Cancellations Upset Minority Groups

Leaders of minority groups dealing with the television industry expressed disappointment Tuesday at ABC’s cancellation of four shows featuring ethnic performers and the shortage of prominent minority performers or themes in the network’s fall schedule.

The stars of two of those terminated series also expressed unhappiness but stopped short of saying they felt ABC’s decision was racially motivated.

Steve Harvey, star of “Me and the Boys,” said he was “shocked, absolutely shocked” that his series was not picked up for a second season. The show, in which Harvey played a widowed father raising three sons, was ABC’s highest-rated new show of the 1994-95 season and had received praise from critics and others for its positive portrayal of an African American, single-parent family.

“We finished as the No. 1 new show on ABC,” Harvey said in an interview. “I just found out about this Monday night from my agent. I don’t know what a person has to do. It’s just amazing to me.”

Also bumped from the schedule were “All-American Girl,” starring Margaret Cho as a Korean American student clashing with her traditional family; “Sister Sister,” starring Tia and Tamera Mowry, and “On Our Own,” starring Ralph Louis Harris as part of a family of children raising themselves after the deaths of their parents.

Harris said: “What we were doing was different for the network, having all these minorities on one show. It was history. I’m a little angry and bitter, but I’ll get over it. I see it as a loss for ABC. A lot of people will say it’s racial, but I’m the last one to get on that bandwagon.”

ABC did renew the veteran series “Family Matters” and “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper,” which both feature predominantly African American casts. In addition, the network has scheduled “Buddies,” a comedy starring African American comedian Dave Chappelle, as a midseason replacement.

Billie J. Green, president of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said her organization had sponsored a letter-writing campaign to try to save “Me and the Boys.”

“We really need more shows like that, with no negative connotations for young black men,” Green said. “We think ABC should reconsider.”

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Harvey said there was a chance that the comedy would resurface on another network: “People said such good things about it that it may come back somewhere else.”

Guy Aoki, president of Media Action Network for Asian Americans, said he was particularly distressed about the cancellation of “All-American Girl,” which finished as the No. 50-ranked show of the season and was the first prime-time network series to feature a predominantly Asian American cast.

His group had also used a letter-writing campaign to try to save it, even though the program stirred up controversy among some Asian Americans because of its portrait of a Korean American family.

“Given the significance of this show, it should have been given another chance,” Aoki said. “It didn’t do that badly; it was not at the bottom of the ratings. I just wonder how much the Korean American response hurt its chances of being renewed.”

ABC has been under pressure from Latino groups who have demanded that the network fulfill what it called a promise to place more Latinos in prime-time shows, but none of the new programs on the schedule feature Latinos in starring roles, or have specific Latino themes.

Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said he was not surprised. Organization officials have sponsored viewer boycotts and demonstrations this year, claiming that Capital Cities/ABC President Robert Iger did not follow through on a promise they said he made to them in 1993 to put a Latino-themed show on the schedule by the fall of 1994 and to include more positive portrayals of Latinos in prime-time programs. ABC has denied that a specific commitment or timetable was made.

“We will keep pounding and pounding at them until they do what they promised to do,” Nogales said.

Responding to the concerns expressed Tuesday, an ABC spokesman said, “Our new schedule will include many minority actors, and our commitment to casting additional minorities will remain strong as the season progresses.”