Net Wars

By Vincent F.A. Golphin

CBS jumped fast and furious into the new century with a different type of television. Its airing of the presidential New Year's Eve from Washington, D.C. was a strong multicultural presentation hosted by Hollywood's black "every woman's son," Will Smith. The other network giants, NBC and ABC, hosted celebrations where the most visible faces were white and male. If there was cultural diversity, such as in Times Square, it was in the crowd.

That combined with the launch of "City of Angels," a fast-paced, tightly scripted hospital drama starring Blair Underwood and Vivica A. Fox, signals a lull in the fighting of "the Net Wars." The 73-year-old broadcast outlet is the first of the nation's three airwave giants to show signs of bowing to pressure from the NAACP. The 90-year-old civil rights organization threatened to stir boycotts against major television and movie outlets unless they rethink the ways they portray and employ African Americans. CBS's cousins, the National Broadcasting and American Broadcasting companies have made promises, but not much more.

"Out of Focus - Out of Sync," a 1991 NAACP study of the film and television industries concluded:

African Americans and other racial minorities are under-represented in every aspect of the industry.

For the most part, studios and networks make little effort to use black businesses for the many products and services they buy. Despite the emergence of films produced and directed by African-American filmmakers, and despite the increase in television sitcoms and dramas, black actors and actresses are, for the most part, without steady work.

The dearth of opportunities for African Americans in behind camera employment is tied to the closed roster system and membership requirements of labor unions and guilds. Since the majority of production jobs are covered by collective bargaining agreements, lack of representation in labor organizations restricts job access for black technicians.

Eight years later, in 1999, NAACP President and Chief Executive Officer Kweisi Mfume cited the same trends in an assault on NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX television networks for the lack of racial diversity and sensitivity in their fall 1999 lineup. With a virtual monopoly on the airwaves, despite the threat from cable and satellite outlets, the networks became an easy target. None of the 26 shows slated for debut at that time, featured a person of color in a leading role.

"We have made every attempt to meet the four major networks more than halfway on this issue, but there is a limit to even the NAACP's patience," Mfume said in a December 1999 statement. The former Baltimore congressman was a respected deal-maker long before he took the helm of the civil rights organization in 1996, but television was an opponent that many civil rights experts considered unchangeable. That did not stop the threat.

"In the absence of any effort on their part to try to develop a way out of this problem," Mfume said, "they run the risk of a sustained, focused and continuous consumer action in the form of repetitive boycotts, picketing and large-scale demonstrations in front of their network headquarters, the offices of network-owned stations and affiliates nationwide, and the headquarters of their major advertisers." Apparently, concerted national protests were a risk network bosses were not prepared to take.

In the first days of the new century, ABC and NBC announced plans to increase non-whites' access to all network activities. FOX cried uncle, but the specific details of its cooperation are still to be announced. CBS launched a major media blitz on "City of Angels."

The medical drama about the struggle to heal at Angels of Mercy, a near-broke Los Angeles urban hospital, boasts a first-rate lineage. It's the brainchild of Steven Bocho, who also was executive producer and writer for the long-running hits "NYPD Blue" and "Hill Street Blues." Up-and-coming director Paris Barclay, an African American whose credits include "NYPD Blue" and the Wesley Snipes action drama "Passenger 57," births the episodes. Television standouts, dramatic actor Blair Underwood ("L.A. Law" and "High Incident") and the usually comedic Vivica A. Fox ("Getting Personal" and "Out All Night") give it soul. Underwood was a 1991 Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series. Fox was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for "Getting Personal." Compliments have flowed since the January 16 "City of Angels" premiere.

Underwood, whose natural intensity loomed large on the big screen in "Just Cause" and "Deep Impact," plays acting chief surgeon Dr. Ben Turner. The character's depth and sensitivity unveils a black male image not seen since the more socially aware television dramas of the 1960s. Turner is as calm and competent, but a far cry from the near-robotic doctor with a taste for white women Eric LaSalle portrays on "ER." Fox plays Turner's love interest, the suit-pummeled hospital's new medical director, Dr. Lillian Price, who joins the fight to save lives while fighting city and hospital administrations.

In the first episode, Price is deeply involved with a dying grandmother. The elderly guardian refuses cancer surgery, yet hangs onto life for the sake of two grandchildren, whose addict mother is in jail. Turner reprimands Dr. Weiss (Phil Buckman), who chose to work at the hospital, but resents feeling like a "token white." The first-year resident performed a risky operation without consent and almost lost a life. Those kinds of situations and characters - and the other networks' announced plans - signal non-whites on television and the big screen are in a new age.

On January 5, 2000, NBC announced it will:

• Increase deals with minority production companies and conduct senior level reviews to make certain that contracts match current market levels.
• Recruit a non-white executive to increase the amount of products and services bought from minority vendors, a projected 100 percent increase over 18 months.
• Increase the number of non-white lawyers in-house and hire more to do work outside corporate structures.
• Look for more minority directors for the 2000-2001 season.
• Urge producers to recruit non-white freelance writers.
• Fund an additional writing position on the staff of every second-year show to help achieve diversity.
• Expand an associate program to include 25 year-long internships with the network's news, entertainment and station divisions.
• Urge advertising and promotion departments to increase purchases in minority-owned media, consistent with NBC's audience and promotion goals.
• Open the door to more non-white job applicants through:
• Six NBC Minority Fellowship scholarships for graduate studies.
• Support of 18 slots in the Emma L. Bowen Foundation for Minority Interests in Media.
• Better relationships and recruitment in colleges.
• An increase in the number of non-white NBC pages.
• Issue instructions to network creative executives, production studios and executive producers that NBC will not racially identify writing samples for network television series.

A January 7 NAACP release states ABC's aims in more vague terms. It states the network "will create grants to discover and support new writing and directing talent and take other steps to expand the pool of available candidates for network on-air positions, program production, casting, promotion, professional services and procurement." The announcement also promises that by June the network will make grants to minority individuals to discover and support new writing and directing talent. The plan also includes efforts to increase the pool of non-white actors through aggressive recruitment at colleges and acting schools.

Fox announced no specific changes. Network executives promised efforts similar to those announced by the big three.