Life in the Big City

Whereas the broadcast networks continue to struggle to bring diversity to their prime-time series, cable seems to embrace multiracial casting--especially Lifetime. The network’s two current Sunday evening series, “Strong Medicine” and “The Division,” celebrate ethnic diversity, as did the earlier series “Any Day Now.”

The practice continues with Lifetime’s new drama series, “For the People,” premiering Sunday. Set in Los Angeles’ district attorney’s office, the hourlong drama examines the divergent backgrounds and political philosophies of the dedicated attorneys and support staff who work to uphold justice in the City of Angels’ melting pot.

Lea Thompson plays Camille Paris, a liberal who has worked her way up the career ladder to become the chief deputy-assistant district attorney. Debbi Morgan is Lora Gibson, the newly elected district attorney, an African American and a staunch Republican. A Martinez co-stars as Camille’s ex-husband, a public defender, and Cecilia Suarez plays the ambitious new head prosecutor, who, like her boss, is a conservative.

Thompson says one of the reasons she was drawn to the series was because of its commitment to diversity. She had always wanted more diversity in her previous series, the NBC sitcom “Caroline in the City,” which was set in a very lily-white New York. “But it seemed so difficult,” she remembers. “This is more like the real world. It’s much more interesting to have different people and energies in the room. It’s much more fun and dramatic.”

The crew, she adds, is also “more diverse than any other crew I have seen in terms of women being represented and different directors--we’ll have a woman director and then an African American director and a Latino director.”

Morgan echoes Thompson’s sentiments. “I don’t think we have quite seen it on television before,” she says. “I am wondering if it would happen on network television even now. It makes it seem like real life because that is what we see everyday, but it’s not represented on television.”

The actress feels her character is a groundbreaking role for an African American. “It really seems to be the first television role for a female of color that is so comprehensive,” says Morgan. “Even if a role like this does happen to pop up, it is relegated to only a section of the character’s life, most often her professional life. But with this character, you get the full scope of her life, from her position as the newly elected district attorney to a warm and loving home with an adoring husband and two daughters. We know that very few dramas have provided a life at home between a black husband and wife.”

Catherine LePard, the series’ creator and executive producer, says she just wanted the series to reflect the ethnic diversity of both the D.A.’s office and Los Angeles. Lifetime, she says, has been very supportive of her commitment to diversity both in front of and behind the camera.

What also sets “For the People” apart from most legal series is that it examines what LePard calls the district attorney’s role as “protector” of the justice system.

“It’s not just about the conviction rate; it is also about maintaining the integrity of the system,” she says. “If they know something that may cost them a conviction but uphold the system, they have to reveal this kind of information.”

LePard modeled Morgan’s character very loosely on President George W. Bush’s national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice.

Morgan jokes that she didn’t have “any personal Republican friends” to talk to about her character’s political leanings. “She is, like, 360 degrees away from me,” she says. “She is not your conventional black professional woman. I see this woman as an individualist--a free thinker and probably somewhat of a maverick in the sense that she is a black woman working to break free from the notion that all blacks belong to the Democratic Party.”

“For the People” can be seen Sundays at 10 p.m. on Lifetime. The network has rated the premiere episode TV-PG-LV (may be unsuitable for younger children, with advisories for coarse language and moderate violence).