Mixed Couples on American TV

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "jkusalavagemd" <jkusalavagemd at y...> 
wrote:

> I think you are overly quick to label an economic decision as 
> racist. If a show doesn't get ratings, then it cannot command the 
> best price--  or any price-- for its commercials,(snip) The
> prospective popularity of a show is tested with focus groups ad 
> nauseam.  In the words of Michael Corleone, "It isn't personal, 
>it's just business." 

All you are saying is that if making a decision about casting and/or 
plot lines is racist, then it is the focus groups (and presumably the 
viewing public that they represent) which is racist, not the 
producers and studios. (Actually, living here in Los Angeles, I have 
heard a fair number of anecdotes about various specific, named, TV 
producers and studio executives saying or doing racist things, but 
that's not what Naama asked about.) 

I don't think you should accuse Amy of being a thought police who 
wants TV investors to lose their money just because she commented on 
an apparent characteristic of the TV viewing audience. You might 
discuss whether that alleged characteristic of the viewing audience 
is in fact 1) racist and 2) bad.

Or the larger question of whether allowing race to affect casting 
decisions and plot lines is automatically racist. There was the fuss 
about the Broadway production of Miss Saigon, in which the actor who 
had created the role was picketted by American actors for being a 
Caucasian playing a Eurasian. 

There is also a Real Life white-husband black-wife couple here in 
Southern California who were active in Renaissance Faire and had the 
role of two real people from Elizabeth I's court. They acted 16th 
century English aristocrats so well that no one in the audience 
noticed that Lady so-and-so in her black velvet and white lace gown 
had dark skin. (Of course, just about EVERYONE in So Cal has darker 
skin than 16th century English aristocrats in their foggy climate.) 

> If they felt that a show about an interracial couple would be a
> hit, the airwaves would be saturated with program having these 
> themes.  

I vaguely remember a sitcom about an interracial couple back in the 
1970s -- it was said to be a modernization of "Abie's Irish Rose". 

But what people were commenting on the lack of is NOT shows ABOUT an 
interracial couple, but shows which a situtation like the above in 
which a couple of supporting characters (not the stars) is 
interracial but no one cares, or shows which SHIP two existing 
characters ignoring their race... say, Strek Classic, the beautiful 
Lt. Uhuru and any male cast member I can recall: Spock, Kirk, McCoy, 
Sulu, Chekhov, Scotty...