The success of AMC's Mad Men signals new interest in the 1960s for American television. This fall, both ABC and NBC will roll out series focusing on two iconic American institutions during the seething decade. ABC's Pan Am promises a stylish series centered on luxury travel and the historic international airline -- where "pilots were rock stars and the stewardesses are the most desirable women." Keeping with this sexy theme, NBC's The PlayBoy Club will take viewers behind the legendary Chicago club's bunny ears. Somewhat of a spin-off -- the show reprises Naturi Naughton's cameo on Mad Men as one of the nightclub's only African-American bunnies.
But with TV's new interest in the 1960s, and Naughton as the lone player of color -- exactly where does race fit, it at all?
The nostalgic '60s have proven to be a winning point of interest for TV. Not only does the time capsule secure viewers out of sentimental 40-somethings -- a cash-cow market for advertisers according to Ad Age -- but like Mad Men these shows are likely to attract the curiosities of America's youth who are in search of vintage pop culture -- lifestyle and trending swag included. If Mad Men is any indication, we can expect Pan Am and The Playboy Club's treatment of race to be sedated and barely there.
Critics slammed Mad Men -- the award-winning series set smack in the middle of 1960s New York -- for its sluggish narrative on the civil rights movement. While Mad Men offered dead-on confrontation of other prominent unfortunate '60s fixtures, like then legal cooperate sexual harassment, and drug culture, the show's eventual submission to race was swelled with subtle and allegorical representations -- mainly the Draper's muted black nanny and the Sterling Cooper building's perquisite black male elevator operator, the former earning her own satirical Twitter handle. But it was Naughton's cameo in the show's fourth season as a black Playboy bunny that brought race from under a Madison Avenue office desk to center stage when she won the heart of the agency's British partner Lane Pryce -- a man married with children. True to '60s form, when Lane's father caught wind of the affair, the elderly Londoner chastised Lane with a cane across the face.
New '60s-themed TV on the cuffs of controversy around number one box-office hit The Help should serve as a racial-GPS on what not to do. Historical inaccuracies and age-old Hollywood white-washing proves a combination clearly worthy of Oscar buzz, and lingering community outrage to tote. In this case, I'm certain black viewers would rather these shows go entirely absent of faux recollections of civil rights America. But does there exist a safe and sturdy middle ground for TV's approach to the precarious text on race? Or should we all lie in the post-primetime beds TV's '60s do-over will inevitably make -- the imagined space where blackness has no real true place at all?
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It is important that these depictions are as accurate as possible -which they quite often are not.
The sixties was a time of much social unrest and change. What is often not stated is that every single social movement that this decade is famous for was encouraged by the civil rights movement and often used this movement as a blue print from which to voice their concerns...Even the womens movement drew strength and inspiration from the plight of disenfranchised Africans, way back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
I live in England and I get the 5 standard channels. On the BBC, we've had Mad Men, recently we've had The Hour. On other channels we've had 1960 drama too, kind of ironic then that Idris Elba is hosting the launch of DramaVille - which for those who do not know, is the name the BBC has decided to call its Drama productions on the BBC. DramaVille is clearly absent of race. If it wasn't for the current Torchwood, I'm embarassed to say that the BBC would be devoid of race in drama and I can say that the BBC is a fairly accurate representation of TV generally over here in England.
So many drama's are set in the pre 1960's and so little colour shown as a result. It's not that anything can be done about the TV's 60's stake and how this does affect race on our screens, but it does bring our attention to Dramas that are set in the present day. Why are they lacking race? It's not even lacking race, it's devoid of race at all. I could spend a good 10 minutes trying to think of a drama currently on TV that has people, or even , a person who is not white, in the main characters.
It's really shocking.
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Or should black show-biz and pop people rolling in money realize that ''The Wire'' proved beyond doubt that a successful TV series can have dozens of black actors playing significant roles? If there is a need for the portrayal of black people in the sixties on TV to be radically improved, then let black entrepreneurs, performers and writers show what they got.
blacks are not going to fit in with either show. Why? Because black folks were not a big part of the Playboy mansion albeit Sammy Davis Jr. was an attendee a couple of times. As far as that airline show is concerned I seriously doubt there will be one or more black stewardess and definetely no pilots to treat as rock stars. It is what it was back in the 60's. No need to sugar coat it. What we can hope for is the soundtrack. Motown was huge back then.
http://www.nbc.com/the-playboy-club/video/meet-bunny-brenda/1345546/