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For Judge Amy Gray on the popular CBS drama "Judging Amy," court officer Bruce Van Exel is always there to offer encouragement, occasional chastisement and a shoulder to cry on.

The series is only in its second season, so Bruce is a fairly new presence in prime time. But according to an expert on black images in the media, he represents an archetype that dates back decades.

Donald Bogle's new book, Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $30), offers a comprehensive and interpretive history of black shows in the medium- tracing a path from 1951's "Amos 'n' Andy" to recent entries such as "City of Angels." The author also dissects black characters on predominantly white series, such as "ER's" Dr. Peter Benton.

The book's publication comes amid a raging national dialogue involving the NAACP, television writers, producers, directors and industry observers. In February, while addressing an audience at Washington State University, filmmaker Spike Lee expressed his displeasure with some of Hollywood's recent takes on black characters. He criticized what he called "the super-duper, magical negro" portrayed in the films "The Green Mile" and "The Legend of Bagger Vance."

Unrealistic and even downright unflattering depictions of African Americans may be an uncharted area of study for some, however for scholar Bogle, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and NYU, it's a textbook case. But don't mistake Primetime Blues for the type of dry, erudite tome that gathers dust at the upper reaches of the bookshelf. Bogle's engaging treatment brings into focus not only what played out before-the-camera but also what went on behind-the-scenes at the networks.

For example, the late Sheldon Leonard, who produced "The Danny Thomas Show," told Bogle that "Whenever Danny or any member of his family showed physical affection for (black actress Amanda Randolph)- a kiss on the cheek an arm on the shoulder-I could count on a shower of hate mail." (Randolph co-starred in the comedy from 1955-1964 as Louise, the family's domestic.) Though efforts to add dimension to Randolph's role may have tweaked the comfort level of a few bigoted letter writers during the '50s, the role of African American as maid, as nurturer, is one that TV has been infinitely at ease with, says Bogle.

Witness Ethel Waters as the beaming, affable "Beulah" in the early '50s; Esther Rolle as the independent Florida on "'Maude" during the `70s; and Nell Carter's cuddly, smart-mouthed Nellie Ruth Harper on the '80s sitcom "Gimme a Break." Which brings us back to Bruce Van Exel of "Judging Amy" . . .

"I remember on one episode where I believe (Amy) was going out for the evening and she was asking (Bruce) how she looked and he said, `I don't want to play the girlfriend role.'. . .But the way the script was written it was the girlfriend role! He was still advising her, still nurturing her," Bogle says. "I would have called this type (role) the `mammy' image before."

Bogle is quick to point out that his criticism is not of actor Richard T. Jones, who plays Van Exel. In fact, it is the presence of Van Exel that brings him back as a viewer. "A character like that, even if you're not wholly satisfied with him, can make a difference in the entire tone of the series and what it's saying about American life," Bogle says.

"Granted, it's `Judging Amy' and it's still about her in the workplace and her family and he's the supporting character, yet I think it's healthy for black viewers and white viewers to see more of who he is. . . and (the show) has dealt with him a little more," he adds.

"Judging Amy" was just one of the shows that attempted to respond to the NAACP protest of the 1999 TV season by incorporating black characters. But adding a brown face to the mix isn't enough in itself. "You don't just want to bring in a black actor or actress and just leave the script or the character the way it was originally," he says. "In some ways we do want color blind casting, but you also want to make some comment that pertains to culture and race in America."

And this means breaking free of the stereotypes that have become almost institutionalized in today's TV industry. Besides this recurring mammy-nurturer character, Bogle cites television's tendency to fall back on the theme of interracial male bonding-e.g. "I Spy," "Spenser for Hire," "Miami Vice." "These series never address the cultural differences that exist," Bogle says. "They want to promote this idea that the black male, rather than being someone to be feared, is someone who is going to be the buddy, the friend and again, be supportive."

Bogle also notes that TV likes heavier African-American women, "and often photographs them in unflattering ways." This is something that reared its head on "Beulah" during the '50s and that the author says is even present in characters today, such as the mom on the UPN series, "The Parkers," (which is the most-watched series among blacks). Although, Bogle adds, the mother there "does have a kind of sexuality, though it's treated comically-she pines for this professor." But the bottom line, he observes, is that TV doesn't provide enough mature, sexually vibrant African Americans.

