Anticipating ‘City of Angels’

Five days before its first broadcast, the pressure and scrutiny surrounding CBS’ new series “City of Angels,” about an inner-city hospital in Los Angeles, continues to mount. Network executives and producers, grappling with the burden of trying to buck history and wring a success out of a drama featuring a primarily black cast, took its case to the people Tuesday night and the nation’s TV writers Wednesday morning.

Addressing the writers’ group, CBS President Leslie Moonves expressed confidence in the drama from acclaimed producer Steven Bochco. But he emphasized that “City of Angels” has to connect with a mainstream audience. Calling television a “copycat medium,” Moonves said that networks and studios will develop other black dramas if it is a hit.

When asked what would happen to dramas with black casts if the show fails, Moonves said, “I don’t know if it would kill the genre, but it would set it back.”

Emmy Award-winning director Paris Barclay, a co-executive producer and a creator of the show, said he hoped that viewers would come to see the series as a compelling melodrama “where the characters just happen to be black.”

Meanwhile, the network and the show’s producers continue to court black viewers, previewing the first two episodes Tuesday night to the New Leaders, a group of black professionals at the Magic Johnson Theatres. The series drew an enthusiastic response, with several of the show’s cultural references getting applauded.

One audience member was not an instant fan. Edward W. Savage Jr., the medical director of King/Drew Medical Center, raised concerns about the show’s authenticity, expressing fears that viewers might confuse his facility with the fictional hospital. Others raised concerns about what they thought were racial stereotypes.

Bochco said during the critics’ session Wednesday that if the show succeeds, it would be a “template of success” that would make it easier for the black creative community to get jobs in Hollywood.

Nevertheless, he cautioned those who would regard “City of Angels” as the great black hope for TV drama: “I just hope we don’t get buried under the burden of the historical significance of this show. I hope we’re given the time and leeway to grow and mature into a long-running series.”

Sensitivity over how viewers might react to the show has already resulted in the tweaking and editing of the show’s opening scene, which featured Garrett Morris as the medical director of the struggling Angels of Mercy hospital where the series is based.

In the scene, Morris’ character goes to the hospital morgue and “flirts” with the corpse of an overweight R&B; singer, raising her head off the gurney so he can snap a photo of the two of them. The scene is integral to the series because it sets up the arrival of the new medical director, Lillian Price, (Vivica A. Fox), who is appointed after Morris’ character is fired for the morgue incident.

Moonves and the show’s producers said they did not feel the tone of the scene was the best way to introduce viewers to the series, and cut back on it.

“There was some racial sensitivity to what we did, while some had creative concerns and others had concerns about the broadness of the scene,” said Bochco, referring to internal discussions at the production company. “We eliminated aspects of it that might be thought of as racist.” He said the debate over the scene was indicative of the positive behind-the-scenes give-and-take of the production.

“City of Angels,” which stars Blair Underwood and Fox, will premiere Sunday in the choice 8 p.m. time slot following “60 Minutes” that is regularly occupied by “Touched by an Angel.” It will then move to its regular spot at 8 p.m. Wednesday.