Tuesday February 14, 2006
Finally, TV is in living colour
By CHUCK BARNEY
When My Name Is Earl star Jaime Pressly travelled to her native Kinston, North Carolina, for the holidays last December, she didn't know exactly what kind of reaction she'd elicit among the red-state citizenry. After all, her sitcom character Joy, a brassy blonde bombshell, is married to Darnell (aka Crab Man), a laid-back black guy and, well, she was braced for at least a little flak.
Instead, she was smothered with enthusiastic inquiries about her onscreen mate, played by Eddie Steeples.
 |
Jaime Pressly, the star of My Name Is Earl. - AP Photo. |
Similarly, Steeples says he doesn't hear much feedback about the interracial pairing from the public. "To be honest," he says, "I usually get `Man, she's hot, huh?'"
This matter-of-fact acceptance comes as good news to television writers and producers who are shrugging off hoary concerns about alienating viewers and advertisers as they allow love to bloom between characters of all races and cultures. Of course, anyone who has seen I Love Lucy or The Jeffersons knows this isn't exactly groundbreaking stuff, but with Valentine's Day upon us, it's worth noting that TV's portrait of romance is, more than ever, one of blended colours.
A highly compelling coupling on the hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy involves a black man and an Asian woman. The critically acclaimed sitcom Scrubs features a marriage between a Latina and a black man. On ER, which has long been a monument to diversity, a woman of Indian descent is married to a black man.
And those are just a few examples involving key characters. Toss in all the various and far-flung tangential depictions and the interracial canvas becomes even broader. One of the most touching scenes on Lost this season featured the surprise reunion of Rose, a black woman, and Bernard, her white husband. On Gilmore Girls, the Korean teen, Lane Kim, just went through a messy breakup with her white boyfriend. Meanwhile, there's Will & Grace, which recently had Will planting a big smooch on a black man played by Taye Diggs.
Several industry observers are applauding the trend. Lillian Jackson, who writes a Diversity Detail column for the publication Television Week, spotlighted it as one of TV's major "breakthroughs or advances" of the 2005-06 season. And Dr. Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies at the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television, said recently in a interview with National Public Radio that he thinks Hollywood is being "more open-minded and perhaps more progressive and willing to represent things" differently than they have in the past.
Of course, in the not-so-distant past, such onscreen couplings occasionally stirred up markedly different reactions. In 1999, for example, Eriq La Salle, then one of the main stars of ER, made headlines when he prodded producers to end his character's interracial romance with a white woman, played by Alex Kingston, because he was "not comfortable" with the message it sent to black people. And Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, has spoken of the hate mail he received when he introduced a story line that had the president's young white daughter kissing a black presidential aide.
But 38 years after Captain Kirk raised eyebrows by kissing the sexy - and black - Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek, people generally are making less of a fuss about interracial relationships on television and in real life. In the past 20 years, the number of interracial marriages has climbed from fewer than 700,000 couples to 1.7 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That number is likely to rise because, as sociologists point out, the world is becoming more of a melting pot, and young people tend to be more blind to race when it comes to relationships.
Wanting to be in tune with what's going on in the real world, television writers - along with their feature-film counterparts - not only have become less hesitant to cross the colour line, but they're mostly handling interracial relationships in an offhanded manner, refusing to make race much of an issue.
On Grey's Anatomy, for example, other differences between live-in mates Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) and Preston Burke (Isaiah Washington) have been emphasised: He's neat; she's messy; he's quietly arrogant; she's openly abrasive; he has a sense of spirituality; she doesn't.
"It's incredibly encouraging that our viewers haven't gotten hung up on the race thing," says Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes, the only black woman currently running a major network drama. "It's not about the fact that she's Asian and he's black. It's about the fact that she's a slob, and he's a neat freak. That's what the whole relationship is all about."
 |
Sandra Oh, star of Grey's Anatomy - AP Photo. |
The Grey's Anatomy approach is prevalent throughout prime time. A recent episode of Supernatural featured a sizzling sex scene between one of the show's white male leads and a black guest star. Later, the characters acknowledged that their hot-cold relationship had its pitfalls, but race wasn't mentioned as one of them.
