FX series does an about-face on facts

Producers of FX’s “Black.White.,” under fire by some of the projects’ participants claiming the heavily touted “documentary” series contains several misrepresentations and creative manipulations, tweaked a few of those contested details during its premiere broadcast Wednesday.

The cable network show revolves around the black Sparks family and the white Wurgel family, who switch races through the magic of movie industry-caliber makeup. The families are shown experiencing life in another person’s skin.

In the pilot of the six-week series, defined by FX Network’s president and general manager, John Landgraf, as a documentary despite its reality show elements, a driving range where Brian Sparks, disguised as a white man, hits golf balls is identified as being at an “all-white country club” in Pasadena. Sparks is later shown buying shoes at what is presumably the course’s pro shop.

Following a preview of the show on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” last month that contained the golf sequence, Alan Amitin, an attorney for the John Wells Golf Shop, told FX and the filmmakers that the driving range and the golf store shown were in different locations. The shop is located at the Brookside Golf Course in Pasadena, a public facility where many blacks play, he said, while the driving range was in Burbank. He alleged that the segment portrayed his client as racist, saying the depiction was inflammatory and asked them in a written demand to excise those references.

When the pilot aired Wednesday, the location of the driving range was changed from Pasadena to Burbank, and the “all-white country club” reference was deleted.

Another sequence in the pilot involved teenager Rose Wurgel, who enrolls in an all-black slam poetry class in Hollywood run by veteran spoken-word artist Poetri and his wife, Juren Smith. The pilot does not disclose that the couple was aware from the beginning that Rose was white.

In the broadcast version, a voice-over by Rose was inserted in which she explains that the couple is aware she is white.

FX executives said they were pleased by the audience the show attracted, which fell just shy of 4 million viewers.

A spokesman for FX said the show was currently being described as an “unscripted series,” and that the pilot screened for TV journalists and several groups around the country, including the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, should have been labeled as a “rough cut.” Project developer R.J. Cutler did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The spokesman did not know of any future changes regarding additional concerns cited by anyone associated with the series.