More About Ms. Swan

I would like to respond to the Nov. 6 letter from Robert Payne regarding my recent Counterpunch article about the genesis of my “Mad TV” character Ms. Swan. He’s right: The character did originally have another name. But again, as I said in the earlier article, not because I was trying to make her Asian.

The name Kuan (which is how I originally spelled it) came from a character in “Total Recall.” This was a movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that came out in 1990, based on the story, “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” by Philip K. Dick. Kuan is the little mutant that lives in the belly of another man. He has telepathic abilities and is sought out by Arnold’s character to help bring peace and oxygen to the people. Please rent the video and see for yourself.

The reason the character’s name was changed was the network’s concern that people would misinterpret it as being Asian. Since that was not the intent, Fox executives decided to change it to Swan.

ALEX BORSTEIN

Los Angeles