Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504130025
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DREW JUBERA COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It was the kind of convention-breaking setup common to this critically hailed, modestly rated cop show. It was also the kind of scene that has found even those involved with the show surprising themselves with their answers to the question: Has ``Homicide'' quietly become TV's first representative black drama?
Braugher plays Frank Pembleton, a brilliantly complex African-American detective in the Baltimore homicide unit dramatized at 10 Friday nights on NBC (WSLS-Channel 10). In one episode, the script had Pembleton summoned to an office by the deputy commissioner, who wanted the detective to drop his investigation of a politician who faked his own kidnapping. The deputy commissioner, a lieutenant and a captain were in the office with Pembleton, each armed with his own political and personal agenda.
``We were all standing in the room during the scene, and suddenly it was amazing: I realized it was the first time I'd ever been in a room with three other African-American actors and the scene was about us,'' Braugher says. ``I didn't realize it had never happened to me before until I looked around the room and saw three other men who looked like me.
``I said to myself, `It's the first time there's some balance created on the screen for me.' It's a long time coming.''
``I had the same reaction watching that scene,'' says executive producer Tom Fontana. ``I remember saying, `Oh my God, all four actors in the scene are black.' It was one of those happy accidents that occurred naturally because of the way the show has evolved.
``It was a political scene, the way city politics works,'' Fontana adds. ``Some of the people in that room were right, and some of them were wrong. What they were doing was acting the same way Caucasians are allowed to act - they were running the gamut of African-American culture.''
With barely anyone noticing during its three on-again, off-again seasons, ``Homicide'' has broken new ground with the way race is depicted on TV.
It might not look that way at first glance. The show's ensemble cast isn't entirely, or even mostly, African-American. It features such high-profile white actors as Ned Beatty, Daniel Baldwin, Richard Belzer and Melissa Leo.
But the unprecedented number of prominent black characters - whose roles range from detective to bureaucrat to murderer - some weeks take over whole episodes, making their presence seem routine.
``I don't know of another situation like it [on TV],'' says Barry Levinson, the Oscar-winning movie director (``Rain Man'') who developed the show from the book by David Simon, a Baltimore newspaper reporter who spent a year tracking a homicide unit's daily activities. ``Most TV doesn't reflect society in any way - it's some kind of never-never land. But there is a sense of realism that is mandatory to this show; it has to somehow be a reflection of the society we live in.''
``Are we breaking ground? I hope so, and it would be funny if we were,'' adds executive producer Henry Bromell. ``It was never our goal: Nobody ever sat down and said, `Let's do that.' It was really a series of creative decisions - the writers, producers - deciding what seems the most real and works best.''
``We're proud of the fact that we haven't trumpeted it - haven't said, `Here we are, the first black drama,' '' Fontana says. ``What we're trying to do in the way we depict Baltimore is show the way it is in most urban centers in the '90s. It's what's going on.''
This new kind of real TV realism has led to scenes that rarely, if ever, unfold on weekly TV.
Example: One recent episode centered on two black detectives (Braugher and Clark Johnson, who plays the quirky Meldrick Lewis) deciding which adjoining neighborhood to canvass first for a murder suspect: the mostly black one or the mostly white one.
The analytical, Jesuit-trained Pembleton insisted they search the mostly black neighborhood: that's where crime statistics pointed. Lewis insisted they search the mostly white neighborhood: He was weary of cops seeing crime sporting a black face. The result was a racial issue that gained unexpected power as it was denuded of any TV-cozy, salt-and-pepper political correctness - a situation possible only on a show with enough black characters to make the scene unforced.
Another example: In the upcoming April 21 episode, black lieutenant Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto) is turned down for a date by an attractive black woman. Giardello is convinced she spurned him because his skin is too dark. It's a racial delineation not uncommon among African-Americans - except for those portrayed on TV. . .
``The old rules were simple-minded,'' Braugher says. ``We're trying to break new ground by showing a variety of people in the world. This is the only show that could support the typical black [tough] drug pusher without it being a stereotype or an ugly depiction of a whole group of men.''
