TELEVISION The Critical View Sixth Edition

Edited by HORACE NEWCOMB

New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2000 Oxford University Press For all the students who use this book­

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Television: the critical view / edited by Horace Newcomb. - 6th ed. p. em. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-19-5119274 (pbk. : alk. paper) I. Television broadcasting-United States. I. Newcomb, Horace. PN1992.3.U5T42 1999 79I.45'0973-dc21 99-26151 CIP

Printing (last digit): 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free pa _.Jer The Politics of 283

necessarily been organized around black themes and black cultural sensibili­ ties. Television clearly needs more ofthis kind ofblack presence. At the other extreme are television shows that traffic heavily in themes and representations about blacks, but that, by and large, operate under the creative control and direction ofwhite studio and network executives. Suc­ The Politics cessful comedies such as Sanford & 5011, Norman Lear/Bud Yorkin staples The Jeffersons and Good Times, and more recent shows such as Amen and 227 come immediately to mind. To be sure, these shows employed black of Representation writers and actors, and they drew their creative direction, look, and sensi­ bility from African American culture. But ultimately, the overall creative in Network Television responsibility for these shows rested with white executive producers-Bud Yorkin, Norman Lear, the Carsey-Werner Company, Irma Kalish, Ed Wein­ berger, and Miller-Boyett Productions (Newcomb and Alley 1983). HERMAN GRAY In the final analysis, the creative vision of the white producers pre­ dominated even if situations and themes they explored were drawn from African American culture (Newcomb and Alley 1983; interviews with black writers from 227, 1990). Although the programs were shows about blacks (rather than black shows), there were clearly boundaries concerning cultural representations, social themes, and professional conventions that they dared not transgress. As some of the black television writers from 227 explained to me, the nuances and sensibilities of African American culture that many Along with the structural shifts, cultural discourses, and institutional trans­ of them found funny and attempted to bring to particular scripts or scenes f~rmati~l1S of the television industry, contemporary television representa­ became points of professional contention or were eliminated because white nons of blackness are linked to the presence and admittedly limited influ­ head writers and producers thought otherwise.f Black writers seldom had ence of a small num~er ofhighly visible black producers, wl:iters, directors, the same veto power over white characters, situations, and themes (inter­ and on-screen talent II1 the entertainment indusrrv, Within the institutional view with writers from 227, 1990). cons.trailltc~ and cultural traditions of a collabor;tive and producer-driven For many ofthe shows based on the situations and experiences ofblacks, medium such ~s television, the successes of Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Stan the conventions of television production (especially collaborative writing) Lathan, Arsenio Hall, Marla Gibbs, Keenen IYory,"Vayans, Stanley Robert­ serve to discipline, contain, and ultimately construct a point of view. Not son, Kellie Goode, Dolores Morris, Suzanne de Passe, Topper Carew, Frank surprisingly, this point of view constructs and privileges white middle-class D~wson, Sherman Hemsley, Quincy Jones, Thomas Carter, Carl Franklin, audiences as the ideal viewers and subjects of television stories. In the pro­ Michael 'Warren, Debbie Allen, and Tim Reid increased their individual abil­ ducer-driven medium of television, a paucity of producers of color contin­ ues to be the rule. In a 1989 report issued by the National Commission on itiesf I at ..studios and the networks to shape the creation,,direction and ton e o te evision representations orAfrican Americans (Gunther 1990; Horowitz Working 'Women, researcher Sally Steenland (1989) notes that "minority 1989; O'Connor 1990; Zook 1994).1 . producers constitute only 7% ofall producers working on shows with minor­ Ofcourse, ther~ is nothing particularly remarkable about the presence of ity characters. Minority female producers comprise only 2% of the total. Of black producers, ~'Tlters, and directors in network television. Indeed, directors 162 producers working on 30 shows containing minority characters, only and producers MIChael Move, Thomas Carter, Suzanne de Passe, and others 12 are people of color, while ISO (93%) are white. Of the 12 minority pro­ have been central to the production ofsuch critically acclaimed programming ducers, 8 are male and 4 are female" (p. 11). as Equal Justice and Lonesome Dove (Gunther 1990).2 What is remarkable African American writers, directors, and producers in the television in­ however, is that these critically and commercially successful shows have not dustry must still negotiate the rough seas ofan institutional and cultural sys­ tem tightly but subtly structured by race and gender (Dates 1990).4 It is all the more remarkable, then, that a small number ofvisible and influential black From .Watching Race: Television find the Struggle for "Blackness' by Herman Grav. executive producers, directors, and writers forced open creative spaces within Copynght 19 1995 by University of Minnesota Press. Reprinted bv permission ~f the productive apparatus oftelevision. And within this discursive and indus­ the publisher. ' trial space-between black invisibility and white-authorized representations 285 284 Television Texts 11;( Politics ot' of blackness-black producers such as Cosby, Wayans, Hall, and Jones have ard Keenen Ivory Wavans, creator and former producer of In Lil'illlT had some impact. Rather than simply placing blackness and black themes ,~, tor staging his irreverent humor at the expense ofblacks; toward Arse­ the service of the creative visions of white producers or inserting blackness Hall for his failure to place more blacks on the staff and technical crew within existing aesthetic visions, these producers have helped to challenge his late-night talk show; and toward Bill Cosby because his series often transform conventional television treatments of blackness by introducinc '\'i,,;'<.:d to address social issues facing black Americans (Braxton 1991; Chris­ black viewpoints and perspectives (Hampton 1989). In short, they have intro­ 1989; Collins 1990; Dyson 1989; Fuller 1992; Gray 1989; Ihally and duced different approaches and placed existing aesthetic and production cor, ~.£'"is 1992). ventions in the service of blackness and African American cultural perspcc The mere presence of a critical group of successful black producers, tives (Gunther 1990; O'Connor 1990; Ressner 1990). By trying to construct ',Si:r't'c1cors, and writers has, nevertheless, helped to bring different, often more and represent the experiences, nuances, and explicit concerns of African x--nplex, stories, themes, characters, and representations of blackness to Americans, these producers offer not only different stories, but alternative .,;r;mnercial network television. Questions about the continuing presence of ways ofnegotiating and realizing them. Indeed, Kristal Brent Zook (1994 t~

