Has NBC Given Up on Black Shows? : Network Says No; Only 2 Entries With African-American Casts for Fall

At the beginning of last season, NBC was proud as a peacock--and not just for the usual reasons.

NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield was trumpeting not only the new crop of fall shows he was unveiling but also the unprecedented number of shows featuring all or predominantly African-American casts.

“Historically, we’ve always been out in front of all the other networks for a long time in that area,” the NBC entertainment chief said in an interview last year. He said three fall entries--along with returning shows such as “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “I’ll Fly Away” and “A Different World”--were a continuation of NBC’s commitment to minority-themed shows that started in the 1950s with the short-lived “Nat ‘King’ Cole Show” and reached a pinnacle in the 1980s with the hugely popular “The Cosby Show.”

But by halfway through the season, NBC’s new shows--”Out All Night,” “Rhythm & Blues” and “Here and Now”--were gone, victims of critical blasts and poor ratings. Months later, “I’ll Fly Away” and “A Different World,” lauded for their positive portrayals of minorities, were given the ax. By season’s end, “Fresh Prince” was the only survivor of the black-oriented shows.

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When NBC unveiled its fall schedule a few weeks ago, there were only two entries with large minority casts: “Fresh Prince” and “Getting By,” a comedy acquired from ABC about two single working mothers--one white, one black--who live in the same household with their respective children.

By contrast, Fox announced that four of its eight new series would feature African-Americans in dominant roles, and three other minority-oriented shows are waiting in the wings for midseason. ABC has two additional comedies about black families to add to its successful “Family Matters” and “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper.” CBS, in addition to the continuing “In the Heat of the Night,” has a comedy about a black family, “Tall Hopes,” scheduled for the summer, and another, Norman Lear’s “704 Hauser,” slated for midseason.

(None of the networks has a prime-time series centered on Latinos, Asian-Americans or any other ethnic minority.)

As the new dominant network in presenting programs featuring African-Americans in prominent roles, Sandy Grushow, president of the Fox Entertainment Group, said, “Our programming strategy has always been to be distinctive and cutting edge. We were founded as an alternative service for people who felt disenfranchised by the Big Three--audiences who are younger, male and, in many instances, ethnic.”

Despite the difference in numbers among the networks, NBC executives maintain that they still have a commitment to shows featuring minorities.

“We have no desire or intention to move away from a strong ethnic presence on the network,” said Perry Simon, NBC’s vice president in charge of prime-time programming. “The fact is, every year we try to put the best shows on. We select from a variety of projects that always have a balance of ethnic representation.”

He said “A Different World” had a “very long, successful run, and there’s a time when every show reaches the end of its run.” As for the three new entries last season, Simon said that the trio “were some of our strongest comedies in the pilot stage, but they didn’t turn out to be our strongest properties. However, that doesn’t mean there is a change in our attitude or strategy.”

Simon added that the network has series development deals with “Different World” star Kadeem Hardison and “Out All Night” co-star Duane Martin. He also said that the new “John Larroquette Show” this fall has several minorities in the supporting cast, and that Bill Cosby will be starring in several TV movies, leading to a private-eye series in 1994.

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There has been disagreement about what NBC’s fall schedule says about its commitment to showing cultural diversity.

Douglas Alligood, vice president of special markets for the BBDO advertising agency in New York, said, “NBC is a network in transition. I don’t think they’re saying, ‘Let’s get rid of this kind of show or that kind of show.’ They didn’t have the inventory of those kinds of shows to match the big numbers they were looking for.”

Others were more skeptical.

“It’s a major disappointment,” said Clint Wilson, chairman of the journalism department at Howard University, a predominately black college in Washington. “At first glance, it looks like NBC is giving up on quality programming such as ‘I’ll Fly Away.’ They just drop the whole genre instead of trying something new. It just seems like they’re quicker to pull our stuff than they are to pull programs with white people.”

Patricia A. Turner, assistant professor of African-American and African Studies at UC Davis, said, “It’s like when the networks try to put on some black programs and they don’t work, they go back to the tried-and-true. (On the other hand,) Fox needs to stretch the margins, and they’re trying to appeal to a younger audience. So by putting on this kind of programming, they can distinguish themselves.”

Alligood and others also expressed doubts that the new shows would reflect more positive images of minorities than have been broadcast in the past. They decried the absence of dramas revolving around minorities.

“It will be interesting to see if things get better this year,” said Turner. “I’m certainly not too sad about losing any of the ones that came on last year. I don’t feel it’s any great loss.”