It’s Not Just Entertainment
Understand, everything you see on TV is an ad or a sell
There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live.
To those not familiar with media, these words may seem like a modern assessment of television. It’s not. Those are Ed Murrow’s words from over fifty years ago.
One of our articles was “What Did De La See,” well, this could easily be “What Did Murrow See?”
The biggest misconception about television is that it’s “just entertainment.” For the consumer, sure. But for the producer, the one making the show, whether it’s Netflix, HBO, or network TV, something is being sold. For the former two, it’s subscriptions — and the latter, it’s ads.
So the question we’re going to look at is what’s being sold to us? First things first, we have to see how television works.
Not What You Think
How do you know that a new show is coming on the air? Why, commercials, of course. If it’s not commercials, you learn about them through one of the many press junkets: magazines, newspaper articles, late night shows, social media ads, podcasts, etc.
But it’s not what you think. If you’re an industry person, you can skip over all of this. Chances are, however, you’re not.
Long before you see an ad or press for a show, it’s already gone through a long process, which, for the creative culminates in the hectic time known as Pilot Season.
Most people know nothing of Pilot Season; the time of year when agents and actors converge on Los Angeles in hopes being cast in a pilot, which is basically a sample show. And from the months of January to March, agents agent and actors act — taking auditions, hobnobbing and the like.
If they’re lucky, a pilot that they get casted in goes into production. If they’re even more lucky, that pilot gets bought. Then there’s a mad rush to complete said pilot by May. That’s when we enter the second phase of a show. The Upfronts.
While you’re watching shows, “live tweeting,” getting your little drink on, having fun with your little crew, companies like Dr. Alok Choudhary’s 4C are combing through your tweets, Facebook posts, and the rest of your social network footprint and deciding for advertisers which network is the best fit for their ads.
African-Americans watch the most television of any group, watching nearly 200 hours per month — roughly 60 more hours than the total audience! While blacks watch more real-time (i.e., live) television than other groups, levels of time-shifted and video-on-demand viewing are increasing as well, furthering the notion this group of consumers is multifaceted in their approach to viewing their favorite broadcast and cable programs.
Nielsen goes on to say:
Additionally, 81% of African-Americans are more likely to show support for a favorite company or brand using social media, and 76% are more likely to share opinions by posting reviews and ratings online. Nielsen Report 2015
The Network Upfronts take place in May and it’s when the Networks, in award-show like fashion, rent out the major halls in New York City and present their wares to advertisers.
After deciding on which Pilots they’re going to buy, Networks make their schedules and from that line-up, advertisers buy their slot of ads for the year. Ad commitments are made to the tune of $8.7 billion dollars. This is where the sweet game of negotiations take place — the Networks requesting a certain amount based on the ratings (mostly seeking increases for well-rated shows), and the Ad Execs balking at the request — which is what makes them turn to companies like 4C — they want to make sure their ads are falling on buying eyes.
Leave it to Beaverville
Thinking critically about media or having commentary about it will land you in the conspiracy theory bag. Terms like “social engineering” and “predictive programming” are relegated to Jerry Fletcher and dismissed quickly. But again, this is the mind of the consumer.
Television, like all media, follows trends — often times, it sets them or makes the viewer comfortable with something that they have not seen before.
The world of Jim Crow was in upheaval: Brown v Wade passed in 1954 and was supposed to usher in school integration, the Montgomery Bus Boycott had been a success, ending in December of 1956, and the integration of Little Rock Central High in 1957 had captured the attention of the world. It was in this environment that the show, Leave it to Beaver, first aired.
If you’re unfamiliar with the show, it was a show created by Bob Mosher and Joe Connelly (former writers on the radio show, Amos ‘n’ Andy) and during this time of civil upheaval, a show about a nuclear white family where the father worked, the mother stayed at home, and the children got in adventures was introduced. It was the perfect reflection of white American values and took place in, you guessed it, the suburbs. Like all shows from that era, you never saw a Black person…or any person of color.
Interestingly enough, Leave it To Beaver was running in syndication on one of the few channels available (pre-cable) throughout my youth.
Time For Change
Shows like I Spy (65) co-starring Bill Cosby and Julia (68) starring Diahann Carroll appeared during the height of the Civil Rights movement and prepared white audiences for a day when the protagonist of a show might be Black no matter if they were sterile (I Spy) or a single parent (Julia).
There’s been enough ink used on describing the show founded by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, Sesame Street (69), that we need not go into detail beyond their intention of “master(ing) the addictive qualities of television and do(ing) something good with them.”
The same can also be said about Norman Lears’ plethora of shows from All in The Family (71) to Good Times (75). They were shows that challenged what America was used to seeing: dialogue about race, war, interracial relationships, etc. were common in Lears’ shows.
And while the current controversy aims to wipe out the legacy of The Cosby Show (84) and its spin-off, A Different World (87) the affects of both shows are indelible to Gen Xers who grew up inspired by the upward mobile, cultured family of the Cosbys and the in-depth love, and nurturing HBCU experience seen in A Different World.
I certainly was heavily influenced by the latter and it helped in me making my decision to attend Clark Atlanta University.
The Bad & The Ugly
I can’t say that I know Love and Hip Hop or it’s character arcs. I don’t know the pacing or style. Nor do I know the tone of the show. All I know is in one of the only episodes I’ve ever seen, a character, Mendeecees Harris, was sentenced to eight years prison time. It hardly seemed dramatic. Immediately after that episode, Black Ink Crew Chicago aired and Van Johnson had a similar arc. He too was facing prison time.
I was taken aback. Maybe it was the culture shock of never watching either show and because of that my view was slanted…OR….perhaps this was a common theme.
One can run the gamut of television shows and would be hard pressed to find: functional Black families, upstanding Black men or Black men in positions of power, really….one would be hard pressed to find regular Black men. He’s highly sexual. He’s incredibly passive. He’s inept. He’s a criminal. Or — he’s non-existent.
What is common is the Black woman existing and operating opposite of the white man. Whether that’s romantic (Scandal) or building towards it (Sleepy Hollow), even in the zombie apocalypse, the white man gets the strongest Black woman (Walking Dead/Z Nation) — Black love is a rarity.
We even have gone as far as predicting a relationship blossoming between the abolitionist, John Hawkes and the enslaved Rosalee on the new WGN drama Underground.
Conclusions
Disagree. It’s what we do best. Not to mention, we often take the things that we like and meld them into our identity; an attack on those (things) is an attack on us.
But humour me. We can celebrate the shows we see as having a positive affect on us. We look at those shows and celebrate the powerful images that they presented to the people; images that gave us a sense of pride. Yet, we have a hard time even considering the negative affects that something we love may be having on our people.
Whatever your opinion, something is being sold. These shows don’t stay on the air on the strength of our viewership alone. One has to ask — why are these shows so popular? And, in the fashion of those late 60s-early 70s shows, one has to wonder, “are we being made to accept something that is uncommon now as the norm?”
All of that may be a lot to ask. But I leave you with one request: begin to think beyond what you watch and enjoy as entertainment and learn to see at as what it is — promotion for either products or lifestyles. The 2016 Upfronts are a little over two months away (May 16–19) — give them a look see. Watch the trends and ask yourself, “what is Hollywood selling me?” Because remember, you are either selling or you’re being sold to.
One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles. Ed Murrow
