Painting the Fence

“Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit.”...”Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged.” Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

WHITEWASHING. Brilliantly, Mark Twain had Tom Sawyer contemplating whitewashing a fence as Jim walks up to him returning from retrieving water from the town well. A theme that has been discussed debated and made public yet again. As some of you may have heard George Lopez reeled against ABC for canceling his show, “The George Lopez Show”, after its sixth season. A show that had a stable and steady following – GONE. YEP – JUST GONE. No fan fair, no big ending Series Finale – Just GONE.

George’s beef is that the show was canceled prematurely. His comment was “TV just became really, really white again,”. ABC renewed the other family sitcom, “According to Jim”. Looking back I found that George’s show was getting, on average, about the same ratings as other sitcoms on the tube, Jim included. I would love to bore you with numbers, but why. Just know that the research I did found that Lopez was pulling the same 2.0 to 2.5 ratings as was its HOMOGENIZED counterpart, “According to Jim”. (By the way, those numbers mean 2 to 2.5% of the total number of television sets that were watching that show at that particular time. Ha Ha, I told you I didn’t want to bore you, maybe some other time.)

So why was it canceled? ABC says that the show was getting too expensive and would lose money. Another speculation is; ABC has a better more lucrative show to put in its place, “Cavemen”. Yeah. “Cavemen.” A spin-off of the commercial for GEIKO. The irony in all of this is that “Cavemen” is about the social injustice of not fitting in with WHITE, i.e. normal America. However, the problem lies in the fact that these non-white characters are, all in all, WHITE. And there is the color of George’s money.

SO, WHERE IS THE COLOR? When FOX first hit the airwaves it had a very ethnic pull. You remember shows like “In Living Color” and “Martin.” FOX, the NEW network, was willing to pull on an audience that had been overlooked since the 70’s. OK OK – I know, I remember the 80’s, “The Cosby Show”, the spin-offs of TCS and “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, but even they were whitewashed versions of the family unit. However, FOX kept its roller close and painted over most of its color. (Be on the lookout, this fall FOX has added “K-Ville” to its line up, which looks to be a fantastic show.) Then there was the arrival of UPN and the WB and they took the paint bucket from FOX and put in competing line-ups of families of color. However, these networks quickly found that it is difficult enough to promote a sitcom of color, none-the- less try to push a drama. Our friends of color were just not watching. WHY? These shows were meant with THEM in mind. Due to low ratings and disastrous line-ups the fence changed directions.

Now UPN and The WB have merged into the fledgling network The CW. This network is trying quite hard to grab the brush and repaint the fence. The new network kept the underdog comedy “Everybody Hates Chris” which is another VERY funny show by Chris Rock and deserves more than what it gets in ratings. They are also introducing “THE GAME” a predominately African American cast which looks to be a very good opposition to NBC’s “Friday Night Lights”.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that all of TV has turned into a bowl of whole milk and that The CW is the only network with racially diverse casting. Here is the thing; we watch all kinds of TV, everything from polygamists’ in love (which is against the law and morally you have to justify the 3 wife thing with your own morals, but it’s incredibly fascinating) to people from the future with crazy superhuman abilities. But what I am saying is this; take a moment to look around. Celebrate the fantastic work that is being done by actors of all races. The Suarez’s of “Ugly Betty” have shown that a Hispanic family comedy-drama can live in the world inside the fence.(And Congrats to Ms. Ferrera for being the first Latina to receive an Emmy Nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy.)

We see that the best friend, the lawyer, the officer, the neighbor and the lover are all guest roles that are easily filled by anyone of any color. So why does it take so much to fill all of the roles in one show the same way?

I’m not asking for answers. I am just thinking out load. “Soul Food” was fantastic, but didn’t pull enough of an audience to stick it out. George, I understand your reaction to the news of your show leaving with a whimper and not the roar it deserves, and that the color of TV is clearly not as colorblind as we would like it to be. Therefore, we need to find how to change that pattern. So George, let’s create a movement that celebrates everyone, even Cavemen.

Therefore, let’s put down the brush, sit the bucket aside and look at the beauty of the fence. The colors of the wood, the grain, the texture and the strength of what it stands for. Because without the posts there would be nothing to hold the planks together and without the planks the posts just stand alone.

My thought; “(Tom) compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged.”

Let’s ENCOURAGE a future of “unwhitewashed fence”.

THIS IS BEAU TALKS

AND AFTER THESE MESSAGES WE'LL BE RIGHT BACK.