which subsequent representations, including those in the 1980s and beyond, the cultural and racial politics they activated were far from simple; many remain in dialogue (Dates 1990; Riggs 1991b; Taylor 1991; Winston 1982). poor, working-class, and even middle-class blacks still managed to read In the early 1950s, programs such as Amos 'n ' Andy, Beulah, The Jack against the dominant discourse of whiteness and find humor in the show. Benny Show) and Life with Father presented blacks in stereotypical and sub­ However, because of the charged racial politics between blacks and whites, servient roles whose origins lay in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century popu­ as well as the class and cultural politics within black America, the tastes, lar forms (Cripps 1983; Dates 1990; Ely 1991; Winston 1982). Blacks ap­ pleasures, and voices in support ofthe show were drowned out by the moral peared primarily as maids, cooks, "mammies," and other servants, or as con outrage ofmiddle-class blacks.f To be sure, although blacks and whites alike artists and deadbeats. These stereotypes were necessary for the representation may have found the show entertaining and funny, these pleasures meant dif­ and legitimation ofa racial order built on racism and white supremacy. Media ferent things. They were situated in very different material and discursive scholars and historians have clearly established the formative role ofradio in worlds. The social issues, political positions, and cultural alliances that shows the institutional and aesthetic organization of early television (Czitrom such as Amos 'n? Andy organized and crystallized, then, were powerful and 1982). As Winston (1982), Barlow and Dates (1990), and Ely (1991) sug­ tar-reaching in their impact, so much so that I believe that contemporary gest, the networks, first with radio and later with television shows such as Beu­ representations remain in dialogue with and only now have begun to tran­ lah, Amos 'n?Andy, and The Jack Benny Show, played an active and crucial role scend this formative period.9 in the construction and representation ofblacks in American mass media.v In By the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, the few representations the televisual world of the early 1950s, the social and cultural rules of race of blacks that did appear on network television offered more benign and relations between blacks and whites were explicit: black otherness was less explicitly stereotypical images ofAfrican Americans. Shows such as The required for white subjectivity; blacks and whites occupied separate and Nat "King') Cole Show (1956-57), I Spy (1965-68), and Julia (1968-71) . unequal worlds; black labor was always in the service of white domesticity attempted to make blacks acceptable to whites by containing them or rcn­ (The Jack Benny Show, Life with Father, Beulah); black humor was necessary dering them, if not culturally white, invisible.l" In these shows the social for the amusement ofwhites? and cultural "fact of blackness" was treated as a minor if not coincidental . Culturally, because blackness served whiteness in this way, the reigning theme-present but contained. In the racially tense and stratified United perspective of this world was always staged from a white subject position; States ofthe middle I960s, Diahann Carroll and Bill Cosby lived and worked when television did venture inside the separate and unfamiliar world of in mostly white worlds where whites dare not notice and blacks dare not blacks-in, say, Amos 'n? Andy-viewers found comforting reminders of acknowledge their blackness. Where the cultural and social "fact of black­ whiteness and the ideology ofwhite supremacy that it served: here was the ness" was irrepressible, indeed, central to the aesthetics ofa show, it had to responsible, even sympathetic, black domestic in Beulah; there were the be contained. (Whiteness also operated as the dominant and normative place responsible but naive members of the world of Amos 'n? Andv. But seldom of subjectivity both on and off the screen. In this racialized world of tele­ were there representations of the social competence and civi~ responsibili­ vision common sense neither whites nor blacks had any need to acknowl­ ties that would place any of the black characters from these shows on equal edge whiteness expIicitly. ) footing with whites (Dates 1990:204). Black characters who populated the This strategy of containment was used with Nat Cole, the elegant and television world ofthe early 1950s were happy-go-lucky social incompetents sophisticated star of The Nat «King)) Cole Show.ll An accomplished jazz­ who knew their place and whose antics served to amuse and comfort cul­ read black-pianist, Cole was packaged and presented by NBC to fore­ turally sanctioned notions of whiteness, especially white superiority and ground his qualities as a universally appealing entertainer. Cole was the host paternalism. These black folk could be trusted to manage white households, of a television variety show that emphasized his easy manner and polished nurture white children, and "restore balance and normalcy to the [white] vocal style, and the containment of his blackness was clearly aimed to quell household" (Dates 1990:262), but they could not be trusted with the social white fears and appeal to liberal white middle-class notions of responsibil­ and civic responsibilities of full ,;~:::enship as equals with whites. ity and good taste. In the social and cultural climate of the times, NBC In the racially stratified and segregated social order ofthe 1950s United thought it necessary to separate Cole from any association with the black States, there was enough about these representations to both comfort and jazz life (an association made larger than life with the sensational press cov­ offend. So pervasive and secure was the discourse ofwhiteness that in their erage of Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis), amusement whites were incapable of seeing these shows and the represen­ equating black jazz artists with drugs, sex, rebellion, and social deviance. tations they presented as offensive, At the same time, ofcourse, many mid­ Despite this cautious strategy, the network's failure to secure national spon- , dle-class blacks were so outraged by these shows, particularly Amos 'n? Andy, sors [or the show, especially in the South, resulted in cancellation of The' that the NAACP successfully organized and engineered a campaign in 1953 Nat «King) Cole Show after only one season. Sanitized and contained rep­ to remove the show from the air (Cripps 1983; Dates 1990; Ely 1991; resentations ofblacks in the late 1950s and the 1960s developed in response Montgomery 1989). As racist and stereotypical as these representations were, to the stereotypical images that appeared in the early days oftelevision. They 288 The Poiitirs 289 constitute signal moments in discursive adjustment and readjustment of There is little doubt that the ~;K"':C'~ of Roots helped to recover and black representations in commercial television (MacDonald 1983; Mont­ -eposition television constructions and representations ofAfrican Americans gomery 1989; Winston 1982). and blackness from their