Marcia, Jan and Cindy. Greg, Peter and Bobby. Carol and Mike. Alice and Tiger. The Bradys will forever symbolize the All-American family. The Bradys, however, did not live in a very politically correct world.
Mrs. Brady did not have a job, yet she needed a housekeeper to keep her six do-gooder children in line (the sewing, shopping and PTA duties must have been too much to handle alone). People of color did not receive a fair break, either. Their roles were limited to the Grand Canyon, Hawaiian vacations and such one-time affairs as Mr. Brady’s business dinner with a Mexican client.
That was the 1970s, and this is today. Are television programs more diverse?
According to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the answer is no. At a conference last week, Jackson accused the entertainment industry of “institutional racism.” He said there are a lack of minorities in positive roles on television as well as a shortage of them (and women) as network news anchors or in other television positions. Jackson plans to boycott offending networks if improvements are not made in the near future.
Perhaps television programming does not pattern itself after the United Nations. After all, the real world is not that way. The real world plays favorites. It does not try to accommodate everyone.
No matter how things are done, someone will be offended. Today people are more sensitive than ever. Still, someone is always the butt of the joke. Of course they don’t realize that we’re laughing with them, not at them, right?
Public television recognized the need to represent all people before it more recently caught on with network programming. During the Brady era, young viewers also saw such shows as “Sesame Street.” There, children of all colors and abilities, along with a healthy cast of adult mentors, lived in the same neighborhood, singing songs, learning the alphabet and counting to 10 in Spanish together.
The Blood Hound Gang on PBS’ “3-2-1 Contact” was a real life, multi-cultural version of Scooby Doo and his nosy friends. Color was not an issue on those shows. It is more of an issue these days.
When an African-American family moved next door to the Walshes on “Beverly Hills 90210,” color became the issue of the day. This family quickly came into the Walshes’ lives to quickly disappear. As legend has it, the family went on a cruise where the boat sank. Who really knows what happened?
Sure, television could use more diversity, but there does not always have to be a message behind it. The “come into my neighborhood and see how my people live” mentality is really boring. That is what encyclopedias and documentaries are for.
Tradition and culture are not just “minority things.” Everyone has some, whether they want to admit it or not.
People supposedly relate to others who are like themselves. Well, if that was the case, people would probably never watch television. Personalities of characters are usually exaggerated, while their appearances are unbelievably perfect. The television world is very unreal.
By integrating TV programming— adding the missing minority whether it be red, yellow, black or white—people see that others can live together in a cooperative setting. The media has the influence to do that, but seems to have other things in mind.
We have all thrown balls in the house. We have all wanted to be an only child. We have all been hit on the nose. In our own ways, we have been like the Bradys and other television families—of all colors.
People do not relate to animals, trees or superheroes. People relate to other people. Just because a person’s family has a non-European history does not make them less American. The baseball and apple pie is for everyone, so television should be, too.
