Looking back, African-American television has come a rather long way in a relatively short time, although every step forward seemed to take forever at the time. In the early days, when the medium was young, this particular branch of it was afflicted by tokenism in every sense. There were only token actors (and not even token producers, directors and other personnel); there were only token roles in shows with otherwise white casts; and the roles and shows gave a very partial and highly skewed view of the realities of African-American life. Half a century later, most noticeably, there are thousands of actors - some of them big stars - and similar numbers in every other position in the industry, as well as African-American production companies and networks. The roles have spread from domestic to president, including everything in between, and they have become distinctly less stereotyped and more real. And programs which focus on African-American realities look at every possible aspect, whether the indignity of slavery or the trials and tribulations of running a family, and take on every possible genre: comedy and tragedy, home drama and melodrama, pop music and opera, documentaries and news programs, talk shows and sitcoms.
This Historical Dictionary of African-American Television provides
amazingly broad coverage in various ways. The chronology traces
the progress made over the past half-century, showing what happened
and when. But the introduction gives a feel for just how slow that
that progress seemed then, and how many efforts had to be made to
reach the present situation. Inevitably, the most popular section
will be the dictionary, which reflects both the work of the pioneers
and more recent achievements, and shows the profusion of talent
that was generated, the actors, singers, dancers, and rest of the
cast. Numerous other entries present the programs, not only the
long-running series but many specials, and these in all of the genres
mentioned above and more. There are also general entries on occupations,
gender, and stereotypes. The appendixes on rankings, ratings and
Emmy Awards will doubtlessly interest many and the bibliography
will help those most interested in locating further reading on specific
subjects. Her specialization is crisis communications, on which she has also written books and articles, and her courses must have been rather special since she was singled out as teacher of the year twice. Now, on top of everything else, she is the principal of The Write Woman Public Relations Agency. This multifaceted career has allowed Professor Fearn-Banks to know African-American television from within, and also to see it more objectively from without, and thus be able to convey its story in an informative and also lively manner. Product Details Hardcover:
526 pages |
