Browse: Home / Celebrating the Living: Penny Johnson Jerald

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024
Contemplating how few women there are on this show

Celebrating the Living: Penny Johnson Jerald

Posted By Gillianren on July 23, 2023 in Features | Leave a response

Deep Space Nine did a lot with the women it had, but it didn’t have enough women. Kira Nerys is a great character. Jadzia Dax is a great character. Ezri Dax is . . . fine? Hell, Kai Winn is a great character, and a great role for Louise Fletcher, who was originally scheduled for this date before selfishly dying ten months ago today—meaning she doesn’t qualify for the other column yet, either. And from there, we rapidly slide into the land of “can I actually get five paragraphs about this person?” If your most interesting career detail is that you produced a video with Leonard Nimoy about how you and your family could survive if the Y2K apocalypse hits, probably not.

Penny Johnson Jerald, like much of the DS9 cast, bounced around Hollywood for years before the show began. In her case, about fifteen years. She did 29 episodes of The Paper Chase, a bunch of Standard TV Career Shows, and 82 episodes of The Larry Sanders Show. She had an impressive but brief role in What’s Love Got To Do With It?; she played Lorraine Taylor, Ike’s ex and the mother of his children. She appeared in both classics—The Jeffersons—and “oh, yeah, that exists”—She’s the Sheriff.

In fact, she did one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a show with considerably more female characters, if one that didn’t always know what to do with them. She played Worf’s sister-in-law on one episode where his human adopted brother violates the Prime Directive. Later, she would be literally introduced to be a love interest for Sisko—Jake believed his father needed a girlfriend, and Kasidy Yates was, you know, a human woman?

It’s worth noting that Jerald Johnson herself does not consider Kasidy to be a complicated character. She says most of the roles she’s played have been laid back, which is presumably easy for her to play. She said her most challenging role was as Victoria “Iron” Gates on Castle, where she’s much tougher. She was extremely upset to discover she’d been fired from the show, and according to the showrunner it was a challenge to write her off, so I wonder why they did it.

The only Star Trek I can think of that has consistently having multiple well-written female characters is Picard, which seems to be going out of its way to do things right in that department. (Though here is where I admit that I’m behind on Picard, too.) It’s as though the executives have never quite recognized how much of the fandom is and always has been made up of women. I might know more stories of women being excited to be on a show they’ve loved since childhood than men; famously, Patrick Stewart was embarrassed and Whoopi Goldberg had to convince them that, yes, she really did want to be on the show. But why should that influence who’s on it?

Reward me for finding a replacement for Louise Fletcher by contributing to my Patreon or Ko-fi!

Posted in Features | Tagged celebrate the living, Penny Johnson Jerald, tribute

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

Life is a mysteryCelebrating the Living: Madonna→

Clearly Pryor knew a thing or two about wooing womenAttention Must Be Paid: Richard Pryor→

Definitely how most people picture him.Celebrating the Living: John Cameron Mitchell→

A sexy hot mess bigot!Attention Must Be Paid: Patricia Highsmith→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38550 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    31197 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30591 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27741 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23694 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!