Tonight on 'The New Normal': The GOP Perspective?

The freshman NBC comedy “The New Normal” is the creation of Ryan Murphy, the man behind “Nip/Tuck” who famously supports President Barack Obama.

The show also features a cranky Republican character played by Ellen Barkin, the actress whose Twitter feed is a near-nonstop assault on all things GOP.

Tonight, “The New Normal” will be told through a “Republican” filter, according to Murphy.

“You have two gay clearly liberal guys at the heart of the show. We all collectively thought it would be great to an episode where you presented Ellen’s point of view, the conservative point of view, the Republican point of view that hopefully was eloquent and was given equal time,”

The episode, dubbed “Obama Mama,” was inspired by Murphy’s affection for sitcom king Norman Lear (“All in the Family”).

Color us skeptical.

It would be wonderful of liberal celebrities opened their minds to different view points. That kind of diversity could actually enhance the shows and films we see. While actors often discuss the importance of traveling abroad and seeing the world through the eyes of others, those eyes rarely belong to people who praise, say, Ronald Reagan or (gulp) Sarah Palin.

We’ve recently seen what happens when a talented liberal writer tried to embrace the Right. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin cast Jeff Daniels as a moderate Republican anchor in HBO’s “The Newsroom,” which debuted earlier this year.

What was the result? You’d be hard pressed to find anyone on TV bashing the Right as frequently as Daniels’ character did during the show’s first season.

That’s not to say an open-minded liberal can’t tell a story from the “other side.” New York Post columnist and film critic Kyle Smith gave liberal Frank Rich kudos for trying to understand how Republicans think.

Can we expect a Sorkin-like experience? Or, perhaps something similar to what Smith found in Rich’s piece? Or is “Obama Mama” a calculated ploy to boost the show’s ratings?

We’ll find out tonight starting at 9:30 p.m. EST tonight.