Stereotypes exist because they often tend to be accurate. Yet exceptions to the rule are often the most heartwarming.
That's why Wednesday evenings, when my family gets together to watch E-Ring, have become a joy to behold.
"Man bites dog" stories are the ones that catch people's attention.
And that certainly is the case when Hollywood — whose collective opposition to the Bush administration's foreign policy is well known — offers a weekly tribute to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces.
NBC's E-Ring does more to remind viewers that the folks who make up the U.S. military are special people than I can remember since I was a kid.
That was during the John Wayne era many decades ago, when Hollywood glorified the U.S. military as a matter of course.
And, if those epics were a bit too much flag-waving for some, since then the entertainment industry, for the most part, has taken the opposite tack.
There have been exceptions, of course, and perhaps E-Ring is among those, although one can only hope it might signify the turning of that tide.
E-Ring, named after the Pentagon corridor where the decision-making takes place, focuses on the people who plan and participate in covert military operations.
Just as The West Wing sought to give viewers a look inside the White House, this show seeks to explain the internal politics and peculiarities of the Pentagon.
It does a pretty good job.
The show is certainly a bit schmaltzy, and has the soap-opera accoutrements of personal romances to give the plot some popular appeal.
But it does an outstanding job of explaining to viewers, all too many of whom in these days of volunteer armed forces don't know soldiers and sailors, what makes the men and women in uniform tick.
It should not surprise anyone that in the nation's major markets, the show's ratings, only fair overall but good enough to be renewed for a full season, are highest in Chicago, the symbolic home of Middle America.
What E-Ring does better than any entertainment vehicle I can remember in many, many years is get at the nub of why millions of Americans join the armed forces:
They are proud to be Americans, believe in what they are doing and operate under a value system that those of us in civilian life would do well to emulate.
The show isn't a Pentagon recruiting vehicle.
It doesn't duck reality.
Some of the good guys die.
Others are shown with flaws.
And the show doesn't shy away from showing the strains that a military career puts on personal lives.
The overall message of the show, however, is that the U.S. military knows what it is doing — and should be allowed to accomplish its sometimes dirty job with a minimum of interference from civilians whose agenda doesn't always include the best interests of the troops on the ground.
It accurately shows the interplay between the career soldiers and the political appointees brought in by the secretary of defense over what missions should get priority.
In what is probably a revelation to many, the show makes clear just how much clout lawyers have these days in signing off on any clandestine military action. And it makes the case quite well that there are folks at the Pentagon who cut corners to get things done.
The show makes no effort to take sides in partisan political debates about the wisdom of the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, but most of the story lines revolve around military operations in that part of the world.
However, the show's message, at times obvious, at others unspoken, is that in the 21st century, the United States needs to use virtually any means it can to stop the bad guys from killing Americans.
It doesn't mention President Bush and on occasion has even made a joking reference that might be considered derogatory toward him. But the characters' views and values brand them as straight arrows. One can easily imagine them seeing Bush as their kind of guy.
In fact, polls show that military personnel these days are much, much more likely to vote Republican than Democratic.
The characters in the show have two enemies — the bad guys, be they the Taliban, al-Qaeda or free-lance terrorists — and the government bureaucracy that makes life difficult for the good guys to do their job.
Frankly, I'm more than a little surprised such a show has found its way to network television.
I'm sure glad it has.