Another favorite way to position black characters is behind the boss' desk, where there is the illusion that they are in a position of power, but they are not really involved in the main plot action. "That was the case with Bernie Hamilton on `Starsky and Hutch' (in the '70s) and, though he's certainly more developed and has moments where he can speak out, still holds true for James McDaniels' role" on "NYPD Blue," Bogle says.

Eradicating these hackneyed representations, Bogle says, will require changes at all levels within the industry. The NAACP, which also raised the red flag a half-century ago over "Amos 'n' Andy," agrees. The initiatives presented to the TV industry by the association include adding minorities at executive levels and increasing their numbers among producers and writers.

Can these kinds of changes make a difference? Let's look at a case that author Bogle mentions: "The guy who came up with the concept (for `The Fresh Prince of Bel Air') was Benny Medina-an African American who went to Quincy Jones' production company. They took the project to NBC where Brandon Tartikoff (then Entertainment President) wanted it, so NBC decided to do it, yet who do they have develop the show?" Bogle queries. "Two white, Harvard-educated writers. . . and they had problems with the series originally and had to bring other people in. This is a crucial point with TV and the movies: Who is telling us the story and whose perspective is it coming from?"

The point that the NAACP and Bogle bring up is that when stories purporting to represent the black frame-of-reference are told solely by people outside of that cultural experience, you are bound to get distortions and outmoded stereotypes. "There's this whole thing in Hollywood today where we identify who it is that can `greenlight' a movie, that is, who can say that a movie is going to be made, financed and so forth. There are still no African Americans who can do that, and with TV there also isn't anyone who has that kind of control," Bogle says.

Television may in fact share much of its myopic vision of black characters with its big brother, the film industry. Bogle, who surveyed the movies' treatment of African Americans in his highly regarded 1973 book Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks, agrees with Spike Lee's assessments and adds his own insights on Hollywood's contemporary spin on black characters.

"It's funny that at the tail end of the 20th century and the start of a new century that we have these very old images coming back in major movies. `The Legend of Bagger Vance'-I don't know why Will Smith did it, he's barely in the movie. Here's a character, it takes place in the past in the South, that comes out of nowhere and he's going to help this white golfer get his stroke back and he even helps the man in a way to get his sexuality back. . . and you have no idea that there was such a thing as racism or bigotry in America-it was glossed over," Bogle says.

But negative images can be seen in the subtext as well as the main body of today's films, Bogle observes. Even the Oscar-winning "Traffic," which the author says he basically likes, fell prey to these age-old traps, Bogle notes. "There's this sequence where a white teenage girl, who's going down the path of self-degradation, ends up in the ghetto to get drugs. We're suppose to feel her greatest humiliation is this scene where we see her in a room and there's this black guy with her who's muscular and not dressed and he's going to shoot her up and have her sexually. It's not a huge part of the movie, but it's the old `black buck' image-a terrifying black man and a white woman really endangered because of him.

"I watched some of the reactions of white members of the audience around me and it visibly made them uneasy. And I don't think it was a conscious act, I just think it is a perspective that's part of the fabric of the American psyche at this point, and you'd think that by now we'd have gone beyond that. But Hollywood still trades in these old images," Bogle says.

Bogle suggests that viewers of all races, particularly parents, pay attention to the kind of representations film and television provides. TV, he says, plays a much stronger role today than it has in past decades. During the Great Depression, people turned to movies for escape. Today television "comes into our homes and, though we can often be doing other things while it's on, these images do end up sinking into the backs of our heads and there are real distortions that we may not sort out that come to us from TV," Bogle notes.

Black audiences, Bogle believes, wind up watching the shows that play into these distortions out of a need to see some semblance of an African-American community reflected. "I think (black viewers) have a need for entertainment the same as white viewers," Bogle says. "I think the shows on today touch on that need but don't necessarily answer that need. The black audience still wants to see something rather than nothing."

Through its provocative and revealing study, Bogle's Primetime Blues compels us to require that that something to be something more.

Copyright The Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

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