The promise of programming

Black Enterprise, Feb, 1996 by Carolyn M. Brown, Nadirah Z. Sabir

RUMPELSTILTSKIN AS A DRED-LOCKED WEST Indian conjurer? Snow White, the Native American goddess White Snow? And Little Red Riding Hood as a Chinese girl named Little Red Happy Coat? Not quite the fairy tales you recall from your childhood. That's because these stories are part of a new animated series, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, appearing weekly on the Home Box Office network (HBO).

Happily Ever After is the product of the Confetti Entertainment Co., owned by Donna Brown Guillaume, her husband, actor Robert Guillaume; Two Oceans Entertainment Group, an independent television production company; and a third partner, Jack Lazard. With the help of HBO executive Carole Rosen and the series' co-executive producer, Meryl Marshall, who presides over Two Oceans, what started out as a set of books and companion audio tapes has been transformed into a half-hour show.

The show premiered last March, with characters boasting a full rainbow of heritages. Equally diverse are the show's writers and stars including Rosie Perez and Denzel Washington - who provide the characters' voices. "We are giving children of color the chance to believe that they can be the princess, prince, king or queen," says Brown Guillaume.

It's just as important for white people to see people of color in these stories."

Happily Ever After represents a new crop of television shows aimed at a multicultural audience. Innovative as well as inclusive, these shows are broader, deeper and more positive than those trotted out in the past. They are the kind of shows African Americans have long been craving, but not getting, from either pay or free TV.

Today, such shows are popping up most often on cable television, with HBO (The Tuskegee Airmen, The Josephine Baker Story, Laurel Avenue, comedian Sinbad's comedy specials) leading a small pack. Of course, Black Entertainment Television also airs African American shows, but, like Nickelodeon, BET has become home to recycled rather than original programming. Unlike Nick's, though, BET's shows are not once-syndicated classics (except Sanford and Son). More often they are black shows that were axed by the major networks. Most black shows rarely make it to the five-year mark needed for syndication, for example, ROC and the soap opera Generations.

Although the cost of developing high-quality, original programming for black-owned networks is a barrier, the lack of innovation and progress over the years has been a disappointment to many black viewers. For them, the questions become, will the swelling interest in producing quality, original ethnic TV continue? Will it carry over to the major networks? And will black-owned cable networks ever be able to compete with those already producing new shows? Or will they be relegated to serving as waystations for programs that the major networks don't want.

FOLLOW THE LEADER?

It's usually safer to follow trends than to start them. And the major networks have played it very safe. With few exceptions (NBC's The Cosby Show was one), the big four have been unwilling to take a risk on nontraditional ethnic programs. Even Fox, once the network of choice for young, hip, urban viewers, has gone mainstream. Headlining its kick-off prime-time lineup five years ago was Keenen Ivory Wayans' hip and hilarious In Living Color. Today, while Fox has picked up the sitcoms Martin and Living Single, the network is best known for the rich-kid soap operas Beverly Hills 90210, and its 20-to-30-something duplicate, Melrose Place.

Widely considered an industry trendsetter, HBO, to which 35% of black households subscribe, has gambled on black dramatic programs like The Tuskegee Airmen and Laurel Avenue, as well as the crude stand-up comedy of Russell Simmons' Def Comedy Jam.

"HBO has a history of putting on cutting-edge drama and comedy shows, as well as sports events and musical specials," says Brown Guillaume, a Harvard grad who began her TV career as a broadcast associate at CBS Evening News in Los Angeles.

Major networks broadcast to a wide spectrum of people, and so they try hard to appeal to mainstream sensibilities even when a show highlights ethnic life. Meanwhile, HBO's creative seasonal roster and the networks' relationships with independent black producers make for a more substantive, multicultural cable network.

And why not? African Americans watch more TV and are more loyal consumers, says Gregory Amerson, manager of affiliate marketing, West Coast for HBO. "Blacks represent such a large part of American culture. So much of what we do and who we are finds its way into the mainstream." Amerson, who is black, further notes that subscriber-driven HBO can be more adventurous, whereas the major networks are more beholden to advertisers and are therefore cautious.

Debra Langford agrees. There is greater room for diversity and niche programming in cable because "cable networks don't have to satisfy everybody," says Langford, vice president, television, Quincy Jones/David Salzman Entertainment, which produces Fresh Prince of Bel Air, In The House, MAD TV and more recently, a pilot for the USA cable network, Rudy.