historic labors in behalfofwhite racism and myths Against this discursive backdrop as well as the social rebellions of the ,r'white superiority. But the miniseries also contributed quite significantly 1960s, the representations ofblack Americans that appeared throughout the :0 the transformation, in the popular imaginary, of the discourse of slavery 1970s were a direct response to social protest and petitions by blacks against and American race relations between blacks and whites. That is to say, with American society in general and the media in particular for the general Roots the popular media discourse about slavery moved from one of almost absence of black representations (MacDonald 1983; Montgomery 1989; complete invisibility (never mind structured racial subordination, human Winston 1982). Beginning in 1972, television program makers and the net­ degradation, and economic exploitation) to one of ethnicity, immigration, works produced shows that reached for "authentic" representations ofblack and human triumph. This powerful television epic effectively constructed life within poor urban communities.V These programs were created as re­ the story ofAmerican slavery from the stage ofemotional identifications and sponses to angry calls by different sectors of the black community for "rcle. attachments to individual characters, family struggles, and the realization of vant" and "authentic" images of black people. the American dream. Consequently, the social organization of racial subor­ It is easy to see now that both the demand tor relevant shows and the dination, the cultural reliance on human degradation, and the economic networks' responses were themselves profoundly influenced by the racial and exploitation of black labor receded almost completely from the story. And, cultural politics of the period. The new shows offered were designed to ofcourse, this quality is precisely what made the television series such a huge contain the anger and impatience of communities on the move politically; success. program makers, the networks, and "the community" never paused to exam­ From the distance of some seventeen years, I also want to suggest ine critically the notions ofrelevance or authenticity. As a visible and polem­ another less obvious but powerful effect ofRoots, especially for African Amer­ ical site ofcultural debate, television moved away from its treatment ofblacks ican cultural struggles over the sign of hlackness. My criticisms of the dom­ in the previous decade. The television programs involving blacks in the 1970s inant labors of the series notwithstanding, I want to propose that for an were largely representations ofwhat white liberal middle-class television pro­ entire generation of young blacks, Roots also opened~enabled, really~a gram makers assumed (or projected) were "authentic" accounts of poor JiiSCltrsive space in mass media and popular culture within which contem­ black urban ghetto experiences. Good Times (1974-79), Sanford & S011 porary disc()~rses of blackness developed and circulated. I think that it is (1972-77), and What)s Happening!! (1976-79), for example, were all set possible to locate within the media discourse of blackness articulated by in poor urban communities and populated by blacks who were often unem­ Roots some ofthe enabling conditions necessary for the rearticulation ofthe ployed or underemployed. But more important, for the times, these black discourse of Afrocentric nationalism. In other words, I would place Roots folk were good-humored and united in racial solidarity regardless (or per­ in dialogue with the reactivation and renewed interest in black studies and haps because) of their condition. Ironically, despite the humor and social the development of African-centered rap and black urban style, especially circumstances of the characters, these shows continued to idealize and qui­ their contemporary articulation and expression in popular culture and mass etly reinforce a normative white middle-class construction of family, love, media. It seems to me that Roots enabled and facilitated the circulation and and happiness. These shows implicitly reaffirmed the commonsense belief saturation of the popular imaginary with television representation of Africa that such ideals and the values they promote are the rewards of individual and blackness. Finally, relative to the televisual construction of'African Amer­ sacrifice and hard work. icans and blackness in the 1950s and 19605, Roots helped to alter slightly, These themes appeared in yet another signal moment in commercial even momentarily interrupt, the gaze of television's idealized white middle­ television representations of African Americans-s-in the hugely successful class viewers and subjects. However minimal, with its cultural acknowledg­ miniseries Roots. Inhabiting the teievisual space explored three years earlier ment of black viewers and subjects, the miniseries enabled a temporary but in the miniseries The Autobiographv ofMiss Jane Pittman, ROIJtsdistinguished no less powerful transitional space within which to refigure and reconstruct itself commercially and thern-t.cally as one of the most-watched television black: television representations. 13 shows in history. Based on Alex Haley's book of the same name, Roots pre­ In black-oriented situation comedies of the late 1970s and early 1980s, sented the epic story of the black American odyssey from Africa through especially the long-running The Jeffersons, as well as Benson, Webster, slavery to the twentieth century. It brought to millions of Americans, for DiffrmtStrokes, and Gi1lZme a Break, black upward social mobility and mid­ the first time, the story of the horrors of slavery and the noble struggles of dle-class affluence replaced black urban poverty as both setting and theme black Americans. This television representation of blacks remained anchored (Gray 1986).14 Predictably, however, the humor remained. Even though by familiar commitments to economic mobility, family cohesion, private these situation comedies were set in different kinds of "families't-i-single­ property, and the notion ofAmerica as a land of immigrants held together parent households, homes with cross-racial adoptions~that were supposed by shared struggles of hardships and ultimate triumph. to represent an enlightened approach to racial difference, in the end they Television Texts dJ.ss f<;tnlily (Dates 1990; Downing 1988; Dyson 1989; Fuller 1992; [hally too were anchored by and in dialogue with familiar themes and emblems of familial stability, individualism, and middle-class affluence (Gray 1986). md Lewis 1992). In The Cosby Show) blackness, although an element ofthe show's theme, Although blackness was explicitly marked in these shows, it was whiteness character, and sensibility, was mediated and explicitly figured through home, and ~ts privile.ge~ st~tus u:at remain~d u.nmarked an~ theret9Le: h~gemoni( ~ife, family, and middle-classness. Cosby explained .the show:s treatment ot within television s discursive field of racial construction and representation race: "It may seem I'm an authority because my skin CO,lor gIves m~ a mark, (Kelley 1992). As with their predecessors from the 1950s and 1960s blacks 'jf a victim. But that's not a true label. I won't deal WIth the fooltshness