LATINO GROUPS APPROACHING 'KINGPIN' WITH A WARY EYE

As the president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition in Los Angeles,
Alex Nogales has not stopped taking phone calls in the past month and has
been inundated with e-mails. Dozens of his coalition's members are reaching
out because they are worried about how Latinos will be portrayed on NBC's
new drama "Kingpin."

The show, which premieres Sunday night at 10, is a gritty tale of a
powerful and ruthless family in Mexico that runs an illegal drug cartel. In
the pilot, a DEA agent is murdered and his body parts fed to a tiger. A
gringo who married into the family is almost tied to a tree and whipped for
being disrespectful. And, in true bandit style, the acting head of the
family, who is fond of grabbing his private parts, shoots bullets into the air.

Already, the show is being compared with HBO's "The Sopranos" because it
features intense violence, a lavish lifestyle, family infighting (including
an ill-tempered uncle in trouble with the law) and, most strikingly, an
emotionally conflicted head of the crime family.

But while the show may become a ratings winner for NBC, many Latinos are
concerned they will end up losers.

"At a time when there are very few Latino-themed programs on the air - not
just on ABC, CBS, and NBC but on the multitude of cable channels too - the
characters that I saw on the 'Kingpin' pilot made me very uncomfortable,"
said Nogales, who was anonymously mailed a copy of the pilot two months ago.

"Are we going to see, week after week, all these Mexicans killing each
other and DEA agents?" Nogales added. "I understand that sometimes pilots
get carried away, but we expect changes by the second or third episode. In
the pilot, there was just one Latina battling the forces of evil. I want to
see more Latino DEA agents and characters with positive images. Give me
some balance."

Esteban Torres, president of the National Latino Media Council and a former
congressman from Los Angeles, said he was "not pleased" with the pilot.
Already, his group is discussing a possible national boycott against NBC
and the show's advertisers.

"I've been hearing from a lot of people asking us to stand up to this," he
said. "'Kingpin' amplifies the stereotypical images that we've been
fighting for so long to irradicate. Why is it that we never see ourselves
on television as senators or congressmen? I've been one."

"Kingpin" was created by David Mills, a two-time Emmy Award-winning
producer and writer who also helped produce "The Corner," "ER," and "NYPD
Blue."

"Kingpin," which was designed as a limited six-hour series, will be
broadcast in six parts at 10 p.m. on Sundays and Tuesdays in February, with
the last episode airing Feb. 18. The show is being heavily promoted because
this is the industry's "sweeps" period. Although there are no definite
plans for the show to continue beyond February, an NBC spokeswoman said
"the door is open to bring it back" depending on the ratings.

Mills, who serves as executive producer, says he is well aware of the
Latino community's complaints but has no plans to make changes or add
additional "good" characters.

"I think it's unfair to view these characters as emblems of their
ethnicity," he said. "It's an unfair burden to put on nonwhite writers. I'm
black. I want to destroy this way of thinking which says that when it's a
white actor, the story is universal, but when it's a Mexican actor, it's a
show about Mexicans.

"I sat down to write a story about a human man and the death of his soul.
If there is anything groundbreaking about the show, it is that it puts a
nonwhite character and his human condition at the center of the story. This
is not about being Mexican. This is about them being human beings and
dealing with pride, greed, and betrayal. I think it's great that we're
dealing with these big themes and, for once, the story is not being told
through white people."

Although "Kingpin" will be graphic, NBC is planning to air an even more
explicit version of the show on its Bravo cable network in March. That
footage will expose more skin, feature rougher language, and include two
additional minutes in the story line. Also in March, NBC's Spanish-language
network Telemundo will broadcast the milder show, dubbed in Spanish.

Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Entertainment, calls the show "a little
dangerous."

"It's nontraditional," he says. "You've got drugs, an antihero at the
center. It involves a Mexican family, not an American family. There's a lot
of risk involved. On top of that, we're putting it on during sweeps. Some
would say that's crazy, others risky. We say it's exciting."

Zucker concedes the show is violent by broadcast television standards.
"There's no question it probably hasn't been seen to that degree on network
television, but I think it's true to the story," he says. He added that
he's comfortable with the show's characters. "This is a dramatic program
that seeks to tell the story of the Mexican drug trade. It would be hard to
do this without being realistic."