Carrie wrote:
"Any doubt that, say, Samuel L. Jackson, who's a huge box
office draw, is every bit as capable of carrying a TV series
as, say, Richard Dreyfuss or James Cromwell?"
As has already been pointed out, neither of the venerable
white actors' shows is doing well, the latter's already being
canceled. Now if he had been reprising his role as Dudley
Smith . . .
Your point that this is based on executive assumptions about
what might be popular is well taken. And they are clearly
stuck in a rut. For the most part (Steve Harris in The
Practice and a number of actors on doctor shows to the
contrary), most prominent black roles are in comedies or as
bad guys.
Look at the new crime shows this season. Ving Rhames was
great in UC
(yes, I know that the main criminal, the great WIlliam
Forsythe, is white), but he was a drug lord; the only person
of color on the cop team is in the small role of profiler.
There are a few others in ensemble casts -- among new shows,
there are the lawyer in the new Law and Order, a fellow spy
and a friend in Alias, one of the Feds in Thieves, two of the
forensics guys in Crossing Jordan (one black, one Indian or
Pakistani) and I can't think of any, offhand, in Philly. This
is just crime shows. There are a bunch in new comedies.
As far as it goes, though, is this any different from most
contemporary hardboiled fiction? How often do we meet a
black, and when we do, how often in a non-criminal role?
Sure, we can all think of a few exceptions to that claim, but
they are clearly exceptions.
Mark
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