at in the shows from the 1970s and early 1980s continued to serve a; surro­ "a..::ial overtones on the show. I base an awful lot of what I've done simply gate managers, nurturers, and objects of white middle-class fascination on what people will enjoy. I want to show a family that has a good life, not (Dates 1990; Steenland 1989). Furthermore, as conventional staples of the ,-'cople to be jealous of" (quoted in Christon 1989:7; emphasis add~d).15 genre, they required unusual and unfamiliar situations (e.g., black children :fhe Huxtable family is universally appealing, then, largely because It IS a in white middle-class homes) tor thematic structure and comedic payoff. In middle-class family that happens to be black (Dates 1990; Dyson 1989; appearance, this generation of shows seems more explicit, if not about the Fuller 1992' Gray 1989; Greenly 1987; [hally and Lewis 1992). subj~ct of race, at least about cultural difference. However, because they In an enactment ofwhat Stuart Hall (1981b) calls the "politics ofrever­ con.tI.nued ~o construct and privilege white middle-class viewers and subject sals" in black-oriented shows from the 1970s, the merger ofrace (blackness) positions, 111 the end they were often as benign and contained as shows and class (poverty) often provided little discursive and textual space tor whites about blacks from earlier decades. and manv middle-class blacks to construct meaning for the shows that was not troubling and derisive. The Cosby Show strategically used the Huxtables' The Cosby Moment upper-middle-class status to invite audience identifications a~ross race,. gen­ Discursively, in terms oftelevision constructions ofblackness, The Cosby Show der and class lines. For poor, working-, and middle-class Afncan Americans, is culturally significant because of the productive space it cleared and the AsianAmericans latinos and whites it was impossible simply to laugh at these aesthetic constructions of black cultural style it enabled. Pivotal to under­ characters and ~ake th~ir blackness an object of derision and fascinatiOl:. standing the social position and cultural significance of contemporary tele- Rather, blackness coexisted in the show on the same disc~rsive plane as their , vision representations of blackness is what I shall call the Cosby moment, upper-middle-class success (Dyson 1989; [hally and LeWIS 1992). , Like the miniseries Roots) TIle Cosby Show reconfigured the aesthetic .and In this respect, The Cosby Show is critical to the development of con­ .industrial spaces within which modern television representationsof blacks temporary television representations of blacks. The show opened to some are constructed. whites and affirmed for many (though by no means all) blacks a vast and Indeed, under Bill Cosby's careful guidance the show quite intention­ previously unexplored territory ofdiversity within blac~e.ss-that is, upper­ ally pres.ented i,tself as ~ ,corrective to previous generations of television rep­ middle-class life.!" On the question of The Cosby Shows Importance to the resentations of black life. In countless press interviews, Cosbv voiced his representation of differences within blackness, Michael Dyson (1989) per- frustrations with television's representation of blacks. Here is j~st one: ceptively notes: Run down what you saw of blackpeople on TV before the Huxtablcs, You The Cosby Show reflects the increasing diversity of Africa~ American life, had "Amos 'n' Andy," one of the funniest shows ever, people say. But who including continuous upward social mobility by blacks,which proVides ac­ ever went to college? Who tried for better things? In "Good Times," J. J. cess to new employment opportunities and expands the blackmiddle class. Walker played a definite underachiever. In "Sanford & Son" vou have a Such mobility and expansion insures the development of new styles for junk dealer living a few thousand dollars above the welfare level. "The Icf­ blacks that radically alter and impact African American culture. The Cosby fersons" move uptown, He owns a dry-cleaningstore, Jives in an integrated Show is a legitimate expression of one aspect of that diversity. Another neighborhood. Where are the sociological writings about this? (quoted in aspect is the intra-racial class divisions and differentiation introduced as a Christon 1989:45) result of this diversification of African American life. (p. 29) Positioning The Cosby Show ;11 relation to the previous history of programs Discursively, the show appropriated the genre of situation comedy and used about blacks ~elps ~xplain i~s upper-middle-class focus. More significantly, it to offer a more complex representation ofAfrican American life than had the show's discursive relationship to television's historical treatment of African Americans and contemporary social and cultural debates (about the been seen previously. This ability to organize and articulate different a~diences toge~her ~la~k ~nderclass, the black family, and black moral character) helps to explain successfully through televisual representations ofupper-middle-class ~fncan ItS insistent r.ecuperation of African American social equality (and compe­ Americans accounts for The Cosby Show)s popularity as well as the cnncisms tence), especially through the trope of the stable and unified black middle- 295 294 Television Texts TIle Politics of IVfW i 'Jil1W flU, results of prejudice (attitudes), and through theforeg~ounding~fthe ind~- ' and identified with the idealizations offamily, mobility, and material security ',idualegoas the site of social change and rranstormauon- 1 co~sl~er S?O'A-S represented on the show. I took particular delight in the program's constant ~ssimilationist to the extent that the worlds they cons~ct are dl~tll1gUJshed a:~emp~ to showcase black music and such musicians as John Birks (Dizzy) the complete elimination or, at best, margin.alizatio~ ~f s?C1al and cul­ Gillespie, B. B. King, Mongo Santamaria, and Betty Carter. On the other tural difference in the interest of shared and umversal. slmllanty, These a.re hand, in my classes, at conferences, and in print I have criticized the show for Doble aspirations, to be sure, but such programs .conslst~ntly erase. the his­ its idealization of the middle class and its failure to address issues that con­ tories of conquest, slavery, isolation, and power.1Oequahtles, confll~ts, an~ front a large number ofAfrican Americans. I have often regarded this ambiva­ struggles for justice and equality that are central featu~es ofU.S. society (see lence ~s my unwillingness to stake out a position on the show, to make up Lipsitz 1990b). Programs organized by such. assumptIons are fram~d alm~~t my mind. But this unwillingness, I am increasingly convinced, is part ofthe entirely through codes and signifying praCtIces .th~t cele?rate racial IOVIS1­ sho~'s appeal, its complexity in an age of racial and cultural politics where bility and color blindness (see Gray 1986). Begmnmg WIth I Spy and ~on­ the SIgn ofblackness labors in the service ofmany different interests at once. :inuing with Julia, Mission: Impossible, and Room.222, ~hese early shows mte­ As I have been arguing, The Cosby Show constructed and enabled new ways of o-ratedindividual black characters into hegemomc white worlds VOId of any representing