Andre Braugher, TV’s best unheralded actor, recalls a scene from this season’s “Homicide: Life on the Street” that was unlike any he’d been involved with on television.
It was the kind of convention-breaking setup common to this critically hailed, modestly rated cop show. It was also the kind of scene that has found even those involved with the show surprising themselves with their answers to the question: Has “Homicide” quietly become TV’s first representative black drama?
Braugher plays Frank Pembleton, a brilliantly complex African-American detective in the Baltimore homicide unit dramatized at 9 p.m. Fridays on NBC-Ch. 5. In one episode, the script had Pembleton summoned to an office by the deputy commissioner, who wanted the detective to drop his investigation of a politician who faked his own kidnapping. The deputy commissioner, a lieutenant and a captain were in the office with Pembleton, each armed with his own political and personal agenda.
“We were all standing in the room during the scene, and suddenly it was amazing: I realized it was the first time I’d ever been in a room with three other African-American actors and the scene was about us,” Braugher says.
“I had the same reaction watching that scene,” says executive producer Tom Fontana. “I remember saying, `Oh my God, all four actors in the scene are black.’ It was one of those happy accidents that occurred naturally because of the way the show has evolved.”
With barely anyone noticing during its three on-again, off-again seasons, “Homicide” has broken new ground with the way race is depicted on TV.
It might not look that way at first glance. The show’s ensemble cast isn’t entirely, or even mostly, African-American. It features such high-profile white actors as Ned Beatty, Daniel Baldwin, Richard Belzer and Melissa Leo.
But the unprecedented number of prominent black characters–whose roles range from detective to bureaucrat to murderer–some weeks take over whole episodes, making their presence seem as routine as what one passes walking down a street in Baltimore or Washington or Atlanta.
“I don’t know of another situation like it (on TV),” says Barry Levinson, the Oscar-winning movie director (“Rain Man”) who developed the show from the book by David Simon, a Baltimore newspaper reporter who spent a year tracking a homicide unit’s daily activities. “Most TV doesn’t reflect society in any way.–it’s some kind of never-never land.”
“Are we breaking ground? I hope so, and it would be funny if we were,” adds executive producer Henry Bromell. “It was never our goal: Nobody ever sat down and said, `Let’s do that.’ It was really a series of creative decisions–the writers, producers–deciding what seems the most real and works best.”
This new kind of realism has led to scenes that rarely, if ever, unfold on weekly TV.
Example: One recent episode centered on two black detectives (Braugher and Clark Johnson, who plays the quirky Meldrick Lewis) deciding which adjoining neighborhood to canvass first for a murder suspect: the mostly black one or the mostly white one.
The analytical, Jesuit-trained Pembleton insisted they search the mostly black neighborhood: that’s where crime statistics pointed. Lewis insisted they search the mostly white neighborhood: He was weary of cops seeing crime sporting a black face. The result was a racial issue that gained unexpected power as it was denuded of any TV-cozy, salt-and-pepper political correctness–a situation possible only on a show with enough black characters to make the scene unforced.
“The old rules were simple-minded,” Braugher says. “We’re trying to break new ground by showing a variety of people in the world. This is the only show that could support the typical black badass drug pusher without it being a stereotype or an ugly depiction of a whole group of men.”
The demographics on “Homicide” didn’t begin with the “checklist” casting of most dramatic TV, which producers say is a virtual menu that ensures each show include “the hunk,” “the babe” and “the black guy.” Levinson, whose film reputation earned him rare latitude from NBC, looked only for the best actors to fill roles. That led to oddly interesting decisions: Lt. Giardello was obviously Italian, yet Levinson thought Kotto perfect for the part. So he cast him.
The show’s producers say NBC has never made noises about “Homicide” being too “black.” It’s a concern Hollywood veterans say is part of network TV’s mindset and the reason–with the recent exception of CBS’ midseason replacement “Under One Roof,” a drama created by Thomas Carter revolving around an African-American family in Seattle–there are no black-centered dramas.
“There’s always this fear of alienating the white viewer,” says Kevin Akardie, creator of Fox’s diverse cop show “New York Undercover” and a former writer with Bromell on the acclaimed series “I’ll Fly Away.” “It’s at the heart of any sales pitch when you’re trying to pitch a show with a minority aspect to it.”
With TV viewership increasingly segregated by race, the number of African-American characters on “Homicide” has not gained it a significant black response. “Homicide” doesn’t rank in the Top 20 shows among black viewers in any demographic group, according to BBDO Worldwide, a New York ad agency that annually surveys viewership by race. “Homicide” finished 89th overall in the Nielsen ratings for 1994-95.
“Black characters do not guarantee black audiences. Shows that blacks relate to, they relate to because the environment is black,” says Doug Alligood, BBDO vice president for special markets. “Those environments are the house and family. In `Homicide,’ as in real life, it’s not a black society per se. Much of what it deals with is white–many of the criminals are white, key police are white.
“They use plenty of black characters in significant roles and I applaud `Homicide’ for reflecting society in that market,” Alligood adds. “But real life and TV don’t necessarily go hand in hand.”
