Race + TV: NBC (And The Rest)–More Colorful!

April 5th, 2012 by Guest Contributor

A few other favorites include Michael B. Jordan who’ll be reuniting with showrunner Jason Katims (of Friday Night Lights fame) in the new NBC ensemble show County; Ana Ortiz will join ABC’s Devious Maids (another adapted telenovela, the second for the network); Phylicia Rashad takes a turn as a chief of surgery on NBC’s Do No Harm: and–my personal favorite newsbite–Angela Bassett joins a yet-to-be-named FOX spy drama from the team behind Bones. I haven’t covered network costarring roles, starring comedy and sitcom roles, or many ensemble cast roles (where the ‘star’ isn’t necessarily defined); then, over in the cable landscape, we find more than a dozen other POC names coming to both star, join ensembles, and costar on shows. It should also be kept in mind that not all of these shows will be picked up in the end. However, this jump in the casting of POCs on network television warms my heart. Networks are choosing to place non-white faces in starring roles on channels that every American with a television has access to without having to pay in roles that, at first glance, don’t seem to be racially coded.

Courtesy: Vanity Fair

It’ll be an exciting summer, watching to see how these shows develop, which will get dropped, which actors leave and come in, and ultimately how the shows that do make it past the pilot season are promoted on their various networks. Will more POC faces in starring roles mean more POC faces on morning and late night talk shows, magazine covers (note: check out Vanity Fair’s women of TV spread where, while potentially problematic, four out of the 11 women featured are WOC), or eventually film roles? Is this is the beginning of some equalising trend in the television industry, or is it just a fluke? I can’t say that I or anyone else will be watching each and every one of these shows in a display of solidarity, but looking at this full list of 2012-2013 pilots … well, can I say my TV Co-correspondent job here at the R just got that much more interesting?

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Posted in asian, asian-american, black, casting, celebrities, diversity, hollywood, race & representations, tv, women of color | 17 comments

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  • http://commentarybyvalentina.wordpress.com/ Val

    ” That aside, it’s nice to see a Black actress cast in a lead role that isn’t necessarily coded as African-American or black.”

    Why? What’s wrong with a role being coded African American? If a Black actor is just stepping into White shoes then is that really something positive. It’s like when people say ‘I don’t see race or color’, like there is something wrong with people being who they are.

    Also it’s problematic for me that attractive actors of color almost always are paired romantically with a White person on network TV. The Good Wife is a perfect example of this. I’ve already seen ads showing Kerry Washington’s character in a romantic embrace with a White actor.

    To me true acceptance means that a Black actor can play a Black character without it being a stereotypical part and an actor of color can be paired romantically with another actor of color. Otherwise Black actors and actors of color are just being fantasies for White TV writers.

  • Jay

    I’m excited to see Yunjin Kim back on American TV. She was one of the main reasons I watched Lost.

  • http://twitter.com/KJenNu Kaila Heard

    I already had planned to turn on Scandal one of these days, but I’m really excited to hear about the Sherlock remake with Liu. I love the BBC version. But – and this is because she is WOC – I hope they would allow her to seem a bit more smarter, more competent than the traditional Watson. 

  • hellogoodbye

    “Weird, as the first thing I thought about was how she’d be the singular leading lady of Asian descent on network television. ”

    Well, no. There’s also Maggie Q on Nikita! She’s the titular character, too, and much of the story revolves around her – you know how sometimes you have a show featuring both white and POC leads, and somehow the show always coincidentally ends up focusing on the white characters? That doesn’t happen here. :) It is an excellent show, btw. Don’t let its CW credentials scare you. The Vampire Diaries, it isn’t. 

  • April Yee

    Wow, thanks for this comprehensive summary! I’m feeling less disappointed with mainstream U.S. networks after reading it.

  • Gotye

    I agree with this

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  • RLS

    Baby steps, Val.  Baby Steps.

  • Furious Anjel

     ”Why? What’s wrong with a role being coded African American?”

    Hollywood will try to tell you otherwise, but there’s no specific way all African-Americans behave or see the world around them. Shoehorning them into a type is what perpetuates the stereotypes.

    “If a Black actor is just stepping into White shoes then is that really something positive.”

    How do you determine if a role is Black enough?

  • http://commentarybyvalentina.wordpress.com/ Val

     ”…but there’s no specific way all African-Americans behave or see the
    world around them. Shoehorning them into a type is what perpetuates the
    stereotypes.”

    My point is that it is not a negative for a character to be written as Black, unless of course stereotypes are apart of the outline. So why is it a positive for a Black person or person of color to fill a role that has no ties to their ethnicity? For example; most of Mya Rudolf’s roles are devoid of any non-White ethnicity. Why is that? The same goes for most of the roles that Rashida Jones plays.

    Roles like these are intended, in my opinion, to minimize the character’s ethnicity as though there is something inherently wrong with not being White. That’s the problem. It’s either overt stereotypes or totally ignoring ethnicity. There is a middle ground.

  • http://commentarybyvalentina.wordpress.com/ Val

     ”…but there’s no specific way all African-Americans behave or see the
    world around them. Shoehorning them into a type is what perpetuates the
    stereotypes.”

    My point is that it is not a negative for a character to be written as Black, unless of course stereotypes are apart of the outline. So why is it a positive for a Black person or person of color to fill a role that has no ties to their ethnicity? For example; most of Mya Rudolf’s roles are devoid of any non-White ethnicity. Why is that? The same goes for most of the roles that Rashida Jones plays.

    Roles like these are intended, in my opinion, to minimize the character’s ethnicity as though there is something inherently wrong with not being White. That’s the problem. It’s either overt stereotypes or totally ignoring ethnicity. There is a middle ground.

  • Annie

    Thanks for the article! I’ll definitely keep a lookout for some of these shows in the upcoming season. Also, I know she’s animated, but Korra is a badass woman of color that I think deserves some love too :)

  • Annie

    Thanks for the article! I’ll definitely keep a lookout for some of these shows in the upcoming season. Also, I know she’s animated, but Korra is a badass woman of color that I think deserves some love too :)

  • Furious Anjel

     ”My point is that it is not a negative for a character to be written as
    Black, unless of course stereotypes are apart of the outline. So why is
    it a positive for a Black person or person of color to fill a role that
    has no ties to their ethnicity? For example; most of Mya Rudolf’s roles
    are devoid of any non-White ethnicity. Why is that? The same goes for
    most of the roles that Rashida Jones plays.”

    Fair point. Characters of color should not be islands unto themselves. But a PoC character written as an individual and not part of  a clichéd monolith is always a positive.

    “Roles like these are intended, in my opinion, to minimize the
    character’s ethnicity as though there is something inherently wrong with
    not being White. That’s the problem. It’s either overt stereotypes or
    totally ignoring ethnicity. There is a middle ground.”

    This probably has more to do with the fact that there aren’t enough people of color who are showrunners, producers and writers.

  • Sori

    It’s interesting that you mention Korra! I think childrens shows tend to be way more diverse overall than adult shows. There are more positive, non stereotypical versions of POC on a lot of children’s shows/cartoons.

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