African Americans' lives. But within black cultural politics ofdif­ hint ofMrican American traditions, social struggle, racial conflicts, and cul- ference. t?C strategy of staging black diversity within the limited sphere of domesticity and upper-middle-class affluence has its costs. tural difference. Contemporary variations on this theme remain with us today. In the 1980s, assimilationist television representations of African Amencans could Discursive Practices and Contemporary be found in daytime soaps, advertising, and loca~ an~ network new pro­ Television Representations ofBlackness grams as well as in such prime-time shows as FamlfY Ties, The Golden Girls, Designing Women, L.A. Law, and Night Court. WIthout a d.ou~t, some of Having mapped the institutional and discursive history of commercial net­ these shows, including L.A. Law) The Golden Girls, and Des11JIHng ~omen, work television representations of blackness, I now want to suggest that featured episodes that explicitly addressed issues ofcontemporary raClal.p.ol­ c~nten~porary images ofAfrican Americans are anchored by three kinds of itics, but 1 Ilonetheless maintain that where such themes were expl~CItly dIs.culSlve practices. I shall refer to these as~i!!!i.l

that these tensions and conflicts are addressed at all, they figure primarilv shows pluralist and therefore different from the assimilationist shows is their through individual characters (white and black) with prejudiced attitudes, explicit recognition of race (blackness). as the basis of cultural difference who then become the focus of the symbolic transformation required to re­ expressed as separation) as a feature of U.S. sociery.j! As in so much of store narrative balance. relevision, the social and historical contexts in which these acknowledged In keeping with television's conventional emphasis on character and differences are expressed, sustained, and meaningful are absent. The partic­ dramatic action, assimilationist television discourses locate the origins and ularity of black cultural difference is therefore articulated with( in) the dorn­ operation of prejudiced attitudes at the level of the individual, where they inant historical, cultural, and social discourses about American society. It is stem from deeply held fears, insecurities, and misunderstandings by individ­ possible then to recognize indeed celebrate, the presence ofAfrican Amer­ ual whites who lack sufficient contact with blacks and other peoples ofcolor. ;cans, latinos, Asians, Nativ~ Americans, and women and the particularly dis­ For blacks, on the other hand, they are expressed as the hurts and pains of tinct tradition, experiences, and positions they represent without disrupting exclusion that have inevitably hardened into victimization, anger, and irra­ and challenging the dominant narratives about American society. In other tionality. Typical examples from episodes ofFamil» Ties and The Golden Girls words, race as the basis of inequality, conquest, slavery, subordination, ex­ used the presence ofblack neighbors and a potential romantic interest, respec­ ploitation, even social location is eliminated, as are the oppositions, strug­ tively, to identity and draw out white prejudices and suspicions about blacks. gles, survival strategies, and distinctive lifeways that result from these expe­ In the end, misunderstandings and mistrust were revealed as the source of riences. In this manner cultural difference and diversity can be represented, ! fear and suspicion. With television's conventional reliance on narrative reso­ even celebrated, but in ways that confirm and authorize dominant social, lution, once identified, such troubling issues as racial prejudice are easily political, cultural, and economic positions and relationships. From the sep­ resolved (or contained) in the space ofthirty minutes. arate-but-equal televisual world inaugurated by Amos 'n' Andy, a large num­ One other characteristic defines shows embedded in an assimilationist ber of black representations remain separate, even if they have gained, sym­ discourse: the privileged subject position is necessarily that ofthe white mid­ bolically at least, a measure of equality. dle class. That is to say, whiteness is the privileged yet unnamed place from Contemporary black-oriented shows and the representations they offer which to see and make sense ofthe world. This very transparency contributes occupy a discursive space still marked by their relationship to an unnamed but ~o the hegemonic status of this televisual construction ofwhiteness, placing nevertheless hegemonic order. Like assim.ilationist representations, pluralist it beyond critical interrogation. Indeed, relative to the hegemonic status that representations are constructed from an angle ofvision defined by that nor­ whiteness occupies in this discourse, blackness simply works to reaffirm, shore mative order. The assumptions organizing pluralist representations of black up, and police the cultural and moral boundaries ofthe existing racial order. life offer variations and modifications of the representations in the assimila­ From the privileged angle oftheir normative race and class positions, whites tionist paradigm. These shows are also tethered to this hegemonic white mid­ are portrayed as sympathetic advocates for the elimination ofprejudice. die-class universe in yet another way-through the conventional formulas, genres, codes, and practices that structure their representations. Hence, on Pluralist or Separate-hut-Equal Discourses the face ofit, shows from 227to FamilyMatterspresent themes, experiences, and concerns that seem, and in some instances are, "uniquely African Amer­ Separate-but-equal discourses situate black characters in domesticallv cen­ ican"-forexample, the black church (Amen) and black women's friendships tered black worlds and circumstances that essentially parallel those of ,~rhites. (227and, more recently, Living Single). Ofcourse, the images of black life in Like their white counterparts, these shows are anchored bv the normative these shows do represent one mode of black participation in American soci­ ideals ofindividual equality and social inclusion. In other words, they main­ ety. However, representations ofblackness in these separate-but-equal worlds tain a commitment to universal acceptance into the transparent "normative" depend on an essential and universal black subject for their distinction from middle class. However, it is a separate-but-equal inclusion. In this television and similarity to the normative center. On programs such as Amen, 227, and world, blacks and whites are just alike save for minor differences of habit Family Matters, black people live out simple and largely one-dimensional lives and perspective developed from African American experiences in a homo­ in segregated universes where they encounter the usual televisual challenges geneous and monolithic black world. In this televisual black world African in the domestic sphere-social relations, child rearing, awkward situations, Americans face the same experiences, situations, and conflicts as whites ex­ personal embarrassment, and romance. cept for the ;a~~ that they remain separate but equal. Culturally, these shows construct a view of American race relations in I have in mind such programs as Family Matters, 227, Amen, and Fresh which conflict, tension, and struggles over power, especially claims on black­ Prince ofBel Air; earlier show's with predominantly black casts that currently ness, depend on the logic ofa cultural pluralism that requires ahomogeneous, run.in syndication from previous seasons, such as The[effersons, What's Hap­ totalizing blackness, a blackness incapable ofaddressing the differences, ten­ pcmng!!, Sanford & Son, and That's M:y Mama; as well as some of the pro­ ;;Io~~,-and diversities among African Americans (and other communities of gramming featured on Black Entertainment Television.t? 