Dean Cain responds to writer's call to reexamine how superheroes are portrayed on TV
A Time Magazine op-ed calls on a reexamination of TV superhoes and police officers; Actor Dean Cain, former star of 'Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,' reacts.
A recent and controversial Time Magazine article calling for a cultural reckoning of the depiction of superheroes amid the national debate over law enforcement makes claims that are "totally untrue" and reveals the left's "cancel culture" agenda, actor Dean Cain said Thursday.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends" with host Ainsley Earhardt, Cain -- former star of "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" -- said he found writer Eliana Dockterman's piece to be "insane" and hypocritical.
TIME MAGAZINE BLASTED AFTER WRITER CALLS FOR SUPERHEROES TO BE 'RE-EXAMINED' ALONG WITH POLICE
"This is insane to me, though, because these people will scream anti-police rhetoric all day long but when their life is threatened and they need a hero, they will dial 9-1-1 and a police officer will show up," he pointed out. "Because police officers are heroes."
Cain conceded that while there have been some "bad situations" and "bad apples" in departments, "99.9 percent of all police officers" aim to serve and protect their communities and "do a fantastic job."
"This whole ‘cancel culture’ thing that we're living in right now is crazy. It's like an early version of George Orwell’s ‘1984,'" he said.
"And, what this article does in Time Magazine, what they talk about, I mean…from the very beginning…the author of this article makes a bunch of claims that are totally untrue," Cain said.
Dockterman began the piece -- titled "We're Re-examining How We Portray Cops Onscreen. Now It's Time to Talk About Superheroes" -- by citing the recent cancellations of "Cops" and "Live PD" following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and how even children's' show "Paw Patrol" has become a target.
"But as we engage in this long overdue conversation about law enforcement, it’s high time we also talk about the most popular characters in film, the ones who decide the parameters of justice and often enact them with violence: superheroes," she wrote Monday.
Dockterman described superheroes as "cops with capes who enact justice with their powers" who are usually "straight, white men who either function as an extension of a broken U.S. justice system or as vigilantes without any checks on their powers."
"She says, in the real-world, tolerance for law enforcement acting with impunity is eroding," Cain said. "Law enforcement acting with impunity has never been something we’ve tolerated and never will."
"'Calls to defund the police have now gone mainstream.’ No, they haven't. Look at Seattle's CHOP zone; look [at] what happened there. Look at the crime statistics in New York City," he said.
Ben Affleck as Batman in the 2017 "Justice League" film. (Warner Bros.)
"Then she says Hollywood heroizes cops and you can destroy that in just a list of titles: 'Training Day', 'Serpico,' 'The Departed,' 'The Wire,' 'BlacKkKlansman,' 'Rambo.' I mean, the list goes on and on because a bad cop is a great villain because they're not supposed to be bad," Cain told Earhardt. "So, this stuff all just drives me insane. I promise you that Superman -- I wouldn't today be allowed to say: ‘truth, justice, and the American way.’"
"In this period of reckoning, the long-running show 'Cops' and the widely-watched 'Live PD' have been canceled. Actors and writers who contributed to police procedurals are criticizing their own work and donating money to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Parents are protesting benevolent portrayals of canine cops in the children’s television show Paw Patrol. And Ava DuVernay’s film collective ARRAY is launching the Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP) to highlight stories of police brutality and counteract a biased narrative," Dockterman wrote.
"What more do you need to show their agenda?" Cain asked. "It’s crazy. They hate capitalism, they hate law and order, and they hate America."
According to Cain, the reason shows like "Live PD" and "Cops" were canceled is because they "humanize" police officers.
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"It doesn't heroize them in any way, shape, or form. It shows you the kind of stuff they have to deal with on a daily basis," he argued.
"The only thing she does right [in] this whole article is [to] equate police officers to superheroes in some fashion. Because police officers, I promise you, these men and women are heroes. When there's trouble, they run to it and they do their best," Cain said, "just like the canine dogs on Paw Patrol."
Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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