Similarly, Joy and Darnell occasionally lock horns on Earl, but skin colour hasn't been a factor so far. As for ER, producer David Zabel recently told USA Today that "we don't even talk about (race) or consider that it's an interracial relationship" when they deal with characters played by Parminder Nagra and Sharif Atkins.
While some consider this colour-blind treatment to be noble - a way of normalising such relationships - others consider it to be a cop-out. They insist that the medium is too reluctant to wrestle with the challenges and complexities of such unions.
"Face it, some writers are just afraid of going there," says Eric Deggans, a media critic for the St. Petersburg Times. "Taking on cultural differences isn't easy, so they simply make believe they don't exist."
Deggans, a black man, has been married to a white woman for nearly 15 years. He says that even in the most cosmopolitan of American cities, many citizens remain race-conscious, and that interracial couples continually confront various forms of discrimination when in public and/or when families mingle.
"When I see shows that dwell in a universe that doesn't actually exist, it feels somewhat artificial and it takes me out of the show," he says. "In the future, I'd like to see producers take more chances and take the blinders off. To me, that would make for great drama."
He might get his wish, because TV has more interracial subject matter on the way. Comedian George Lopez recently struck a deal with ABC to produce a sitcom starring Lisa, Christina and Tanya Vidal about an interracial family of three adult sisters and their spouses. Meanwhile, the forthcoming WB drama The Bedford Diaries features scenes of a black college freshman struggling through a relationship with a pregnant white girl still in high school, and an FX drama called Thief places Emmy-winning actor Andre Braugher in a marriage with a white woman.
Norman Morrill, creator and executive producer of Thief, says he wrote an interracial coupling into the show long before the current wave of diversified unions hit the air. Asked why he felt compelled to cross the colour line, Morrill, who is married to a Mexican woman, replied, "Because it feels real to me - because it's part of the American experience."
TIMELINE
Here's a cursory rundown of some key inter-ethnic moments on television:
1951
In mulling whether to produce I Love Lucy, CBS honchos worry that viewers will never believe Cuban-born Desi Arnaz as Lucille Ball's husband - even though they're married in real life. I Love Lucy becomes an instant hit.
1957
Alan Freed begins hosting a weekly rock `n' roll show on ABC, but the programme is abruptly cancelled shortly after black singer Frankie Lymon is seen dancing with a white teenage girl.
1968
Captain Kirk (William Shatner) of Star Trek makes history when he plants a smooch on Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). It's heralded as network television's first black-white kiss.
1968
While taping a duet with Harry Belafonte for an NBC special, Petula Clark smiles and briefly touches his arm. Nervous sponsors, fearing the segment would rile Southern viewers, request that it be cut. Clark stands her ground and the special airs intact to big ratings.
1975
The Jeffersons introduces America to George's married neighbours - an African-American woman and white man (Roxie Roker and Franklin Cover).
1998
Ally McBeal dishes out a double-dose of interracial romance as the show's heroine (Calista Flockhart) falls for Greg (Jesse L. Martin), an African-American doctor. Meanwhile, Richard Fish (Greg Germann) cosies up to Ling Woo (Lucy Liu).
1999
ER actor Eriq La Salle, whose character on the show is dating a white woman (Alex Kingston), pushes producers to halt the story line because he's uncomfortable with the message it sends to African-Americans.
2000
On Will & Grace, Debra Messing's Grace dates guest-star Gregory Hines in an ongoing story line.
2001
Six Feet Under brings a twist to TV's portrayal of interracial romance with a gay couple consisting of a white (Michael C. Hall) and a black (Mathew St. Patrick) man.
2003
Friends, often criticised for its lack of diversity, introduces Charlie (Aisha Tyler), a black woman who catches the eye of Ross (David Schwimmer).
- Copyright (C) 2006 KRT News Service
RSS