'What makes these c010r).22 Shows organized by such pluralist logic seldom, ifever, critique or 299 298 Television TeXLi The Politics uf fL·"N,t"::.?'·'.,;,·, engage the hegemonic character of(middle-class constructions of) whiteness :KCS that structured Prank's Place and Roc; are also distinguished by an or, for that matter, totalizing constructions of blackness. mnovative approach to television as a form v-thc program's explicit atten­ Discursively, the problem of racial inequality is displaced by the incor­ tion to Mrican American themes, the use of original popular music from poration ofblacks into that great American stew where such cultural distinc­ the African American musical tradition (i.c., blues), the blurring of genres tions are minor issues that enrich the American cultural universe without comedy/drama), the lack of closure and resolution, the setting and loca­ noticeably disturbing the delicate balance ofpower, which remains unnamed, tion, and the use ofdifferent visual and narrative strategies (e.g., a cinematic ~ook hidden, and invisible. Obscured are representations of diversity within and and feel, lighting, and production style). (In the case of Roc, I would among African Americans, as well as the intraracialjethnic alliances and ten­ rdd to these the use of live/real-time production.) sions that also characterize post-civil rights race relations in the United States. In addition to FranFs Place I would count some of the very early sea­ ~ogether with ass~mita..tionistdiscourses, these televis~on p~ogr~ms eftect~vely sons of The Arsenio Halt Show, A DifJerent World, and In Living Color as work for some viewers to produce pleasures and identifications precisely representative programs that have explicitly engaged the cultural politics of \ . because their presence oir-commercial network television symbolically con- diversity and multiculturalism within the sign of blackness. Television pro­ firms the legitimacy and effectiveness ofthe velY cultural pluralism on which grams operating within this discursive space position viewers, regardless of America's official construction and representation ofitselfdepend. Obscured race, class, or gender locations, to participate in black experiences from mul­ in the process is the impact (and responses to it) ofstructured social inequal­ tiple subject positions. In these shows viewers encounter complex, even con­ ity and the social hierarchies that are structured by it. tradictory, perspectives and representations of black lite in America. The guiding sensibility is neither integrationist nor pluralist, though elements of both may turn up. Unlike in assimilationist discourses, there are Black Sub­ Multiculturalism/Diversity jects (as opposed to black Subjects), and unlike in pluralist discourses, these I argued earlier in this chapter that The Cosby Sholl' reconfigured represen­ Black Subjects are not so total and monolithic that they become THE tations of African Americans in commercial network television. Although BLACK SUBJECT. this program marked an aesthetic and discursive turn away from assimila­ The issue or cultural difference and the problem of African American tionist and pluralist practices, key elements of both continued to structure diversitv and inclusion form the social ground from which these shows oper­ and organize aspects of The Cosby Sholl', which remained rooted in both sets ate. As illustrated by The Cosby Show, the discourse ofmulticulturalism/diver­ of discourses. In style and form, the show operated from the normative sity offers a view of what it means to be American from the vantage point space of a largely black, often multicultural world that paralleled that of of African Americans. But, unlike The Cosby Show, this is not a zero-sum whites. It appealed to the universal themes of mobility and individualism, game. The social and cultural terms in which it is possible to be black and and it privileged the upper-middle-class black family as the site ofsocial lite. American and to participate in the American experience are more open. At the same time, the show moved some distance away from these ele­ Although these terms often continue to support a "normative" conception ments through its attempt to explore the interiors of black lives and sub­ of the American universe (especially in its class and mobility aspirations), in jectivities from the angle of African Americans. The Cosby Sholl' constructed other respects shows such as Frane's Place and Roe stretch this conception black Americans as the authors of and participants in their own notion of by interrogating and engaging Mrican American cultural traditions, per­ America and what it means to be American. This transitional moment was spectives, and experiences.13 most evident in the show's use of blackness and African American culture In shows that engage cultural politics of difference within the sign of as a kind of emblematic code of difference. blackness, black life and culture are constantly made, remade, modified, and More central to the transition from assimilationist and pluralist dis­ extended. They are made rather than discovered, and they are dynamic rather courses to an engagement with the cultural politics of difference however than frozen (Hall 1989). Such programs create a discursive space in which are Frank's Place and, more recently, Roc and South Central. The short­ subject positions are transgressive and contradictory, troubling, and pleas­ lived Frank's Place was coproduced by Tim Reid and Hugh Wilson and urable, as are the representations used to construct identity (see Lipsitz aired on the CBS television network during the 1987-88 season. The show 199Gb), a space that is neither integrationist nor pluralist-indeed, it is often was distinguir'v-d by its explicit construction and positioning of Mrican both at the same time. Not surprisingly, black middle-class cultural per­ American culture at the very center of its social and cultural universe. From spectives and viewpoints continue to shape and define these shows; how­ this position the show examined everyday life from the perspective ofwork­ ever, they are driven less by the hegemonic gaze of whiteness. (This gaze ing-class as well as middle-class blacks. It seldom, if ever, adjusted its per­ is detectable in the assimilationist attempt to silence cultural difference and spective and its representation of African American cultural experiences to in the pluralist attempt to claim that African American cultural experiences the gaze of al1 idealized white middle-class audience. The discursive prac- arc parallel to white immigrant experiences.) 301 300 Television Texts The Politic.'

