Revolution Televised.pdf

176 Conclusion
Cerebral and black—that’s hard to get. . . . That’s like an impossible
concept for a white studio executive to get. “Black and cerebral? Get
the hell out of here! Black has to be over the top! Has to be slapstick!”
But that’s one thing I like about my show—it’s actually dry every now
and then.
Chris Rock, in Lloyd Grove, “Chris Rock: Stone Cold Funny”
The installation and pervasive reach of cable opened up the field of
television to numerous representational possibilities. Cable perhaps
holds the greatest potential as a black site of resistance within the
context of television. This proposal has some limitations: cable is
not as accessible to a national audience as essentially free network
television is; it is not a public but a pay format. However, black
viewership of cable programming has increased over the years, and
cable is a forum in which blackness has not been erased. 12 In this
section I focus on HBO as an example of cable’s intervention in
television’s discourse on blackness.
A simple survey of made-for-television movies produced by HBO
over the past years reveals the network’s engagement with blackness.
In 1997, HBO produced Miss Evers’ Boys, chronicling the lives of
the black men used in the Tuskegee experiment. The film won five
Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Made for Television Movie
and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special for Alfre
Woodard. The 1998 Emmy for Outstanding Made for Television
Movie was Don King: Only in America, which also won the award
for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or Movie. The HBO film
A Lesson before Dying won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for
a Miniseries or Movie and the Outstanding Made for Television
Movie in 1999. Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) earned
four Emmy Awards, including an Outstanding Lead Actress in a
Miniseries or Special for Halle Berry. That year Berry also earned
the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Made
for TV Movie. 13 Although awards are not necessarily the most useful
gauge of a performer’s ability or a film’s merits, they are signifiers
of a type of public recognition. Considering network television’s
limitations with regard to African American dramatic story lines,
the developing space of cable television in the media landscape
proves to be a fruitful area for interrogation. 14
Because sponsors do not directly impact cable with the potential
of advertising dollars or the threat of their loss, some cable chan-