``There are good and bad black characters on the show, just as there are in the world,'' Johnson says. ``We don't have to `Sidney Poitier' everything and speak for our race.''
The demographics on ``Homicide'' didn't begin with the ``checklist'' casting of most dramatic TV, which producers say is a virtual menu that ensures each show include ``the hunk,'' ``the babe'' and ``the black guy.'' Levinson, whose film reputation earned him rare latitude from NBC, looked only for the best actors to fill roles. That led to oddly interesting decisions: Lieutenant Giardello was obviously Italian, yet Levinson thought Kotto perfect for the part. So he cast him.
``The intention in casting was not to say, `We need a fat funny guy,' or, `This is the slick black street guy,' or whatever,'' Levinson says. ``We just wanted to put together this credible group of characters that would interact. That's what we emphasized, rather than if the actor was white or black.''
The show's producers say NBC has never made noises about ``Homicide'' being too ``black.'' It's a concern Hollywood veterans say is part of network TV's mindset and the reason why - with the recent exception of CBS' midseason replacement ``Under One Roof,'' a drama created by Thomas Carter revolving around an African-American family in Seattle - there are no black- centered dramas.
``There's always this fear of alienating the white viewer,'' says Kevin Akardie, creator of Fox's diverse cop show ``New York Undercover'' and a former writer with Bromell on the acclaimed series ``I'll Fly Away.'' ``It's at the heart of any sales pitch when you're trying to pitch a show with a minority aspect to it.''
``The problem comes from expectations on the part of the networks,'' Fontana adds. ``They have a sense of who America wants to look at on a weekly basis. They'd rather watch David Caruso [the redheaded former star of ABC's hit `NYPD Blue'] than Andre Braugher.''
So has the extensive on-screen time of African-American characters hurt the show's ratings with non-black viewers?
Until a recent upswing, during a powerful three-episode arc that had ``Homicide'' finishing second to ABC's ``20/20'' in its Friday night time slot, the show's ratings have been dismally disappointing since its ballyhooed debut after the 1993 Super Bowl. For the season, its Nielsen ratings rank 85th among network shows, averaging 11.6 million viewers. Four original episodes remain; the last, on May 4, is directed by Levinson. Industry handicappers give the show no better than a 50-50 chance of returning next season.
Yet while race is an acknowledged possibility for the show's low numbers, few observers or those associated with ``Homicide'' believe it's an overriding factor. They point elsewhere: its tough time slot, its reliance on character over action (a circumstance that has doomed a parade of dramas, most recently ABC's ``My So-Called Life'')
``The shift in emphasis from the crime to the characters wasn't necessarily in the best interests of the show,'' says Dorothy Swanson, president of Viewers for Quality TV, a watchdog group campaigning for the drama's return. ``For those who've stuck with them, there's been a reward. But for the casual viewer, those characters weren't instantly endearing.''
``We're not a flashy show,'' Levinson allows. ``We just have very good characters, not the really cool so-and-so. We're an acquired taste, and an acquired taste is a dangerous thing on TV.''
``Scum bags,'' adds Akardie, summing up what he views as a major difference between ``Homicide'' and Top-10 rated ``NYPD Blue.'' ``Per capita, there are more scum bags on `NYPD Blue.' ''
But with TV viewership increasingly segregated by race - only three programs last season ranked in the Top 20 among both white and black audiences - the number of African-American characters on ``Homicide'' has not gained it a significant black response. ``Homicide'' doesn't rank in the Top 20 shows among black viewers in any demographic group, according to BBDO Worldwide, a New York ad agency that annually surveys viewership by race.
``Black characters do not guarantee black audiences. Shows that blacks relate to they relate to because the environment is black,'' says Doug Alligood, BBDO vice president for special markets. ``Those environments are the house and family. In `Homicide,' as in real life, it's not a black society per se. Much of what it deals with is white - many of the criminals are white, key police are white.
``They use plenty of black characters in significant roles and I applaud `Homicide' for reflecting society in that market,'' Alligood adds. ``But real life and TV don't necessarily go hand in hand.''
by CNB