Except for the brief golden age of diversity in the 80s, when the Cosby Show and Different World ran back to back, prime-time network television has largely been a white affair. Activists have long encouraged the networks to create shows that “look like America”.
My question, though, is how they would intend on doing that? Do these activists want NBC to slightly revamp a few of its button down comedies to have the odd African-American cast? Let’s imagine a cookie-cutter show like “Blossom” with the ONLY change being that its cast is now all African-American actors. The plot, characters, and dialogue would remain the same.
So let’s reimagine Blossom with an African-American cast and go over it’s characters’ bios.
Blossom: A precocious young girl trying to navigate through modern life (no problems here)
Six: Blossom’s uniquely named friend, permiscuous friend. (hrmmm)
Joey: Blossom’s dumb brother who’s only discernible talent is sports (ughhh?)
Nick: Blossom’s dad is an unemployed musician (uh-oh)
Anthony: Recovering drug addict (oh, brother)
Something tells me that this show would not have won the NAACP Image Award.
So what’s the solution to the lack of diversity on Prime time TV? Just allow artists to have creative control no matter what their background. Artists have unique ethnic backgrounds and given the opportunity to share them, they will. The best shows are those where the artist had creative control. Cosby was able to celebrate his African-American heritage and Seinfeld was probably the first Jewish character to acknowledge that he was Jewish. Both shows were better for their ethnic angle (which included both positive and negative portrayals) because they were more true to the artists, reality, and the audience that way.