contradictOty character of racial representations in commercial network tel­ It is not that the representations that appear within this set ofdiscursive evision. I do not claim, of course, that these representations are inherently practices and strategies simply offer a more culturally satisfying and politically resistant or oppositional. The hegemonic terms and effects of racial repre­ progressive alternative to assimilationist and pluralist discourses. Indeed, thev scntation are no longer hidden, silenced, and beyond analytic and political often do not. They do, however, represent questions ofdiversitywithin black­ interrogation. To make sense of television representations of blackness polit­ ness more directly, explicitly, and frequently, and as central features of the ically, we must theorize and understand them in relation to other television programs. A Different World, Prank's Place, Roc, and In Living Color have representations and to discourses beyond the television screen. The read­ consistently and explicitly examined issues of racism, apartheid, discrimina­ mgs, affirmations, and interrogations that follow attempt just such a criti- tion, nationalism, masculinity, color coding, desegregation, and poverty from multiple and complex perspectives within blackness. ''-,11 practice. In these shows, differences that originate from within African American social and cultural experiences have been not just acknowledged, but inter­ Notes l-?gated, even pal:odied as subjects of television. In Liping Colorand A Dif­ ferent World, for instance, have used drama, humor, parody, and satire to ex­ 1. One of the very specific ways in which the presence of these limited spheres amine subjects as diverse as Caribbean immigrants, black fraternities, beauty (If individual influence has been expressed in the organization and production oftel­ evision programs about blacks is through the use of black professionals as consult­ contests, black gay men, the Nation ofIslam, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jacksod ants and advisers in the development of programs featuring blacks. For an interest­ Marion Barty, racial attitudes, hip-hop culture, and white guilt. The richness ing discussion of this phenomenon in the cases ofwomen, Mexican Americans, and ofAfrican American cultural and social life as well as the experience of oth­ blacks in television, see Kathryn Montgomery's Tm;get Prime Time (1989). e~ness th.a~ derives from subordinate status and social inequality are recog­ 2. See Horowitz (1989) for a detailed discussion ofthe role of black film exec­ nized, critiqued, and commented on. The racial politics that helps to struc- utives in the production of several commercially successful films in the 1980s. ture and define U.S. society is never far from the surface. . 3. In some instances, black actors and actresses exert some influence on tile creative vision and direction of black representations. These actors and actresses, however, do not or may not choose to receive production and writing titles (inter­ Watching Television, Seeing Black view with Marla Gibbs, 1990; see also Zook 1994). In many of the programs located in both pluralist and multiculturalist dis­ 4. My interview data confirm observations made by Gitlin (1983), Horowitz courses, African American culture is central to the construction of black sub­ 1)989), and Stcenland (1987,1989). 5. Black studio and network executives with whom 1 spoke reported that black jects as well as program content, aesthetic organization, setting, and narrative. executives are concentrated at the middle levelsofthe management structure, where These discourses, especially those that I regard as multiculturalist, operate at they often have the power to stop a project, but few are positioned at the very top, multiple levels ofclass, gender, region, color, and culture, and though frac­ where they can "green-light" a project (interviews with Stanley Robertson, Dolores tured and selective, their dominant angle ofvision, social location, and cul­ Morris, and Frank Dawson, 1990). See also Horowitz (1989). tural context are African American (Fiske 1987; Hall 1980, 1989; Newcomb 6. See Black Film Review (1993) for a discussion of the crucial role of black 1984). In all of the television representations of cultural difference there filmmakers such as Oscar Michcaux in generating counterrepresentations of blacks. remains a contradictorycharacter, one where the leaks, fractures, tensions, and 7. Also, black women were big, loud, and dark, and fulfilled the role of the contradictions in a stratified multicultural society continue to find expression. nurturing caretaker of the white home (e.g., Beulah). Although contained within the larger hegemonic terms ofthe dominant 8. In 1952, Amos I n' Andy received an Emmy Award nomination (Ely 1991). American discourse on race and race relations driven bv the narrative ofinclu­ 9. Many of the criticisms leveled at rap music and programs such as In Living sion, many of the shows circulating within these various discursive practices Color have their roots in the black cultural politics of this period. Concerns about racial embarrassment, black perpetuation of stereotypes, and so on were as urgent, provide different representations of African Americans on commercial net­ especially for the black middle class, then as they are now. work television (Hall 1981b). Within commercial television representations 10. Another show from the period that followed this pattern for the social con- ~f Am~rican African culture, the most compelling and powerful representa­ struction and representation of blackness was Room 222. nons mark, displace, and disarticulate hegemonic and normative cultural 11. Other variety shows of the period featuring black hosts included The Leslie assumptions and representations about America's racial order. At their best, Uggams Show (1969), The Flip Wilson Show (1970-74), and The New Bill Cosby Sholl' such representations fully engage all aspects ofAfrican American life and, in (1972-73). the process, move cultural struggles within television and media beyond lim­ 12. In the early 1970s, The Flip Wilson Show, a comedy-variety show starring ited and narrow questions ofpositive/negative images, role models, and sim­ comedian Flip Wilson, enjoyed a four-year run. The show has been characterized as ple reversals to the politics of representation (Fregoso 1990a; Hall 1989). a breakthrough in commercial television because it was the first black-led variety Contemporary television representations of blackness require a sharper, show to rate consistently among the top-rated shows in television. This show more engaged analytic focus on the multilayered, dialogic, intertextual, and included, among other things, the kind ofblack-based parody and humor that would 303 302 Television Text.. The Politics

