11-9-17 network tv diversity PDF

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Timothy Piper...

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RTF 308 11/9/17 Guest Lecture

Network TV, Diversity, & Urban Audiences Race Relations in the 80s & 90s

The Crumbling Welfare State -

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1960s-70s: “deserving recepients” o food stamps o job corps o medicare, Medicaid 1980s-90s: “exploited taxpayers” o using as fuel to crumble welfare state o to take away state-sponsored welfare

Growing Black Middle Class -

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civil rights booming economy 1967 o 1 in 17 black families w income 50k+ o 266,000 affluent black families 1989 o 1 in 7 black families w income 50k+ o 1/3 black americans locked in poverty

Fracturing Race Relations -

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1991: the Rodney King Tape o symptomatic of pervasive police brutality o Acquittal led to LA Riots of 1992 o 5 days, 60 deaths, $1 billion damages o first viral video?  Was rare to suddenly have video recorder on hand OJ Simpson Trial (1995) o The Chase  95 million viewers (5 million more than superbowl that year) o The Verdict - 150 million viewers, 57% of the country

Race Relations and the Media Who counts? What audience is valued and when? Representing complex identities: assimilation and/or Afrocentrism?

NBC and the Cosby Moment Bill Cosby -

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Stand-up comedian o The tonight show o Drew on childhood/universal experiences that bridged race I-Spy (1965-68) o He’s a spy disguised as a tennis coach The Bill Cosby Show (1969-71) o PE coach The New Bill Cosby Show (1972) o Variety show, featured some black musicians & acts Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids o Focused on education and on one of the major networks The Cosby Show (1984-1992) o Upper middle-class family o Doctor dad, lawyer mom o Brownstone in Brooklyn o Cross-over hit: appealed to both black and white audiences

The Big 3 and the Black Sitcom -

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The jeffersons cbs, 1975-85 Cosby show 227 amen family matters??? a different world o bill cosby spinoff w lisa bonet o controversial issues – domestic abuse, hard to get on air fresh prince of bel air o when will any other theme song EVER I honestly missed so many from the list oops

The Fourth Network -

Why another broadcast network?

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Over-the-air power Cable must-carry rules Locally licensed television stations must be carried on cable system UHF and independents

Fox -

Cautious start in 1986 Signed popular independent stations Promised: Prime-time content Young urban males

With the arrival cable they notice a lot of white middle class viewers “white flight” to cable/vcr

44% of black viewers are watching network TV, black viewers are watching more network TV

because so many white viewers are migrating to cable/vcr we have more viewers of color still watching network/broadcast television URBAN AUDIENCE. So they plan to capture the audience the other networks are missing to become a viable station. So young urban males first

Early Programming -

21 jump street (1987-91) married… with children (1987-97) the simpsons (1989-present)

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not reality tv as we know it, more like precursors america’s most wanted (1988-2012) cops (1989-2013) still on the air on another channel totally hidden video (1989-92) sued by candid camera. A rip off

Reality-based programming

Fox and Black Comedy -

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“white flight” to cable and VCRs audiences of color relied on broadcast key “urban” audience black audiences watched 44% of more network TV than non-black audiences Keenan and Damon Wayans In Living Color (1990-94) o Why is jim carrey in this o Satire from black perspective o Pretty controversial o Multicultural cast 1992: 7-night-a-week network o block of black programming: Roc (1991-94) o Baltimore trash collector and his family o 2nd season was completely live which hasn’t been done since the 50s martin (1992-97) living single (1993-98) o friends ripped it off

NBC’s new line-up -

friends (1994-2004) Seinfeld (1989-1998) Mad about you (1992-1999) ER

Fox’s Shift -

Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990-2000) Melrose place (1992-1999) Party of five (1994-2000) 1993: $1.6 billion for NFL rights

More Networks…

WB Television Network -

1995: warner bros + tribune broadcasting 2 hours of primetime kids, teens, and young adults o animaniacs, batman

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sister, sister (1995-99) o was originally on abc, abc cancelled it and wb picked it up o BEST!!! the parent’hood (1995-99) the wayans brothers (1995-99) the steve Harvey show (1996-2002)

WB’s Black Sitcoms

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UPN (united paramount network) -

1995: chris-craft industries o makes auto fibers? What is that 1996: Viacom 2005: cbs corporation

UPN’s programming strategy early blunders -

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goode behavior (1996) the secret life of desmond pfieffer (1998) o worst sitcom ever o Abraham Lincoln and mary todd and desmond Pfeiffer is their black valet where the jokes revolve around slavery and it only aired 2 episodes Homeboys in outer space (1996) o WHAT

And successes: -

Moesha (1996-2001) Hughleys (2000-2002) o Started on abc The parkers (1999-2004) o Spinoff of Moesha Girlfriends (2000-2008) o “the black sex in the city” o lasted the longest

but again… -

dawson’s creek (1998-2003) 7th heaven (1996-2007) one tree hill (2003-2012)

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CBS and warner bros. shut down UPN and the WB form the CW in 2006 what shows survive? o The only thing I know about the WB-CW thing is Gilmore girls

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everybody hates chris the game only black programming, which they shove into the friday night death slot

Merging Networks

By 2008…

BET -

the game picked up by BET; airs through 2015 sitcoms in syndication

State of the Industries -

no longer just 3 dominant networks fox and the cw survive diversity… for a moment why only sitcom??? The triumph of the white, affluent audience? Cable salvation? Or ghetto-ization?

Summary -

We need money???? Welllll no one is paying attention to minorities let’s make tv for them  But then

“Oh cool we’re mainstream now let’s just target white people”...