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TV Finds Drama in Interracial Dating
Los Angeles Times - March 22, 2000
By GREG BRAXTON, Times Staff Writer
Not so long ago, the topic was a taboo
subject. Now several series offer such plot lines, and
producers say the reaction has been largely positive.
The 19-year-old daughter of the president of the
United States has a problem. On one hand, her
romance with her new boyfriend couldn't be better. But
trouble is brewing.
For Zoey Bartlet (Elisabeth Moss)--the first
daughter on NBC's White House drama, "The West
Wing"--the dilemma is that her beau, Charlie Young
(Dule Hill), is black. White supremacists have been
sending death threats to the White House, and an
increasingly worried president (Martin Sheen) blocks
the couple plans to go to the opening of a hot new club.
When Zoey tells Charlie, who is also her father's
personal aide, during a lunch, he storms out of the
restaurant.
The scene, which appears in tonight's installment of
"The West Wing," is just one example of an onslaught
of prime-time series that are aggressively tackling
interracial romance. Until a few seasons ago, such
relationships were a rarity on network television,
considered too controversial and sensitive to depict or
explore. Now at least six prime-time dramas and
comedies have story lines revolving around mixed-race
couples.
"There's this 'toe-in-the-water' approach now in
television about showing blacks and whites in love on
television," said Robert M. Entman, director of the
Department of Communication at North Carolina State
University and co-author of the upcoming book "The
Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in
America."
"Both 'ER' and 'Ally McBeal' have had these kinds
of romances in the past few seasons, and it didn't result
in outrage or have an effect on ratings," Entman said.
"So now there's a little more boldness in approaching
interracial relationships."
The story lines revolving around interracial
relationships are blossoming during a television season
that has been blasted by the NAACP and other
minority groups for the lack of cultural diversity on the
four major networks. And while "The Jeffersons" of the
mid-'70s featured a long-married interracial couple, this
season's focus is on the tension of courtship and the
societal conflict it can provoke.
Andrew Rojecki, who co-wrote "The Black Image
in the White Mind" with Entman, suggests the stormy
interracial romance a few seasons ago on "ER" between
surgeons Peter Benton (Eriq LaSalle) and Elizabeth
Corday (Alex Kingston) was the main force in tearing
down the resistance toward showing black and white
couplings.
"That relationship really challenged the cultural and
social taboos on television," Rojecki said. "It was done
on a Top 10 show that appeals to both black and white
viewing audiences, which tend to have different tastes in
what shows they watch. What is happening now with all
these other shows is terrific. Whether it's a harbinger of
things to come remains to be seen."
Sensitive Area for Promoting Shows
Producers suggest the trend is primarily driven by a
wealth of largely uncharted story lines. Indeed, while
audiences appear to be more receptive, such plots
remain a sensitive area for the networks' promotional
machines.
The current field of relationships cuts across age,
social and professional barriers. Sexual and romantic
tension has been building on CBS' "Judging Amy"
between Judge Amy Gray (Amy Brenneman) and her
black court services officer Bruce Van Exel (Richard T.
Jones), and a recent episode showed her dreaming
about a steamy erotic encounter with him in her office.
On ABC's "Once and Again," Grace Manning (Julia
Whelan), the high-strung, awkward teenage daughter of
Lily Manning (Sela Ward), is falling in love with her
black classmate Jared (Robert Richard). CBS'
inner-city hospital drama, "City of Angels," features a
young Jewish resident, Dr. Geoffrey Weiss (Phil
Buckman), conducting a tense romance with registered
nurse Grace Patterson (Maya Rudolph) over the
vociferous protest of her father. College students
Shawn (Rider Strong) and Angela (Trina
McGee-Davis) are continuing their courtship on ABC's
"Boy Meets World." And the upcoming WB political
drama, "D.C.," about twentysomethings in the nation's
capital, features an interracial couple, TV news
producer Sarah Logan (Kristanna Loken) and U.S.
Supreme Court clerk Lewis Freeman (Daniel Sunjata),
who are living together.
With a few exceptions, producers of the series say
the public response to the interracial dating has been
positive, with viewers only occasionally registering
opposition.
Hill of "The West Wing" said, "I thought there might
be some negative reaction. But the letters we're getting
are all positive. People really seem to like it."
Actor Robert Guillaume believes depicting
interracial relationships is less of a problem now than it
was in 1989 when he co-created and starred in an
ABC situation comedy in which his character, a
marriage counselor, became involved with his white
secretary. "The Robert Guillaume Show" was canceled
soon after its premiere, and Guillaume blamed part of
the rejection on viewers who could not get past the
premise.
"I was trying to leap over what I thought was
nonsense at the time," said Guillaume, who currently
appears on ABC's "Sports Night." "I wanted to show
that people are just people no matter what they are, but
that really frightens folks. I hope that what we did with
that show, no matter how small and unsuccessful it was,
helped to make the idea of black and white dating on
television a little more palatable."
"West Wing" executive producer Thomas Schlamme
said the trend of showing interracial romances on
television is indicative of the relaxing of the sensitivities
in society: "The taboo has started to diminish, and now
you can see more and more in movies and in plays."
Barbara Hall, an executive producer of "Judging
Amy," added, "There's usually a 10-year lag time
between what is going on in society and what can be
shown on television. Writers and producers have come
to understand that television really does need to reflect
more of what's going on in today's world."
Even with the growing prominence of interracial
romances, none of the current relationships is central to
the series. And although "ER" and "Ally McBeal" have
both examined interracial romances in the past few
seasons, those relationships were not long-lasting, and
ended bitterly or abruptly.
Said Entman: "In both of those cases, the
relationships were problematic. The implicit message
was that such relationships are unworkable. The
question now is whether the relationships being shown
now will deepen and mature."
Producers are largely trying to straddle the line
between making racial differences a key conflict in the
relationship, and downplaying or ignoring race entirely,
as in last season's "Ally McBeal." Show
creator/executive producer David Kelley had said at
the time that he wanted to show a loving relationship
where race was not a factor.
In "West Wing's" romance between Zoey and
Charlie, Schlamme said he and fellow executive
producers Aaron Sorkin and John Wells are more
interested in exploring the political ramifications of such
a relationship in the White House: "It makes for good
drama. And we can also look at the drama of hate in
this country. The racial aspect is not at the center."
"Once and Again" executive producer Ed Zwick
said the new romance between that show's teens will
explore their racial differences: "It's in their world, and
there will be instances where it matters, and instances
where it doesn't matter. The parents on both sides . . .
will react to it."
Zwick added that the inspiration for the relationship
came from singer-songwriter Jackson Browne: "He saw
the pilot, and he said that Grace looked like someone
who would be involved with someone of a mixed race.
It seemed plausible."
Meanwhile, Hall initially planned for the characters
Brenneman and Jones portray on "Judging Amy" to just
have a professional friendship. "But the chemistry
between the two actors, and their characters, were so
electric it seemed like we would be ignoring it if we
didn't develop it," Hall said. "We get a lot of feedback
from viewers saying they enjoy the sexual tension. We
don't really deal with race in the relationship. We deal
with it when the two confront it in the courtroom."
As Entman puts it: "The real breakthrough would be
if there was a major series with a black man and a
white woman right in the center of it. But I think that's
still a ways away."
Copyright © 2000 Los Angeles Times. All rights reserved.
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