New, back and black - African-American television programs - includes related article

Ebony, Nov, 1993

The viewer-supported network will also bring to the air one of Black America's favorite performers. Sade: Love Deluxe will air Nov. 24 at 8 p.m. (EST).

Cable subscribers surfing through their channels are likely to settle on two HBO (Rome Box Office) specials. Mario Van Peebles stars in The Pack, a futuristic thriller set in Los Angeles about an elite police unit that uses supernatural powers to battle criminals. Add versatile actor Samuel L. Jackson portrays Jamaal, the defiant Muslim prison leader in Attica, a dramatization of the 1971 prison riot in upstate New York set to air on the network in January.

On TBS (Turner Broadcasting System), The Untold West documents the story of the Black man who taught President Theodore Roosevelt bow to ride a horse, and hihglimits the contributions of Blacks in settling the West. Also, Ja'Net Dubois of Good Times fame plays a woman whose grandson has AIDS in the Lifetime network's Other Women's Children.

In syndication during Black History Month, you can catch Black Eagles: The Story of The Tuskegee Airmen-Unsung Heroes of World War II. The drama starring Guy Davis will air nationwide.

Blacks in also wield microphones on the television talk show circuit, including first-time hosts comedian Bertice Berry and motivational speaker Les Brown. The Bertice Berry Show will be syndicated nationally to 90 percent of the country while The Les Brown Show has the good fortune of being distributed by King World Features, the same distributor of The Oprah Winfrey Show, America's No. 1 rated daytime program.

In spite of the fact the new fall TV season is more of the same programming, Black viewers can tune in to a variety of Black entertainment, information and culture.

Returning to Prime Time

This fall season marks significant cast changes in several returning shows starring Blacks. In addition to changes at ABC's Hangin' With Mr. Cooper and NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Ann-Marie Johnson leave's CBS' In the Heat of the Night to join the ensemble cast of Fox's In Living Color. Carl Weathers is the new sheriff on In the Heat of the Night. Alexis Fields comes on board Fox's Roc as a teenager that Roe and Eleanor take in.

The returning Black performers to TV's prime-time network lineup are Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell, Tommy Ford, Tichina Arnold and Carl Payne in Fox Television's Martin on Sundays at 8 p.m. (EST).

Monday night features Ossie Davis on CBS' Evening Shade at 8 p.m. (EST); Will Smith, Tatyana M. Ali, James Avery, Joseph Marcell, Karen Parsons and Alfonso Ribeiro in NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at 8 p.m. (EST); Charles Robinson in CBS' Love & War at 9:30 p.m. (EST), and Richard Cummings on CBS' Northern Exposure at 10 p.m. (EST).

Tuesday night returnees include Charles S. Dutton, Ella Joyce, Rocky Carroh and Carl Gordon in Fox's Roc at 8 p.m. (EST); Telma Hopkins, Deon Richmond and Merlin Santana in NBC's Getting By at 8:30 p.m. (EST), and correspondent Deborah Roberts returns to Dateline NBC at 10 p.m. (EST).

Wednesday includes Richard Brooks on NBC's Law & Order at 10 p.m. (EST).