See it Loud: The History of Black Television : CNNW : July 23, 2023 9:00pm-10:00pm PDT : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (2024)

stay intact. is rex heuermann connected to these other bodies? time will tell. >> as we continue to gather evidence, anything is possible. >> police are continuing their investigation into the other seven remains found in the gilgo beach area. they're asking the public to come forward with any tips or information they may have on these cases. thanks for watching. i'll see you next sunday. - let me hear you say it. what's your name? (panting) - kunta. kunta kinte. - when you look at the genre of drama, you have to look at our participation as actors. (kunta screaming) - first, we started off as guest stars, then we became supporting actors.

- who the hell are you anyway? - who am i? you will find out very soon. very soon. - [ernie] then we became lead actors. - we don't run. okay, we stick together and we fight. - get out of my house. you are afr- - drama is where all of the conflict happens. - [tisha] "scandal" is my favorite drama. - how many times have i told you, you have to be what? - everything about it, the twist, the turns, the acting. - twice as good. - twice as good as them to get half of what they have. - i love "queen sugar," "david makes man." i like the intimacy of that world that's being depicted. - definitely, "new york undercover." - waiting for the cops. you stupid? turn around. malik yoba, it was a positive role. it was a great thing to see someone who looks like you, very much a pivotal moment of growing, and trying to figure out who i was.

- american drama, it almost doesn't... it doesn't exist without black people now. (upbeat music) (smooth jazz music) - [hank] hey, you looking for somebody? - that's right, hank plummer. you know, i can find him? - yeah, he's right here. it's me. - you know, for a long time, the only way that you could measure the drama genre, was if black actors got to participate in it. not star, not have their own series, but participate in. and a lot of times it was as you're the sidekick, or you're the guest star, but not as the head honcho of a program. - don't come in, man. this ain't no protest meeting. integrated couples ain't allowed. - so, in the 1960s, america was changing. we're in the middle of the civil rights era.

black people are demanding things. and they're demanding not only civil rights, but they're demanding fair representation. and things were starting to change, they were starting to listen. so, in 1963, for example, the great cicely tyson starred in "east side, west side," which is one of the first examples of a black woman starring in a drama. - a little hope, a little bit help you get- - girl, get outta here before i... (door banging) - when i was very young, still in baton rouge, i saw cicely tyson, "east side, west side," a show that took place in new york, with her little afro and her, you know, just like, where did this woman hail from? - this is early, and it was a time before the afro had widespread acceptance. and again, when audiences see her, this black woman, she's not playing a maid, she's a secretary, she's educated, she's poised. so, it's a whole other thing that she brings to the tube.

and i think it was important racially and socially in america that tyson did that. - you want company? - if you want to. - [donald] and then, the real shift does come with "i spy." - the character that bill cosby played on "i spy," alexander scott, was sharp, suave. took these missions outside of the u.s, and was very much an equal to his white counterpart. - and "i spy" does deal with these two spies who are working really for truth, justice, and the american way. - and i suggest we use ec in dealing with these men? - extreme caution. - certainly. - it is reflecting now that america's becoming more integrated, and becoming more integrated in different areas. the executives at nbc liked the pilot, but they said,

"can you get rid of the black guy?" (chuckles) they didn't feel cosby would work. sydney sheldon refused. he really stuck with cosby on that. and it proved to be right. - this time, there's no element of surprise, no car crashes. - [hannah] cosby won an emmy for that portrayal. and the series went on to receive a golden globe in 1967. - certainly, i think it was a landmark moment. what's frustrating, is then you think about how much time passed from the time that he had that role, before there was the notion of equal billing, right? between the two, it took forever to get back to that again. - also, white america had to acknowledge that something had changed, not just on television, but in america. and immediately after "i spy," 1966 was called the year of the negro on television. you had shows like "star trek," and you had uhura, this black woman on this mission

into outer space. "daktari" which was set in africa. and you had harry rhodes playing an important supporting role. you had "mission impossible," and you had greg morris in there. and you had more black performers coming on series. now, it's being seen that tv should change, and african americans are appearing in important significant roles. - supporting characters are fine, but the lead characters were still gonna be white. one show though, i actually didn't think about it, is different, "room 222." - good morning. - good morning, mr. dixon. - "room 222" was set in a incredibly diverse high school in los angeles. and the lead character was played by lloyd hayes, and he plays pete dixon. - mr. butcher. - sir? they'll be expecting me in the detention room. if i don't show up, they'll think something happened to me. - it was ambitious.

