Quote Of The Week: "I've seen honest faces before, they normally come attached to liars". Buffy The Vampire Slayer
  • Home/Film & TV
  • Ray & Ishida
  • The Shows
  • Music Matters
  • Social Media
  • Show Archives
  • About

The Kerry Washington Effect

22/9/2014

0 Comments

 
Has Scandal/Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes ushered in a new onscreen era for women, especially women of colour?
Picture
Top L to R: Shonda Rhimes creator of Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder and Kerry Washington. Bottom L to R: Gabrielle Union and Nicole Beharie.
I like Scandal, I mean who doesn't? The socio-political drama where the good guys are the bad guys, the bad guys are only a little worse than the 'good guys' and the real villains are so venomous that they can’t even be labelled.

Did you know that before Kerry Washington took the part of Olivia Pope, that the last African-American actresses to have a lead role on TV, were both cast back in the previous century? Dihann Carroll played Julia (from 1968–1971) in the eponymously titled show Julia and following her 3 years later, came actress Teresa Graves, who played Christie Love in the show Get Christie Love which only lasted from 1974–1975.

This means that a black actress has not been considered a strong enough pull, to draw in audiences for 37, 38 years - which is utter madness! Yet look at the network results for Scandal. Its season 3 debut episode had 10.5 million viewers, which is officially a record in TV ratings history.

With this fact firmly in the faces of TV execs, who only think of ratings in relation to advertising revenue, I say look out for a trend of shows that will have African-American actresses at the forefront because now their faces can spell M-O-N-E-Y. And perhaps on the periphery the notion of beauty can also be redefined, as lets not forget, this is a factor when hiring women. We must not forget that we are talking about the oldest, ultimate, technological, visual medium, that unfortunately is drenched in superficiality and with the politics of race and shadizm. The rule was the darker your skin tone, the more limited your options and that has been a standard practice for years.

"Unfortunately there is still too much ye olde thinking that pervades within the media about what…or I should say whom can draw audiences in, to generate satisfactory box office or TV ratings."

Picture
The Latina's are coming with force too... The cast of Devious Maids
Other black actresses in lead roles, that are too proving successful in mainstream TV are Sleepy Hollow's Nicole Beharie and Gabrielle Union in Being Mary Jane. There were plans to reboot Murder She Wrote with Octavia Spencer as Jessica Fletcher, but that has now been scrapped. Will Somebody please find Teresa Randle and create a role for her!

On this side of the pond, with the UK actually loosing its black talent no matter the gender to the US, the revolution will probably have to come via the internet, as the number of shows with black casts, but also black production teams is on a major rise in the land of the www dot. I guarantee you, eventually the UK mainstream establishment will have to take notice and they will have to get past giving prime roles in just hood and crime dramas.

Unfortunately there is still too much ye olde thinking that pervades within the media about what…or I should say whom can draw audiences in, to generate satisfactory box office or TV ratings. They still haven't realised that the old an age practice of sticking to the same old casting formula is making the lack of variety on the small box intensely boring and often just plain repetitive. No longer are all the top shows producing a standard 24 episodes per season. Your show has to hit significant rating figures these days from the get-go, especially debut shows, just so you don't get cancelled. So from a survival point of view it would pay dividends to represent all demographics and bring some flavour to the proceedings beyond the capacity of tokenism.

Hopefully with these shows doing well executive producers are going to have to come to their senses about the eclectic members of the world in which we actually live in and how intelligent people can’t be controlled by notions of race when it comes to entertainment.
Picture
Teresa Graves & Dihann Carroll
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    TDD, RC & IK talk: 
    Film, Life & Love 

