1 post tagged marc bernardin

Great questions, well considered by TV writer Marc Bernardin.

Upon hearing the news of Sherman Hemsley’s death, a friend said that it’s worth remembering how radical The Jeffersons, about an upwardly mobile black family, was in the ‘70s. It dawned on me that you can track the progress of black people in America through black TV sitcoms — and, what’s more, the acceptance of black America by the white Americans who watched.

In the 70s, we got The Jeffersons, the first promise of the Civil Rights Dream coming true. You could move out of the ghetto. You could own a business (in a service industry, sure, but still). You had to fight for respect, and to keep your identity, but that fight was worth it. …

You could say that no sitcom today, black or white, has the reach of The Jeffersons, which was pulling down a 23.5 Nielsen rating in its 6th season. That’s almost a full quarter of everyone watching TV, watching The Jeffersons. Black programming has, by and large, been shunted to cable, and with 300 options, almost nothing can pull eyes en masse. 

Or has the narrative of the black experience in America simply lost its cohesiveness? Has the rallying cry that united generations past become a cacophony of voices, each of which wants something different, making it impossible — or unnecessary — to channel that into one shining beacon?

Read the whole post here.