and you get very much the sense that the character is probably very much influenced by sidney poitier's character in "to sir, with love." the black teacher who sort of teaches his students, not just their lessons but about life. but that again, was an important show because you had black performers in non-stereotypical roles in dramas. - two of my patients died, one after nurse gilling is late with a medication order. - that didn't kill him mrs. perez. - [ernie] so, the 1980s, while giving us these great shows, also gave us great characters and great performances like denzel washington in "st. elsewhere." diane carol in "dynasty," blair underwood in "l.a law," and even mr. t in "the a-team." - he ain't a mute anymore. - just like you ain't a warden anymore. - the '80s was such a great, interesting decade because it was a decade of excess. - i like being different. i like being ahead in shows above everybody else. - [ernie] mr. t was a great character that people still talk about today. (upbeat music)

- blair underwood, i think for most black women who were of certain age, (laughs) back then, he was so handsome, he was fabulous. - tell us a bit about yourself? - well, let's see, my, my mother's an attorney. my father's a professor of economics at uc riverside. - i mean, i like the show anyway, but the addition of his character to the show was just amazing. he was our heartthrob. - gentleman, it's been a genuine honor and a pleasure. thank you very much. - "l.a law" ran for eight years. well, it was just a huge hit outta the box, outta the gates. it was a huge hit. and i was on that show for seven years, and it wasn't until maybe my sixth, the last year of the show, i even had a love interest on the show. everybody else had whole lives, well rounded, fully fleshed out characters, and lives. and i knew my fan base was as big as the other ones. and you only see jonathan rollins in the courtrooms

for first four years. part of it, is what do people feel comfortable doing? and my whole thing was just write the humanity of it. i'll bring the blackness, don't worry about that. we'll bring the specificity to it, but don't deny us access to that part of our humanity and our character. so, it's been a journey. (smooth bass line) we have to get to the point where we have the privilege and the right as artists to play all kinds of characters. that's my, 'cause i know how far we've come. we still have a ways to go, but i know how far we've come, and that's exciting. (upbeat music)

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(upbeat music) - yeah, i've always found it interesting when america has these moments. and i mean, as a society and as an industry where it has a lot of guilt around black people, and what we have struggled through in this country. - never gonna sing again! - [man] yes you are! - never! - and so, i think the mini series was a way for well-intended executives, well-intended networks to allow for these stories to be told on a limited budget. - "jane pitman" was really a film that my family and i were really identified with. it's a story of racism through the prism of a woman. it's based on a novel by ernest gaines. - they was here looking for you tonight, nate, fixing to kill you. - it was very powerful. cicely tyson had "jane pitman," she was in "roots."

she was sort of the first black dramatic actress to gain a real, i think, stature in hollywood, and then also in the eyes of the white community as well as the black community. so, that "jane pitman" was a big deal when it came out. - part of me went with him to his grave. - the tv landscape just changed when the mini series first appeared, and it comes on in the '70s. it was a fuller expression than you could get in one or two-hour tv movie. - "rich man poor man" might have been the first, but when people think of miniseries in the '70s, they think of "roots." - "roots" became the very first of what we now call appointment tv. (fighters grunting) (whip slashing) - it is hard for people today, to understand how important "roots" was, because it was the first time that you followed the journey of an african american family. you saw it up close and personal from kunta kinte,

getting his foot chopped off to kizi getting sold off. - mama! mama! mama! - [kevin] it was so groundbreaking that both black and white people were watching it. - it's assumed that people don't want to see black lives treated with any kind of seriousness. and i don't really believe that's true. i mean, i think that the success of "jane pittman" and "roots" does indicate that americans white, as well as black will watch blacks in significant dramatic roles. - it was a game changer. they tried to get rid of it and discovered it was their gold mine. - i think part of what made it so special and unique, was it was a show that was on every single night of the week in one week. and as i've heard it, one of the reasons that that happened, was because at the time the network was unsure of how the show was gonna perform. - but i remember them doing a show called "rich man poor man"

and they put it on the air, and it tanked. other networks were in trouble. - so, they tried to air it all before "sweeps." and so, they inadvertently created a phenomenon. - and that was a key that turned the lock. - [lorraine] "roots" was not just a television event, it was an event. - an estimated 100 million people watched the finale of "roots," which is amazing, which is super bowl numbers. - [announcer] "roots part eight" was the third highest rated show in tv history. three more parts of the miniseries ranked in the top 25 of all time. - "roots" debuted eight episodes over eight nights, it had 37 emmy nominations. - people kept tuning in. and what was remarkable about it, was that it provoked these conversations. and i can certainly remember watching it and we would go to school the next day, and we would talk about it. but there was also a weird underlying racial tension.

and we weren't spending quite as much time with our white classmates 'cause we were a little pissed off. and i think we were also pissed off because we hadn't learned this in school. (chicken clucking) - bad chick. - one of the things about "roots," is that it was a book adaptation by alex haley, which led to other mini series, which were adapted by books by black authors, like "the women of brewster place," which was produced by oprah winfrey and starring oprah winfrey. - so, what's your idea of enjoying life butch fuller? running after every woman you see? - glory naylor's book, "women of brewster place" was a part of black feminism, which was a huge thing that started happening in black literature. so, when oprah got the rights to "women of brewster place," it had a track record that it was a significant enough piece. and because oprah was a big enough star at that point, she could populate it with people who had some name recognition. - i bet you got a new fellow? - i do have somebody. - "the women of brewster place" in 1989

really broke some new ground in terms of the kinds of women that were represented in that show. (upbeat music) - it's a drama about women, black women, and their tensions, their conflicts, their problems with men, their friendships with one another. - it was very kind of cutting edge and forward. - what could black women, who are typically invisible in this country, what could we be going through? what could be some of our hardships? what could be some of our joys and our vulnerabilities? and i think we could be doing a lot more on television and drama, but it did open up a pathway, i think, to what we see today. - [announcer] main negro beauty culturist madam cj walker is america's first self-made female millionaire. - "self made" is a story of madam cj walker, who was the first female millionaire, not black, white, asian, the first female american millionaire. she made her fortune, of course, in hair care. of course, she came along at a time, it was post civil war, post slavery.

- give me 110. - when black folks had a need to present themselves. we now call it the politics of respectability. - that was like a dream team of incredibly talented women, between casey lemons and jeanine sherman barrois, and octavia spencer. the idea that they were all involved in "self made," and were able to bring their sense of the history, their desire to be authentic in the storytelling, to really be able to have that kind of creative collaboration. you can't replicate that with somebody who doesn't understand the experience of what it is to be a black woman in america, right? (upbeat music) (indistinct chattering) (blows thudding) (man grunting) - "when they see us" is about the harrowing case that involved five black and latino youths who were falsely accused of beating and raping a white jogger in central park in 1989. - no kid gloves here. these are not kids, they raped this woman. our lady jogger deserves this.

- the brilliant mini series that ava duvernay, show ran and led and produced. but not only her experience as a filmmaker, as a writer, director, was incredibly helpful, impactful with making that and having it resonate in the way that it did. but also, the fact that she's also a ceo of her own company. - the question is, can we interrogate what's happened in the past to safeguard ourselves from it happening in the future? that's why i'm such a student of history. - we get stories like "when they see us." but sometimes you have to tellf itt, not just exactly how it happened, but how it was felt, how it was metabolized. - they beat her with their fists. she was raped by four of these group, four of these youths. - [announcer] the savage attack unleashed a cry of outrage in new york. - i was in new york city in 1989. and i have to say, that being caught up in the moment of everything that happened, and the way it was designed for me

to process and take it in. i mean, it did its job, so much to the degree that it wasn't until i watched the mini series, that i really understood the whole story. - ava duvernay's work in general, changes the landscape, as it gives us new language. we no longer call the central park five, the central park five, and that's for good reason. thanks to ava duvernay, and many others who helped her make "when they see us," we now call them the exonerated five. - what has been really encouraging to watch, is our evolution when it comes to how our stories are being told on screen. for the longest time, we were footnotes in history. we were used as props to tell other people's stories, to tell white stories. we should be the keepers of our stories. we should be the lens through which that truth is filtered.

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- come on, it's only 15 floors down. and you don't have to worry about the first 14th. (man screaming) - for "get christie love!" i mean, they have this cat lay tall, glamorous, gorgeous woman, being tough and all that on the heels of foxy brown. to have that on tv, it was like, yes. - i'm obliged to warn you that anything you say, may be used against you. - [lynn] that was like seeing our "wonder woman," you know? - i wish i could say that teresa graves starring in "get christie love!" opened the door. but from diahann carroll, starring in "julia," and teresa graves starring in "get christie love!", it took another 40 years before we had another female lead of a drama? (laughs) ridiculous. (upbeat music) - by 1980s, which the decade of excess,

television landscape was kind of defined by these big, tent pole shows, these big, giant dramas. - you're out of this operation, tubbs, as of now. - there is no operation without me, crockett. - after we have bill cosby's sauve, alex scott on "i spy," we get ricardo tubbs on "miami vice" who's played by philip michael thomas, who's smooth, swaggering, had fashion sense that eclipsed alex scott on "i spy." and these characters, were about 20 years apart, but they were definitely speaking to one another. - i remember "miami vice" as a fashion show, (laughs) more so than anything else. 'cause the pastels, the collars and everything. he was the black guy that white dads were afraid of the daughters bringing home. they personified coolness. and i think that went a long way again in making different types of black characters, acceptable to an audience. (suspenseful music)

(upbeat music) - "new york undercover" premiered in 1994, two years after the uprisings that followed the not guilty verdict in the rodney king beating case. - "new york undercover" was so groundbreaking 'cause it was one of the first shows ever to have two lead actors who were of color as detectives, fighting crime. and, you know, you didn't see that all the time. - freeze! put it down! - fbi, fbi. - we represented hip hop. we were a young black and latino. we were two detectives that were from the streets that decided that they wanted to be on the right side of the law and protect their community. - get the gun and cuff him. - "new york undercover" was the antithesis of the must-see tv. it was on fox, it was different in that drama genre. (introductory music) - fox was the new kid on the block.

and so, they were more open to new ideas. the casting, the music, definitely meant it was a non-network kind of show, or a new network kinda show, if you will. so, "new york undercover" in a way is a precursor to a lot of the crime dramas with black leads that now we take for granted. - we were very intentional with a show like "new york undercover." there's so many people that guest starred on that show. tay diggs, terrance howard, aunjanue ellis, tyra banks. "new york undercover" was the sh*t. (laughs) it was. it was. "the wire" is widely considered one of the best television shows in history. i would argue, i'd put "new york undercover" right up there with that. - yeah man, this, we got stepped on sh*t we got out here. get these fiends agitated. - well look at 'em, they still buying it though. - yeah, they buying twice as much, and only getting half as high. - for a while, there were several really popular crime series following black characters. "oz," "corner," "wire,"

and people were really drawn to those stories from both within and outside the community. - i've always felt that "the wire" in a sense grew out of something like "superfly" and "new jack city." this whole thing, the drug business and black men, and so forth. and "the wire" really presents a new generation of people in the drug world. you've got stringer bell played perfectly by idris elba. he's studying in school, preparing himself for his future. - you know there's dead on both sides, right? there's gonna be a whole lot more if this beef keep up. (camera shuttering) - we were able to speak on something such as the urban decay of america in all of its different facets, and continue to be not only authentic, but extremely entertaining. you know, better women than you are falling for my tricks, right?

- i'm really proud to have stumbled into playing the first black lesbian cop ever on television. again, way too late in history for that to have happened, 2002. - "the wire" inspired me so much because, again, we were with those young people, but we were also in their very adult world in their very adult challenges. in fact, it's one of the reasons why i reached out to michael b. jordan to be a producer for "david makes man," because i thought his performance as wallace in that show. i don't wanna cry. (laughs) we looked up in that young, powerful, caring individual, living at all of that turmoil. - do it goddam it, if you gonna- (gun firing) - he was gone. i know wallace. i was wallace. - i think the legacy of "the wire," is that it's now being taught in schools.

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especially, like in the '70s, there's time that goes by where there's nothing, and this is the only representation you have of yourself. - the growth of african american actors in dramas, has been amazing, from being a guest star to lead characters, to now we have shondaland. (glass shattering) - shonda rhimes is one of the most incredible genius people of our time. - right from the very beginning, she never shied away from letting the characters speak their truths. - how long have you been here in l.a? - it, um, it's complicated. - corinne. - you know, when i did "private practice" with shonda rhimes, i was playing a black woman who was bipolar. first of all, how often have we seen that? - here are your meds. you wanna take this for me? - and i was tay diggs' sister. he saw me have therapy. and i was really grateful for that role

because she continues to place black people in spaces where sometimes we are not allowed to tread. (upbeat music) - after barack became president obama with a black first family, it was so interesting to see in television, a shift in the kinds of images that you saw. - it's a dirty little secret, and dirty little secrets always come out. don't they, cyrus? - when i think about strong characters who highlight the black experience, immediately, who comes to mind? one is definitely carrie washington on "scandal." - i'm thinking. - one of the things that i felt really passionate about, was shonda's belief that we needed to have a black woman play this role. there was not a tremendous amount of confidence in the pilot when it was done.

i think we ordered seven episodes, but it didn't do great. and i remember going into the scheduling room. this is the moment where you're advocating for the shows. and at the time, what i said was, "i feel like as a black woman at this table, it's incumbent on me to speak in favor of the show from the black female showrunner with the black female lead. and we deserve a second chance with this." it felt like this is the shot. we have to take it, right? and so, we got a second season, and two or three episodes in, and the whole thing just went, (imitates explosion) they did the sort of, #whoshotfitz, and really took off and caught fire. - in the beginning, it was social media, it was live tweeting, it was our communities that showed up and said, "this is..." i mean, oprah winfrey told me she started watching the show because it's all anybody talked about on thursdays, on twitter. - for a while, it felt like you couldn't turn on tv on thursdays without seeing a shonda show. - the shonda rhymes gamut,

that kind of locked into those shows that represented us in our full array of our humanity. you take "how to get away with murder" with viola davis. - the question i'm asked most often as a defense attorney, is whether i can tell if my clients are innocent or guilty? and my answer is always the same. i don't care. - for shonda rhimes to cast her, and viola davis has been very outspoken about that. about her presence on that show, what that means specifically to be a woman of color, but specifically to be a dark skinned woman of color, and to be the object of desire, and a human loving relationship with whoever her partners are. so, i mean that, all of that is progress. - i will never forget the scene where viola davis's character, annalise, takes off her wig and looks in the mirror. and in the moment, it blew my mind because that's something so many black women can relate to. but we had never seen it happen on screen

in an honest way, in a vulnerable way, in a way that wasn't sensational. - one of the things that viola had really been strong about, is that she didn't wanna whitewash necessarily what it meant to be a black woman. you know, that's kind of unheard of, right? it was incredible. - i am proud to announce that empire entertainment has filed to become a publicly traded company on the new york stock exchange. (audience applauding) - the hit show "empire" from the creator lee daniels blew up the spot when it came out. like it literally came out like gangbusters. we had never seen that kind of success for an african american drama on television. and it was about the music business, the good, bad, and the ugly, the gritty. - i never let anything come between friendship, except the bullet. (gun blasting) (upbeat music)

- i love you. - don't say that. - mara brock akil and her husband celine, they created this pilot, this world of "being mary jane." and they sent over the script, i mean, to this day, it's probably one of top three projects i've ever read, period, tv, film. - black women aren't ugly, or invisible. - i'm really proud of the collaborative work of say, me and gabrielle, because i think that mary jane, made a lot of room for the humanity of black people, and specifically, black women. - i mean, the biggest challenge in finding mary jane and playing mary jane, was separating her from my real life. and so, i had to find mary jane's truth. we don't have to always be a pillar of the race, we can be human. (calm music)

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humans have evolved many skills. fighting bugs isn't one of them. that's why stem harnesses active ingredients found in plants that target nerves bugs have but you and your family don't. stem. rooted in nature. optimized by science. (upbeat music) - we don't see black people in that nine o'clock dramatic slot. we might see one on "l.a law," or here and there,

"i'll fly away", but they're not the center of the core of what the show is about. - i don't recall black drums being pitched very often. - certainly, you could say that was an outcome of the clarence thomas and anita hill hearings that had showed that black people could hold the audience with a drama without taking their clothes off. - television networks were under the impression that their advertising rates would be lower for the black family shows. there was just a sense that my colleagues did not want, basically, an all black cast. - as long as we can make you laugh, then it's comfortable. whenever you're playing dramatic roles and you're taking on a different persona, it's uncomfortable. - i don't think that'd be true today, but that was true 20 years ago. (upbeat music) - now, we all run our mouths about how precious this family tradition is.

but suddenly, when it's at my house, i'm the only one who can make time for it. - it's not that. - "soul food," the tv series, another iconic show that influenced the culture. i mean, shout out to george tillman, who did the movie, 'cause i love the movie "soul food," but then it spun off into a tv series. you think about it, it's about the dynamics within a black family. that really made a lot of people feel connected to their families, to their girlfriends, to the drama. - go! - and all the craziness that us color folks deal with. there's always gonna be somebody in "soul food," that you can really connect to. as black families, we are not just one thing, we are many things, and that's actually what television should be all about. (baby cooing) - baby, can you take him? - when we were at showtime and we decided that we wanted to adapt "soul food" into a tv show, we really did feel it was important, again, from a cultural perspective, to have someone who could tell those stories authentically.

and we reached out to felicia henderson. - hey, baby. - [pearlena] and a lot of these stories or just stories that she was able to generate from her own life. - it's hard to be the first. it's hard to be a part of a group of the first. i think that as black people, we deserve to be seen as three dimensional characters. we deserve for you to see us with all of our frailties. i don't think that that's negative, i think it's just human. - i'm so sorry. come here. - it was also a show where i was the network executive. i was a black network executive. we had a black studio executive. we had black executive producers, black writers, and black cast. and we all understood at that time that, that was a situation that we may, none of us may ever get to be in again. - a lot of times, you don't know when you're making history, you are just in the moment to do the right thing and the best thing that you can at the time.

and there's a bitter sweetness to that. though, it wasn't the first, it was still one of the few. so, that's the bitter part. but the sweet part, is that we got to do it. we are still in the fight to tell our stories. - [crowd] equality! - when do we want it? - [crowd] now! - [announcer] while the supreme court does not always align with public opinion, today's verdicts would seem to suggest the court is not immune to changing attitudes either. - [announcer] the category is, live. - [justin] "pose," centers around a found family of queer, mostly black folks in the ballroom scene of new york in the late '80s. - focus, children. it is time we remind the world who we are. - it is something like a serialized version, i guess, of "paris is burning." and i mean, talk about getting to see queer storylines that i never seen

before on a tv show. - i'm angel. - get in. - you a cop? (upbeat music) - no. - let's have some fun, baby. (upbeat music) - i mean, it is just so bold and provocative, and groundbreaking and important, and it's the first of its kind. i pray, it's not the last of its kind, because it expanded, i think for queer people, our own definition of ourselves. it brings to light, the lives, experiences of trans people of color, which nobody is shining the spotlight on. and they are responsible for so much of our culture, all the slang, and "what's the tea, honey?" and all that stuff, that's where it comes from. - scores, please. 10, 10, 10. - [kevin] and this is a group of people who america has traditionally shunned as being anti-family values, forming a real family at a time and in a place

where they were really not encouraged to do so. - you're dead to me. - i love that, you're not only seeing this world in this community, but you're also having black queer actors play these roles. - blanca, the test confirmed that you have hiv. - that imps tant conversation, having queer representation, not just be in what you see, but also who's playing the characters. and i don't know if without a "pose," they would've had that same liberty and opportunity. (intense music) [ "tiger dust" by yello playing in the background ] turn right on to western avenue. ♪ ♪ [ dog barks ] [ whimpers ] you have reached your destination.

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(upbeat music) (dramatic orchestra music) - i believe that the future of black television comes in ownership, and it comes in all the people now that are investing in programming, but not programming to your traditional places, but programming to places that we own, we operate, and we can have our own voice. - at the end of the day, for any business, you wanna own things. i mean, and until you own it, until you're creating it, you don't truly have power over it. - remember the first time you came in here?