    RSS Feed

    ARCHIVE

    All
    12 Years A Slave
    3 Days To Kill
    3 MUSICAL BIOPICS OF MUSICAL GENIUS'
    47 Ronin
    80s & 90s Cartoons
    8 Drill Instructors From Hell
    Achilles
    Actor: Joe Morton
    Actor Workouts
    African-Caribbean Cinema
    After Earth
    Age Of Ultron
    American Horror Story
    Animation
    Art Vs Love
    Assassin's Creed
    Ava DuVernay
    Avengers
    AVP
    Ballers
    Ban Cliche Chivalry
    Batman
    Batman Vs Vader
    Battle Of 5 Armies
    BBC
    Beautiful Creatures
    Beverly Hills Cop 4
    Beyond The Lights
    Birth Of Superheroes
    Birth Of The 12 Certificate
    Black Adam
    Black Panther
    Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
    Blindsided
    Boxing Day
    Bruce
    Captain America
    Captain Marvel
    Cartoons To Film
    Casting Couch
    Channing Tatum
    CHING SIU-TUNG
    Chivalry
    Chivalry Is Dead
    Chris Pine
    Cinematic Vigilantes
    Civil War
    Cloak & Dagger
    Cobra Kai
    Comic Book Films/TV
    Confessions Of A Marriage Counselor
    CONTROVERSIAL CASTING
    Crazy Stupid Love
    Cult Vehicles
    Dance
    Darth Maul: Apprentice
    Dawn Of Justice
    Days Of Future Past
    DCs Legends Of Tomorrow
    Deadpool
    Denzel Washington
    Dexter
    Die Hard 6
    Die Hardest
    Directing Firsts
    Director's Chair
    Doctor Strange
    Donnie Yen
    Dracula
    Dr. Strange
    Dr Who
    Eddie Murphy
    Edge Of Tomorrow
    Ender's Game
    Equalizer
    ESCAPE PLAN
    Ethan Hawke's Concept Movies
    Fact & Truth
    Fantastic Four
    Fast 6
    Fast & The Furious 6
    Female Roles On TV
    Film Remakes
    Film & TV Budgets - An Expose!
    Flashpoint Paradox
    Franchise Kings
    Frankenstein
    From Dusk Til Dawn
    Furious 7
    Gambit
    Game Of Thrones
    GET ON UP
    Getting Projects Noticed
    Ghostbusters 2016
    Godzilla
    Harrison Ford
    Health
    HELLBLAZER TV SERIES
    Heroes Reborn
    Heroic Bloodshed
    Homelessness Spikes
    Hong Kong Stunts
    Hoshino
    How To Make An Epic Fantasy Film
    Indiana Jones
    Infinity War Review
    Inside Out
    Ip Man
    Iron Man 3
    Ishida Khan
    Is The High-Concept Action Film Dead?
    Jackie Chan
    Jackie & Donnie
    Jack Reacher
    Jack Ryan
    Jaden Smith
    James Bond
    JAMES BOND 24 - SPECTRE
    James Cromwell
    Jason Bourne
    Jason Mamoa
    Jesse Owens Biopic
    Jet Li
    Jim Carrey
    Joel Kinnaman
    JOHN CONSTANTINE
    John Wick
    John Woo
    Jumping @ Notting Hill Carnival - What U Need To Know!
    Justice League
    Justice League: WAR
    Keanu Reeves
    Kevin Costner
    Killer Joe
    King Richard Review
    Kingsman
    Lady Thor
    Limitless TV Show
    LOTR
    Lucy
    Luke Evans
    Luther
    Mad Max
    Magic Mike XXL
    Magnificent Seven
    Making A Relationship Work
    Male Social Pressure
    Martial Arts
    Marvel Film
    Marvel's Runaways
    Morality Tales
    Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones
    Movie Mash-Up!
    My Everyday Power
    Mystical Weapons
    Neil Cross
    New Jack Cinema
    Notting Hill Carnival
    Oldboy
    Olympus Has Fallen
    One Man Army
    Open Letters
    Penny Marshall
    Philip K. Dick
    Pitch Perfect 2
    Point Break - Remake
    POLTERGEIST
    Predator
    Racism
    Ray Crimson
    Reboots & Remakes
    Relationships
    Revenge Thrillers
    Reverse Racism
    Rhys Wakefield
    Robocop 2014
    Rocky/Apollo Spin-Off: Creed
    Ross Marquand
    Scandal
    Shazam
    Silmarillion
    Sorcerer & White Snake
    Spider-Man
    Star Trek
    Star Wars
    Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker - The Review
    STEP-UP: ALL IN
    Suicide Squad
    Superhero Bowl
    Superman
    Superman Unbound
    Sword Fighting
    Sylvester Stallone
    Tablets
    Taken 3
    Tale Of 2 Wolves
    Temptation
    Terminator 5: Genesys
    That Dude D'Lambert
    The 4 Kings Of Kung-Fu
    The 5 Wizards Of Middle Earth
    The Arrow
    The Conjuring
    The Crow
    THE FEMALE EXPENDABLES
    The Final Girl
    The Flash
    The Hobbit
    The Host
    The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
    The Informer
    THE JAMES BROWN BIOPIC
    The Kerry Washington Effect
    The Last Jedi
    The Minions
    The Outcast
    The Perfect Joker
    The Pyramid
    The Review
    The Rock
    THE WOLVERINE
    This Is The End
    Thor
    Tom Clancy
    Tom Cruise
    Top 10 Disaster Movies
    Top 10 Horror Franchise
    Top 10 Psycho Killers
    Top 10 Robots Gone Wrong
    Top 13 Supernatural Killers
    Top 7 Descents To The Darkside
    Top 7 Foot Chases
    Trailers
    TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION
    TUBE ETIQUETTE!
    TV Actresses
    Tyler Perry's Temptation
    Unique Voices Of Cinema
    United Ramen
    Van Damme
    Viggo Mortensen
    Vin Diesel
    Wanted: Cartoon Adaptations
    Website Builders
    Wesley Snipes
    Who Earns The Most
    WHY THE MALE ARTIST DIES 1000 TIMES PT.1
    WHY THE MALE ARTIST DIES 1000 TIMES PT.2
    Wife & Husband
    Will Smith
    Worst Dystopian Movies
    Writer
    X Men
    X-Men
    XXX
    You're Next

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture