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 Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television

Donald Bogle

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Can't Blacks do anything to please you Bogle?

Bogle does it again, I never seen a man be so consistent. He seems to criticize anything Blacks do even being born black.

What Blacks have done on TV should be applauded, Blacks have had great success and once in while their shows ruled the airwaves. Everything Blacks do doesn't have to be Black or be a portrayal of Blacks, why can't Blacks just entertain and show they can do something outside of being blacks, they can play people from all walks of life, everything doesn't have to be so true. First off, Bogle seems to insinuate that Black people are just cursed, even when Blacks succeeded he got something critical to say. Listen, who don't face discrimination, surprisingly even whites do, I hope I didn't shock you. Many of our classic black TV shows are icons and even to this day people are still enjoying them because the shows were good TV. If anything he should criticize the blacks on TV today but he takes cheap shots at people who are dead or too old to talk.

Outstanding Television History Lesson for All Interested

Although I initially intended on simply reviewing Bogle's masterwork, I feel that along with a personal reflection on the book, it is necessary to contradict statements made by an earlier reviewer.

Yes, the book is "exhaustive" but never is it boring. Every profile of African-American actors on the tube is carefully detailed and extensively covered, with little asides that make for intriguing reading. To this reader, it is clear that Bogle feels that there have been significant improvements in the representation of Blacks on television, but there are still some significant inroads, in front of and behind the camera, that need to be made. By covering as thoroughly as he has the entirety of those African-American pioneers and trendsetters, the author satisfies those that have longed to see such a mammoth undertaking published.

I, for one, savor the profiles of such underrated performers as Rosalind Cash, Joe Morton, Shirley Hemphill, Juano Hernandez, James Edwards, and a slew of others that labored with many less-than-distinguished parts and managed to create something memorable. It is further refreshing to see the author give the backgrounds of the more familiar African-American superstars like Bill Cosby, Cicely Tyson, and Diahann Carroll.

While I do not particularly care for the programs that have a "monochromatic cast" (Friends, Martin, and the various UPN "black-block" shows), I understand and appreciate Bogle's belief that television shows have a responsibility to inform and present a realistic portrayal of society, be that program a sitcom or a drama.

It is true that television is primarily entertainment; however, in that entertainment, thought-provoking writing and occasional commentary on society is warranted. That is one of Bogle's premises that he eloquently expresses.

This is a top-notch historical/editorial reference that makes for great reading and a worthwhile addition to the library of any fan of the "boob tube."

too narrowly focused

Because I am black that doesn't mean I have to deal with the problems of all black people. That's
not my sole responsibility...all TV is divorced from reality.
-Diahann Carroll, circa 1968

Taken simply as a catalogue of appearances by African Americans on television over the past sixty years, this book is perhaps adequate. It takes an exhaustive (sometimes exhausting) look at the role of black actors on primetime television, decade by decade. Bogle seems to have watched every episode of every TV show that ever featured blacks, from Beulah and Amos n' Andy in the early days, to the slew of UPN shows now, with stops along the way for hits like Julia,Sanford and Son, and The Cosby Show and the many all too brief series like Get Christie Love. He discusses all of them, not just the shows in general, but individual episodes, plus TV movies and black-themed episodes of white shows. Every snippet of TV history is held up and examined like an important fossil in the hands of a paleontologist. But, unfortunately, the various pieces never add up to a coherent whole; the book suffers from the lack of a thesis, from an unrelenting earnestness, and from a woeful absence of perspective.

The overarching problem is that Bogle does not seem to be operating from a defined principle. Is this a story about how African American images on television have evolved and gotten better, or at least more realistic, or is it about how things have really not improved ? How should blacks be portrayed on TV ? Have portrayals of Black America on television been better or worse than the reality of the times ? Have those portrayals been more stereotyped and less realistic than those of whites and other ethnic groups ? These are some of the questions that the author should have asked himself before he began writing and which the reader should expect will be answered by the end of the book. He did not ask and they are not answered.

As a result, Bogle's assessments and criticisms of each show occur in an intellectual vacuum and are often contradictory. Some shows are taken to task because they offered an unrealistic portrait of blacks as living in nuclear, middle class, nonpolitical families. Others are criticized for falling back on societal stereotypes of single parent households, poor families, involvement in crime, etc. If a police show has a black captain, that's unrealistic because blacks weren't put in positions of power. If the cop is black, it's unrealistic because he's middle class and an authority figure. If the crooks are black, that's a stereotype, placing blacks in a bad light.. Well, what the heck were the producers supposed to do ? And doesn't the mere fact that roles were being created for black actors mean something, on some level ?

At times, Bogle's lack of perspective, his blind focus on African Americans, comes across as almost laughable. In his discussion of the show The White Shadow, while complaining that the theme of a white coach having to lead troubled black youths is offensive, and worrying that the players were too often caricatures, he mentions the cast of characters and, without further comment, notes that the token white player was named Salami. Suppose the sole black player on a white team had been nicknamed Watermelon ? People would have been outraged, and rightly so. Had he paused for a moment to consider this one instance of insensitivity to another ethnic group, Bogle might have stumbled upon some of the larger truths about television : it's all caricature, stereotypes, and fundamentally unrealistic situations.

(...)TV, with the unique pressures of its weekly schedule and the need to appeal to a mass audience, has always tended toward banality. In the effort to supply escapist entertainment, it has relied heavily on the mindless, the unchallenging, the consciously non provocative. Bogle stumbles upon this fundamental truth in his discussion of The Cosby Show, whose various problems he is seemingly constrained from criticizing because it is probably the most popular African American show of all time :

The audience understood that The Cosby Show was not about contemporary politics. Rather it was
about culture.

You probably have to read the book to get a feel for how jarring a note this strikes after 300 pages of complaining that innumerable marginal shows were insufficiently political. But it's important to note that Cosby, who had the #1 show on television, actually had the leeway necessary to turn his show into the kind of political platform that Bogle seems to think African American shows should have tried to be, and he did not take advantage of it. Why then expect the many minor and largely forgotten shows that he criticizes throughout the book--shows staffed by actors, writers, directors and producers who were after all just doing their jobs and which were just looking for an audience--to have engaged in some kind of exercise in black empowerment ?

In the end, this book is so limited in scope that, though Bogle does a workmanlike job of describing various African American series, it's hard for the reader to figure out what his point was in writing the book in the first place. It takes on the feel of a reference book, with encyclopedic entries, rather than a coherent narrative. It's occasionally fun reading about some of the old shows (including one of my favorites, The Young Rebel

A CLASSIC,BUT WITH A FEW FLAWS

PRIMETIME BLUES is an excellent history of African-Americans
on primetime television,from the days of "Beluah" to "The Parkers".Smart,honest,and very,very,very insightful,PRIMETIME
BLUES makes you want to read even more.But if I had to put in
some complaints,it'd be Donald Bogle's political bias.Suggesting
that all Blacks live rough and that any Black show that wants to
show a normal,calm Black family is phony.And at times,PRIMETIME
BLUES comes off a textbook as well.But anyway,buy this book
for excellent coverage of Blacks on your TV screen!

"The" book of African Americans in the history of television

Just a splendid, engrossing work that details the history of African Americans in television. More than just a cursory glance, Bogle unearths all sorts of African Americans who have made contributions, no matter how small their part.
For everyone who wants to see a reference for 1) where we have been as far as minority representation on tv 2) where we are now and most importantly 3) where we SHOULD BE.
Essential for anyone who has a real passion for the medium!

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