I have been watching a new show on NBC called The Event. After glancing through the reading for next week, I found that the program definitely has some relevance to the discussion on African Americans and other minorities in television programming.
In the show, the President of the United States is African American and the the son of a native Cuban. He seeks to close down a prison facility (in the show, the facility seems to house aliens) and free the inhabitants, much like Obama’s efforts with Guantanamo Bay. The show is a prime example of a new change in characters by the media involving African Americans. In order to reflect the political direction of our country, fictional presidents in television are portrayed as being black. This trend is also evident in the now cancelled show, Heroes. In the recent past, however, presidents were almost always white males; Harrison Ford in Air Force One and Bill Pullman in Independence Day come to mind. Now, however, casting a white male in the role of president would not be in line with current trends and could indeed be considered an insult.
President’s Obama’s leadership has definitely made a difference in television programming. I wonder if the president in new shows would have been a female had Hillary Clinton won the presidency. It would have been interesting to see Glenn Close as president instead of Harrison Ford.
Actually, some shows have already featured a woman as president. In Battle Star Galactica a woman is president for several seasons and I think several movies have also had a woman president. However, it is interesting how tv shows generally reflect the political climate they're created in.
ReplyDeleteLike T.J., I've seen a couple of shows that feature a woman as president. In 24 they had a woman president for several seasons. But I agree, I think that President Obama has made a big hit in television programming.
ReplyDeleteI DVR'd it but was never able to watch it and I was told you needed to see them all to understand the plot..
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