Networks Steering Clear of TV Projects on the L.A. Riots

This weekend, in the midst of remembrances and commemorations of the second anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, NBC will air a hastily produced TV movie that will uncover the true story behind the explosive headlines of a violent event that captured the attention of the world:

“Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story.”

The film arrives less than four months after Olympic medalist Nancy Kerrigan was attacked at the U.S. national figure skating championships in a conspiracy that authorities said involved rival Tonya Harding.

It follows by 12 days the Fox movie “Honor Thy Father and Mother: The True Story of the Menendez Murders,” which made it to air only two months after the trials of Lyle and Erik Menendez ended in hung juries.

Last year, NBC took only months to churn out TV movies about Hurricane Andrew, the bombing of the World Trade Center and the fatal clash between federal agents and members of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Tex.

But a television movie or miniseries about the riots that ravaged Los Angeles has not been put on the fast track--or even the slow track.

And viewers hoping to see a dramatic treatment of the civil unrest that erupted April 29, 1992, should not hold their breath. None of the major networks has such a project in development, even though the subject matter contains many of the elements found in “quickie” television movies--death, destruction, turmoil, chaos, heated courtroom confrontations, heroism, courage and survival.

Executives from CBS, NBC and Fox declined to comment on why they have not developed such a movie or miniseries. Judd Parkin, senior vice president in charge of motion pictures for television and miniseries at ABC, responded in a statement: “The riot was so big, and so all-encompassing, that we felt there was no way to distill it down to a single movie. There was no central, clear-cut story that could be followed all the way through.”

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Producers of fact-based television movies said they are not surprised that there has not been a dramatic movie revolving around the riots. They said the subject matter was too painful, too depressing and lacked a compelling point of view from which to tell the story.

“It’s still too close,” said producer Michael Jaffe. “It was an event that was profoundly unsettling to L.A. residents, even more than the earthquake. It’s just too violent and too depressing.”

Producer Ken Kaufman said, “There’s been no movie about the famine in Somalia, either. The riot was very complicated and very, very serious. It will take a long time before anyone can find a way to say something interesting in a movie, and for the audience to be receptive to the images, which they saw over and over and over again. It’s still too fresh and too painful.”

But some observers outside the TV industry believe there is a deeper and less honorable reason behind the dearth of riot projects.

“I believe it has to do with the fact that most of the parties involved were black,” said Johnnie Cochran Jr., who represented truck driver Reginald O. Denny in his civil lawsuit against the city last year.

“I mean, one of the most poignant stories are the four black Good Samaritans who came out of their homes when the police fled Florence and Normandie and risked their lives to rescue Reginald Denny,” Cochran said. “That’s a modern American hero story. When blacks commit some heinous crime, Hollywood can’t wait to do a story on that. But when black people are heroes, no one wants to do anything.”

Jeanette Dates, co-author of the book “Split Images: African-Americans in the Mass Media” and acting dean of the School of Communications at Howard University, said, “It’s a race issue. The networks and moviemakers are afraid to touch it. They would need to talk to the black community about it, because it is such a complex issue, and they’ve always been afraid to talk to the community. So rather than being accused of doing a surface job in a movie, they just sit back and do nothing.”

Herman Gray, professor of sociology at UC Santa Cruz, said that instead of dramatic movies or miniseries, there has been an “explosion” of situation comedies revolving around blacks since the riots. “That seems to be where the networks feel safest, rather than giving it in-depth focus. It’s a weak-kneed approach to the immediacy and complexity of the social problems that were raised.”

The only dramatic treatment of the Los Angeles riots were a few episodes of prime-time series such as “Doogie Howser, M.D.” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” that aired a few months after the disturbance, and a two-part story on NBC’s defunct “A Different World,” which put two of its main characters in the middle of the turmoil.

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Cochran said that Denny did not receive serious offers for film rights to his story--even though he recovered from his injuries, became friends with the four blacks who rescued him and hugged the mother of Damian Williams, the man charged with beating him, in a dramatic courtroom scene.

“Nobody was ever interested in doing a movie on him--how he survived and recovered, and how he was not bitter,” Cochran said.

Gregory Alan-Williams, author of the book “A Gathering of Heroes--Reflections on Rage and Responsibility,” about the happenings at Florence and Normandie and how he saved a Japanese American man from being beaten to death, also has not attracted any serious offers about film rights, said his manager, Beverly Muse.

But some feel the lack of projects may be a blessing.

Leonard Hill, a TV-movie producer and former executive at ABC and NBC, noted that it took 25 years before there was a film about the 1965 Watts riots--”Heatwave,” which aired on the TNT cable network in 1990.

“A perspective was gained by waiting,” Hill said. “These ‘Polaroid’ films don’t provide any insight. I think something will eventually be done about the riots. I’m grateful that there hasn’t been a rush to judgment.”