COSBY LEADS THE WAY, BUT TV STILL STUMBLES IN DEPICTING BLACKS
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The enormous success of ”The Cosby Show” is studded with ironies. When Bill Cosby first submitted his idea for the series several years ago, the networks were convinced, courtesy of their ratings-research departments, that not only was the situation-comedy form dead in general but that the ”mass public” would be unreceptive to any new series about blacks in particular. Rejected by ABC, ”The Cosby Show” was eventually accepted by NBC, then still last in the ratings and willing occasionally to buck conventional programming wisdom. The rest is the kind of television history that sends competitors scurrying for imitations.
Indeed, several new series starring black actors, mostly in sitcoms, have been rushed onto television schedules during the past year and, not surprisingly, nearly all have proved disappointing with both critics and audiences. The bulk of them are trapped in demographic gyrations that manage to distort the everyday lives of both whites and blacks in this country. On ABC, ”The Redd Foxx Show” brought back the comedian as the aging adoptive father of a teen-age white girl, and ”He’s the Mayor,” already on hiatus, had the personable Kevin Hooks trapped in standard sitcom silliness as a 25-year-old who runs for office in his predominately white hometown and, needless to say, wins. CBS’s ”Melba,” yanked for repairs after only one episode, featured Melba Moore as a very proper divorced mother whose liberated ”sister” is white.
The only promising new entries are shows in which, perhaps significantly, the stars, following Bill Cosby’s example, have had major input in shaping the series. Marla Gibbs has gone from being the maid on ”The Jeffersons” to having her own family and brownstone in ”227.” The show started as a stage play starring Miss Gibbs, and she pushed for the series. For the most part, it is a standard sitcom, but it does touch on such very real issues as the homeless and unemployment among black teen-agers. Seen on NBC at 9:30 on Saturday nights, immediately following the hit ”The Golden Girls,” it has the advantage of a strong lead-in and could survive.
On the other hand, ABC’s latest Saturday-night entry, the short-lived ”Fortune Dane,” had to compete directly with both of those shows. Carl Weathers starred in this action-adventure as a muscle-laden trouble-shooter for a white woman mayor. The series’ premise had the title character wandering into interracial areas once considered highly sensitive; the show was attempting nothing less than to give television its first solo black ”hunk” star. And why not? Carefully overseeing his own projected image, Mr. Weathers was the supervising producer and one of the executive producers. Unfortunately, the hourlong scripts decidedly lacked the star’s personal flair. The show was dropped last week.