~,nxton, Greg. (1991) "To Him Rap', ~o Laughing Matter." Los Angeles Times reappear in the late 1980s with the explosion of black comedy and variety (see Kol­ bert 1993). July 14, Calender, 4,82,84. ., .' li:;'Jt,ch, Richard. (1990) "Home Video and Corporate Plans: Capital s Limited 13. See Dates (1990:257) for an inventory of black-oriented miniseries that Power to Manipulate Leisure." In Richard Butsch (ed.) For Fun and Profit: The aired following the commercial success of Roots. Transformation ofLeisure into Consumption, 215-35. PhiladelphIa: Temple Um- . 14. The !effe~romoriginally aired in 1975 and enjoyed a ten-year run. I place the ~enes in r~latlonshlp to these other programs because of the centrality ofthe mobil­ versity Press. . t"':babram, Angie C. and Rosa Linda Fregoso (eds.) (1990) Chicana/o Representa- uy narrative m the show. Discursively, the series is important to the shows set in tions: Rejraming Alternative Critical Discourses. Special Issue, Cultural Studies poverty because it serves to reinforce (rather than simply realize) the mobility myth. 15. Mrican American writers from 227told me that in the culture ofthe indus­ 4 (October): Christian, Barbara. (1988) "The Race for Theory." Feminist Studies 14, no. 1: 69-:79. try, bla~k-oriented programs that explicitly attempt to address issues of inequality (hriston, Lawrence. (1989) "The World According to the Cos." Los Angeles Times, and racism or that seem to have a didactic function are regarded as "message shows." They also suggested that from the perspective of studios and the networks such December 10, Calender, 6,45-47. . Collins, Patricia Hill. (1990) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and shows are perceiv~d as risky ~d difficult to bring to the screen without stirring up trouble or offending some pnmary constituent (e.g., producers, networks advertis- the Politics ofEmpowerment. New York: Routledge. .. Cripps, Thomas. (1983) "Amos 'n' Andy and the Debate over Amencan Racial Inte­ ers) in the production process (interviews with writers, 1990). ' gration." In John E. O'Connor (ed.) American History, Americe« Television: 16. The Arsenio Hall Show is similar in this respect. The chatty format is really Interpreting the Video Past, pp. 33-54. New York: Fredenck Ungar. ab~ut the class and mobility aspirations of a new generation of young blacks and Czitron, Daniel. (1982) Media and the American Mind: From Morse to Mcl.uha«. whites. 17. One of the executive producers at 227 described the show as a "reality­ Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. .. Dates, [annette. (1990) "Commercial Television." In [annette Da~es and ~Ilham based show about a nice middle-class black family," therefore not a show with "mes­ Barlow (eds.) Split Image: Afi'ican Americans in the Mass Medi«. Washington, sages or anything ofthat nature." She also conceded that the primary interest ofthe show is comedy (interview with Irma Kalish, 1990). D.C.: Howard University Press. Dates Jannette and William Barlow (eds.) (1990) Split I ma~qe: African Americans 18. During the 1992-93 season, shows such as Roc and Where I Live contin­ i~ the Mass Media. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press. ued this approach to programs about blacks. Downing, John. (1988) "The Cosby Show and American Racial Discourse."ln G. 19. Although designed to showcase the individual stars of the show aestheti­ Smitherman-Donaldson and T.A. Van Dijk (eds.), DIScourse and Dtscmmna- cally The Cosby Show's style also moved through subtle but noticeable changes, the Univers~ty ~ost remarkable being the slow evolution of the show's opening strip over succes­ tion, p. 46-74. Detroit: Wayne State Press. "r. ., Dyson, Michael. (1989) "Bill Cosby and the Politics of Race. Z Magazme, Sep- srvc seasons. The background setting and theme music for the show's opening moved ~teadlly from an empty blue screen (accompanied by jazz) background to a tropical tember, 26-30. Ely, Melvin Patrick. (1991) The Adventures ofAmos 'n' Andy: A Social History ofan Island setting (accompanied by steel pans and Caribbean music) to a grafitti-fillcd wall on an urban street comer (accompanied by urban-based funk). Americas: Phenomenon. New York: Free Press. 20. The continued circulation and availability ofmany of these older programs Fiske, John. (1987) Television Culture. London: Methuen. . Fregoso, Rosa Linda. (1990a) "Born in East L.A.: Chicano C~nema and the Poll­ through reruns and cable are central to my claim that these programs are structured tics of Representation." In Angie C. Chabram and Rosa Linda Fregoso (eds:), by pluralist discourses. Chicana/o Representations: Refi'aming Alternative Critical Discourses (special ~ 1. See Dates and Barlow (1990) for discussion of the formation, operation, and Impact of black media organizations and black participation in mass media in issue). Culucm! Studies 4 (October): 264-81. .. Fuller, Linda K. (1992) The Cosby Sholl': Audiences, Impact, and Impltcattons. West- the United States. . 22. Sec Fregoso (1990a:264). The special issue of Cultural Studies published port, Connecticut: Greenwood. .. Gilroy, Paul. (1991b) There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural PoltUCS l1l October 1990 represents an important intervention by Chicanay'o scholars on the issue of identity, racial politics, and cultural representation (Chabram and Fregoso ofRace and Nation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1990). See also Hall (1988) Gitlin, Todd. (1983) Inside Prime Time. New York: Pantheon. . Gray, Herman. (1993a) "African American Political.Desire and the Seductions of 23. Paul Gilroy (1991b) has written rather persuasively about the cultural 36~-74. impress ofblacks in England on tile normative notions ofwhat it means to be British Contemporary Cultural Politics." Cultural Studie: 7: " ___. (1989) "Television, Black Americans, and the Amencan Dream. Critical especially black and British. George Lipsitz (1990a) makes a similar argument. ' Studies in MI1SS Communication 6: 376-87. ___. (1986) "Television and the New Black Man: Black Male Images in Prime References Time Situation Comedy." Media, Culture and Society 8: 223-43. Grcelv, Andrew. (1987) "Today's Morality Play: The Sitcom." New York Times, Allen: Robert, ed. (1987) Channels ofDiscourse: Television and Contemporary Crit­ ~lay ictsm. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 17 Arts and Leisure, 1, 40. Gunther, M~rc. (1990) "Black Producers Add a Fresh Nuance." Nell' York Times, Bobo, Jacqueline. (1991) "Black Women in Fiction and Non-Fiction: Images of Power and Powerlessness." Wide Angle 13, nos. 3-4: 72-81. August 26, Arts and Leisure, 25, 31. 305 304

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