'Aliens' shows its serious side

0 Comments | USA TODAY, October, 2007 | by Bill Keveney

Diplomacy tomorrow, comedy tonight.

Or maybe it will be both when the CW sitcom Aliens in America is screened tonight at The Brookings Institution, the same day it premieres on TV (8:30 p.m. ET/PT).

What has caught the attention of a Washington think tank and others outside the CW's young target audience is the central character, a MuslimPakistani foreign exchange student in a small Wisconsin town. Islamic groups and others welcome a positive depiction in entertainment, an area in which Muslims often have been presented negatively, especially after 9/11.

Discussion of Aliens is part of a Brookings initiative "to find ways to encourage more diverse representations of Muslims in popular culture. When I say more diverse, I probably mean something...