeking for years. I think he said we would see that reveal later this season. Does anybody know which episode that will be, or has it not been announced yet? I want to make sure I don't miss it.

There seems to be no new episodes until April, according to the last preview.

[biakbiak]

2 hours ago, Cress said:

I think he said we would see that reveal later this season. Does anybody know which episode that will be, or has it not been announced yet?

I thought he said it would be revealed next season.

[Pepper Mostly]

On 2/28/2019 at 9:25 AM, ShelleySue said:

Didn't WDYTYA also do an episode with the Scottish "slaves"?  I remember someone being in a large church in which his (or her) ancestors had been housed before they were transported to the "colonies." 

I remember seeing WDYTYA with Jon Cryer--Saugus, MA, is my hometown, and the Scots' House, where the indentured Scotsmen were housed, stands there today. In the 1650's a lot of indentured Scots were put to work at the Iron Works, which was also in Saugus, and is a historic attraction in town. where I went on many field trips. I squee'd out loud. I like Michael Moore and was pleased to have a hometown connection, however tenuous.

Called the fille de roi connection. They spent a lot of time bemoaning Marguerite's fate, I thought, but I was filled with admiration--to be gutsy enough to head to the new world alone, at 14 years old? Maybe she was an orphan, maybe her parents were poor, maybe her father was a drunk or an abuser, who knows? She saw an opportunity and jumped at it. She found a good, steady man with property to marry. I pictured teenage Marguerite coolly assessing the various men who presented themselves, weighing up their pros and cons!  Widowed at an early age, with six kids, she quickly found another husband and had eight more kids! I thought "this was a hard headed, practical woman who could probably work like a horse".Chloe and Skip were tut tutting about how a woman with "all those kids" could snag another man. Well, lets see. She was young, strong, and had a whole crew of kids who could help out on the farm. Women were still in short supply. I bet the men of Quebec were lining up for a chance with her, six kids and all.

[shapeshifter]

25 minutes ago, Pepper Mostly said:

--to be gutsy enough to head to the new world alone, at 14 years old? Maybe she was an orphan, maybe her parents were poor, maybe her father was a drunk or an abuser, who knows? She saw an opportunity and jumped at it. . .

But did she have any choice? Maybe. But just as likely —maybe way more likely — she had no choice, and others decided for her.

[deirdra]

56 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

But did she have any choice? Maybe. But just as likely —maybe way more likely — she had no choice, and others decided for her.

Some of my Irish ancestors came to Canada as indentured servants at 14 & 16 (14 was the age of consent in the early 1800s).  They had a choice - stick with what they knew, poverty & starvation, or sign up for a boat ride that could lead to more poverty & starvation or possibly a better life.  It took courage to jump into the unknown and never see their families again, but they avoided dying young in the poorhouse like their siblings who lacked that courage.

Edited March 7, 2019 by deirdra

[Pepper Mostly]

Sure, its possible that Marguerite wasn't willing, but I certainly prefer to think of her as smart and practical, with a spirit of adventure. Regardless, she made the most of her chance. That is to be applauded.

[shapeshifter]

So I heard on the car radio on my way home (NPR's Marketplace) that Felicity Huffman must have internalized her mother's penchant for fudging the truth as mentioned on the show:

On 1/16/2019 at 6:39 AM, Suzysite said:

I was wondering if Felicity Huffman ever had a DNA test done to verify which man was actually her bio father.   Taking her mother's word for it as a child is one thing, but as an adult, I think she'd want proof.   It would be easy to see if she was or wasn't a full sibling to her brothers and sisters.

because she paid $15,000 to get her daughter's grades changed so her daughter could get into an Ivy League college (also reported in The NY Times and elsewhere as now cited in Wikipedia), which ironically is now hitting the news on the heels of the even more recent episode in which it was discussed how a similarly well-endowed school of higher education (Georgetown U) would possibly be making reparations to the disadvantaged descendants of slaves who labored to build that institution and who were sold to pay to keep up the institution, as also reported here:

On 2/26/2019 at 2:46 PM, Driad said:

There is a 6-page article "A Community Betrayed: The Fate and Legacy of Slaves Sold by Georgetown University" in the winter 2019 issue of American Ancestors, a publication of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Many public libraries carry this journal.

 I wonder if Felicity Huffman's story will be pulled from reruns of FYR in the future.

Edited March 13, 2019 by shapeshifter

[bybrandy]

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

which ironically is now hitting the news on the heels of the even more recent episode in which it was discussed how a similarly well-endowed school of higher education (Georgetown U) would possibly be making reparations to the disadvantaged descendants of slaves who labored to build that institution and who were sold to pay to keep up the institution, as also reported here:

Ironically Georgetown was the first choice university for their second daughter who they both discussed the SAT fraud about.  however, because they didn't ultimately pay for the SAT fraud for the second daughter (they did for the first) William H Macy wasn't arrested today.  The evidence that they do have where payments were made Felicity was the only one on the emails.  

And a former Georgetown tennis coach was indited in this scandal.   So, you know, they can pay reparations but they still aren't going to be getting a lot of good press this year.

[shapeshifter]

I wonder if and how HLG Jr will respond to this unfortunate confluence of subjects of his show being revealed as villains. At the very least, I would expect some additional disclaimer language at the start of each show WRT the character and moral uprightness of all persons and entities presented in the show.

I look forward to any comments HLG will make on these despicable shennanigans—perhaps in an interview. I can only imagine he momentarily wished himself dead but then realized he would be spinning in his grave, and so, being his positive-outlook self, began to craft an insightful commentary.

[plurie]

6 hours ago, bybrandy said:

And a former Georgetown tennis coach was indited in this scandal.   So, you know, they can pay reparations but they still aren't going to be getting a lot of good press this year.

Not that I'm particularly sympathetic to the universities involved in this scandal, but they appear to have been the victims of greedy faculty members who pocketed bribes to lie about "athletes" so that the applicants would be admitted to the school.

[shapeshifter]

16 hours ago, plurie said:

Not that I'm particularly sympathetic to the universities involved in this scandal, but they appear to have been the victims of greedy faculty members who pocketed bribes to lie about "athletes" so that the applicants would be admitted to the school.

Good point, @plurie. I'm guessing any verbal response from HLG will depend upon how the institutions treat the perpetrators (Suing? Expelling their kids? Demanding reparations?). Still, likely Felicity Huffman (and any others who previously appeared on FYR owho would thought it's okay to illegally buy opportunities in this manner) are never going to be shown on air again. 

Given that this incident must reveal to HLG that no amount of background checking is foolproof, it's bound to have some influence on the show's future. In any event, HLG seems so unceasingly positive that I doubt he would start deliberately featuring famous crooks. 

But then again, there have been many ancestors featured who were of questionable moral character.

Edited March 14, 2019 by shapeshifter