NBC’s Loss of Minority Roles a Gain to Independents

And then there were none.

For five decades, NBC has been the trailblazer among television networks in presenting African Americans in the center of their dramas, comedies and variety shows.

The tradition began in 1956, when NBC carried “The Nat King Cole Show” for a year without support from sponsors, and continued through the 1960s with “Julia,” the first show to revolve around an educated and accomplished black female. More groundbreaking came during the 1980s with “The Cosby Show” and “A Different World,” and extended into the 1990s with critical and popular successes such as “I’ll Fly Away” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

But that tradition seemed to come to an end this week with the announcement of NBC’s fall lineup. No new or returning series on NBC’s schedule has a minority-themed premise or revolves solely around an African American or other ethnic minority character. Minority performers are only featured in ensembles such as “ER” or in supporting roles on series such as “The John Larroquette Show.”

One of the network’s two African American series, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” is ending its six-year run Monday, while the other, “In the House,” is moving to the UPN network.

Many of the top-rated network’s new series--including “Something So Right,” “Suddenly Susan” with Brooke Shields and the ABC reject “The Jeff Foxworthy Show”--have casts that are all white. They will join other successful programs on the NBC slate, such as “Friends,” “Caroline in the City,” “Seinfeld,” “The Single Guy,” “Frasier” and “Mad About You,” which all take place in big cities but have no central ethnic characters.

The absence became more glaring when contrasted with the upstart UPN and WB networks’ schedules, which are heavy with series featuring African American performers.

Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC West Coast, said vehemently Wednesday that the network was not abandoning ethnic audiences, and that suggestions to the contrary were “a bad rap.” He pointed out that several African Americans, including Andre Braugher and Yaphet Kotto of “Homicide: Life on the Street” and Eriq LaSalle and Gloria Reuben of “ER,” were crucial characters in their ensembles.

He added that he had wanted to keep “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “In the House” on the schedule. But “Fresh Prince” star Will Smith wanted to pursue films and UPN picked off “In the House” by offering the producers a two-year commitment for the series as it was, while NBC had wanted to retool it for midseason.

Advertisers and others in the industry have already come to NBC’s defense, saying the network is not ignoring minorities but simply putting on the best shows available, whether minorities are featured or not.

Some observers aren’t so sure. Some recent surveys and studies have shown that programs that appeal to white viewers do not necessarily appeal to black viewers, and vice versa. NBC’s “Seinfeld,” the No. 2 show among white viewers, ranked a lowly 89th with black viewers, according to the 1996 BBDO Report on Black Television Viewing. Meanwhile, the favorite show of blacks, Fox’s “New York Undercover,” ranked 122nd with whites.

“Many of the black-oriented shows do not do well with the general population,” said Doug Alligood, senior vice president of special markets for BBDO Worldwide Inc., a New York-based advertising agency. “NBC has a strategy that works. They have done well with their sitcoms. The problems blacks have as a group is, ‘What happened to the black stories?’ ”

An answer came this week with the fall schedules of UPN and WB.

In addition to “In the House,” UPN’s new shows include four comedies starring African Americans, including Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Sherman Hemsley and Robin Givens. Also returning to the UPN slate is the black youth comedy “Moesha.”

The WB network will add shows starring comedians Steve Harvey and Jamie Foxx to its lineup, which already includes “The Parent ‘Hood,” “Sister, Sister” and “The Wayans Bros.”

Debra Langford, vice president of television for Quincy Jones/Salzman Entertainment, the producers of “In the House” and “Fresh Prince,” said: “Fox initiated the precedent of attracting this [ethnic] audience, which is overlooked. They gave young, bright producers a chance and it worked for them. NBC has decided that their audience is attracted to shows with young, affluent people, and now UPN and WB are going for this other slice. They will be very successful because there is an audience waiting for this.”

“Our African American comedies are an important part of our mix,” said Garth Ancier, president of the WB network. “NBC is the No. 1 network, so the fact they are doing this is a little weird. We have a decently balanced schedule with ‘Kirk’ and ‘Brotherly Love.’ We also look for people with appeal. Our Jamie Foxx show was our highest-testing program, and he had appeal across the board. And Steve Harvey is a very strong role model.”

Although ABC, CBS and Fox will not announce their schedules until next week, they are already ahead of NBC in terms of casting minorities in the center of their series.

ABC is expected to renew the African American family comedy “Family Matters” and the drama “NYPD Blue,” starring Jimmy Smits. Fox has already renewed “Living Single,” and “Martin” and “New York Undercover” stand a good chance of coming back. The most anticipated new show on CBS’ schedule stars Bill Cosby and Phylicia Ryshad, and “Touched by an Angel,” starring Della Reese, has already been renewed.

Media watchdog groups and others decried NBC’s apparent abandonment of ethnic groups in central roles.

“It’s straight-out segregation,” said Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, which staged a protest against ABC last year for not fulfilling what the organization said was a promise by network executives to put a Latino-themed show on the schedule.

Added producer Warrington Hudlin: “The whole issue pivots on programmers’ notions on who watches American television. NBC seems to be in denial about what America is becoming. By all evidence, it is becoming a multicultural society, and to make it homogeneous is to ignore the ethnic reality. In pure economic terms, this will bite them.”

But NBC’s Ohlmeyer said, “Diversity is extremely important to NBC and to me as an individual.”

Ohlmeyer said NBC is still working on developing a multiethnic comedy series that “has people getting along. Look at our landscape, at our entertainment, sports and how we project ourselves. Clearly diversity plays a key role in what we do.”