Revolution Televised.pdf

Conclusion 171
stars of Blaxploitation; the series was also the first police drama to
star an African American woman.
One of the most successful programs of the mid- to late 1970s
was Norman Lear’s The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All in the Family.
The show indicates the integrating face of African American representation
at the end of the decade. The program follows the lives of
George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) and Louisie (Weesie) Jefferson
(Isabel Sanford) as they move on up to “a deluxe apartment in the
sky.” 1 George has a successful dry cleaning business, which has
given him financial security and social mobility. George’s sarcasm
and obvious disdain for elements of white society give the program
an edge, although many critics complained of George’s buffoonery.
The inclusion of a recurring, successful, married, interracial couple,
Tom and Helen Willis (Franklin Cover and Roxie Roker), as neighbors
of the Jeffersons was also a first on network television.
Other shows followed the integrationist theme, including Diff’rent
Strokes (1978–86), The White Shadow (1978–81), and Benson
(1979–86). Diff’rent Strokes places two black orphans, Arnold
(Gary Coleman) and Willis (Todd Bridges), in the millionaire home
of Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) and his daughter, Kimberley
(Dana Plato). 2 The White Shadow deals with an integrated high
school basketball team and their white coach, Ken Reeves (Ken
Howard). 3 Benson (Robert Guillaume) worked as hired help around
the governor’s mansion and, in an unprecedented rise in status, becomes
the state budget director and then the lieutenant governor. 4
African Americans also became a focal point in many successful
made-for-television films, including My Sweet Charlie (1970), starring
Al Freeman Jr.; Brian’s Song (1970), with Billy Dee Williams
and James Caan playing the real-life football stars Gale Sayers and
Brian Piccolo; and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman (1974),
with Cicely Tyson, a film that won nine Emmys. The miniseries
whose impact is still discussed today is Roots (1977). Produced
by David Wolper and based on Alex Haley’s book, this series ran
for eight consecutive nights on ABC. At twelve hours, Roots is the
epic tale of African Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton played young Kinte
and John Amos, the adult), tracing his life in Africa and the United
States, through capture and slavery. The film later follows his descendents
through the Civil War and eventual freedom. Seen by 130
million viewers, approximately half of the population of the United