- yeah. - we sat right here. - auntie, you know i was scared to death. - how has oprah changed the game? ownership. that is how it changed the game, having her own network in own, and saying, this is the type of programming i want on my network, and this is what we are going to do. and so, they did it. - federal government. - no backtalk. (bright upbeat music) - by having these three very different shows on at the same time, "queen sugar," "david makes man," "green leaf," there are myriad of stories to tell about black people. and you don't have to have like, "well, if we have our one, right? we've done our job." because then other networks, other channels can look at the success of those shows on that network, and hopefully, try to replicate it. ♪ will i die for living numb? - [david] i come from dirt. - when i was trying to find a place for "david makes man,"

i wanted to be next to shows where there were other black people we could look at, so that everybody didn't think everybody was like david. a lot of us are like david, but not everybody. that's how they're changing the landscape, they're giving us all room to play. - you have all these black people who are in the distribution game. and you got tyler perry, you got oprah winfrey, you got the sean combs, byron allen. they're not just producing, not just directing, not just show running, but also distributing the content on their own networks. no disrespect to starz, but that's pretty much 50 cent's network. - look at you, all g'ed up. - 50 and mark were talking about putting together a music driven tv series. i'm so grateful, because it was specifically about new york, and drug dealing, and all the things that it was specifically about, chris albrecht and carmi zlotnik who were running starz at the time,

did not give me a show runner. they let me write my show and run my show. - what's this about, man? - don't f*cking play stupid. you know what this is about. it's payback time. - there is the equation of 50 being someone who lived the life. so, you already set up the streets validating it first and foremost. the streets will tell you, if something is righteous. authenticity is everything. i mean, it's why we do this. - my whole career, i've been answering questions like, "well, would they really? is that really?" yeah, it is. let me say that again. yeah, it is, motherf*cker. yeah, it is. part of the reason i met netflix, is because the woman i answer to, is of color. and so, we have shorthand. baby, let me tell you that is a new convenience. that did not happen overnight. - i, i have to tell you something. i went out one time, and a stranger put something in my drink.

- i don't want you drinking in the pub. - excuse me? - you got to watch your drink, you can get hurt. - i'm gonna call you later. (electronic music) - and the acceptance speech that she gave when she won an emmy for the writing on the show, michaela coel, the creator of "i may destroy you," spoke about the importance of giving your art the space, and the time, and the room it deserves to breathe. part of how she did that with her show, was turning down a $1 million deal with netflix to prioritize owning the show, owning the material, owning that art. - zane sareen is a rapist. - progression is expensive. it takes so much courage, more courage than people realize. - black dramas are going forward. we are the story. most people can see some reflection of themselves and we're not compromising. - i feel like black ownership has allowed us to move into the revolution. i think it allows us an opportunity to reimagine ourselves,

to reimagine who we could be, and to correct some of the things that aren't even true about ourselves as a culture. it actually is a chance for rehabilitation through art. it's something not to take lightly. where we are right now is a shift, and it's a celebration because it's been a long time coming. you know, it's been a long time coming. (bright upbeat music) jerry: where'd you get those? kramer: the machine. you want one? jerry: no. henry winkler: you come home, turn on that television. kramer: take one. jerry: i don't want one! kramer: no there good... jerry: i don't want it. henry winkler: what do you want? you want comedy. kramer: take one! jerry: no! kramer stop it! jason alexander: and boom, there you go, a situation comedy.

tv

Black performers and creators are responsible for some of the most innovative work in the history of dramatic television; by pushing the genre's boundaries, these shows have transformed conversations, thinking, and culture as a whole.

TOPIC FREQUENCY

America 10, David 5, Kramer 5, Jerry 5, Mary Jane 5, Verzenio 5, New York 4, Oprah Winfrey 4, Viola Davis 3, Shonda Rhimes 3, Wallace 3, Ava Duvernay 3, Oprah 3, Jane Pitman 3, Cicely Tyson 3, Ernie 3, Lowe 3, Blair Underwood 2, Miami 2, Ihop 2

Notes

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code).

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