TV View; On TV, Less Separate, More Equal
Author: John J. O’Connor
Published by: The New York Times
Publication Year: 1990
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There is one part of the American scene in which the Black presence over the last decade has become dramatically less separate and more equal. That’s on television, the Great Emulation Machine whose very existence depends on correctly identifying and servicing its audiences. In the mid-1980s, The Cosby Show stunned a good many industry experts by vaulting to the top of the ratings—and staying there.
The effects of that success have rippled across a broad entertainment spectrum, from The Arsenio Hall Show to Keenan Ivory Wayans’s new In Living Color to Oprah Winfrey’s forthcoming Brewster Place. Radical changes concerning race are being registered throughout the schedule—prime time and daytime, comedy and drama, young people’s programming and even commercials starring Michael Jackson and Magic Johnson. Black performers are gaining more control behind the scenes as writers, directors, and producers. The result: viewers’ perceptions are being challenged and reshaped.
On public television’s programming schedule for young audiences, Degrassi High has an ongoing storyline involving a romance between two students. He is Black; she is white. Her father, while denying he is a racist, is furious. At school, however, the relationship is accepted without even the suggestion of a raised eyebrow. The show has received some mail on the topic, but, according to a spokeswoman, “the letters have always come from adults, not kids.”
Overall, there is unmistakable activity, even ferment, in the way the Black presence is evolving in television on all levels. These changes are not about to trigger immediate economic and social miracles for many Blacks, especially those trapped in the underclass of poverty, drugs and violence. But one result would seem inevitable: a healthy dose of consciousness-raising for the industry and for the nation as a whole.
Originally appeared in print on April 29, 1990, in The New York Times, Section 2, Page 1.