Series Drama, Not Race of Actors, Drives ‘City of Angels’

Angels of Mercy is a crowded, dilapidated, underfunded county hospital where illness and injury may threaten patients less than chaos and incompetence.

Into this cesspool of underserved humanity charges new medical director Dr. Lillian Price (Vivica A. Fox), determined “to put this hospital in shape so it can pass accreditation.” Already there is old flame Dr. Ben Turner (Blair Underwood), the brilliant, blunt-talking acting chief of surgery.

She’s gorgeous, he’s handsome, and a bit later in the inviting new “City of Angels,” they find themselves in a utility closet, estrogen and testosterone converging, with nothing to do but smooch and generate steam.

That footnote aside, there’s some of “The Hospital,” Paddy Chayesfsky’s biting 1971 movie satire about a medical center that kills through inefficiency, in this CBS medical hour from Steven Bochco. As if plucked from that film, its early moments feature a mix-up of surgical patients that nearly ends disastrously.

More than anything, though, “City of Angels” is landmark television--not because of the quality of its drama, but because its lead characters are African American, and some of its secondary characters are members of other minorities.

Why, of all things, this looks almost like America.

“City of Angels” lands on prime time just as the debate about TV diversity is again landing in headlines. This series may have an entire genre riding on its shoulders, with many unfairly seeing it as a 21st century test to determine if drama casts consisting mostly of nonwhites can attract wide audiences.

Of course they can, however “City of Angels” fares. If it bombs, viewers will have rejected the series, not the attractive lead players’ skin color.

Skin color, though, is largely what separates “City of Angels” from other nicely executed medical series that mingle personal relationships with universal stories of tragedy and humor. The major differences are its frames of reference, which are mostly African American, and ongoing racial and ethnic themes.

In the first three episodes, some of that emerges in a rivalry between two young residents, African American Wesley Williams (Hill Harper) and Geoffrey Weiss (Phil Buckman), a Jew, each of whom believes at times that African American Turner is biased against him. In addition, an over-the-top clown of a physician named Dan Prince (Robert Foxworth) fears that being white will cost him a shot at the surgical chief’s job that Turner wants to relinquish. This drives him to extreme measures.

Looming large as well is Edwin O’Malley (Robert Morse), a shoe fetishist and shrewd politico who chairs the county board of supervisors that controls the hospital’s budget and is headed for surgery himself.

Some of this is a load. Turner is all-knowing, and shows it off by lecturing interminably. More social worker than administrator, Price has epic wisdom herself. At times, enough already!

Yet Underwood and Fox are good together, and this is solid, watchable drama that deserves longevity, skin color notwithstanding.

* “City of Angels” can be seen at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

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Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be contacted via e-mail at calendar.letters@latimes.com.