Fair for Its Day: Difference between revisions

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' has been criticized for having Lt. Uhura as [[Token Minority|the only black cast member]], who as a female communications officer can come off as little more then a secretary. Nichelle Nichols agreed with this assessment and was going to leave the show at the end of the first season. She was talked into staying, because seeing a black woman on television in any role but that of a maid really was groundbreaking for its day. It even led to the often quoted first interracial kiss on television, between Kirk and Uhura, in the episode "Plato's Children.". The person who felt so inspired by Uhura as a symbol of progress he talked Nichelle into remaining on the show... [[Civil Rights Movement|Martin Luther King Jr.]]

** Other examples include Sulu and Chekov. Being a competent professional not a cringing yellow sterotype and a non-evil Russian on television during the [[Cold War]]. Many minor characters as well break the white-male mold, given the military setting this is remarkable for the day.

** Originally, Roddenberry [[What Could Have Been|wanted to take it a farther]] and had cast Majel Barrett as the first officer in the original version of the pilot. He even subverted the common portrayal of women as being prone to hysterics by portraying her as the cold logical type (a trait that would later be transplanted to Spock who was originally supposed to be emotional.) Capt Pike even called her [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Number One]]. [[Executive Meddling]] canned it, either because of negative test audience reaction (from women!) or because Barrett was Rodenberry's mistress. Or both.

** ''[[Ultraman]]'' even went TOS one better in that at least one episode centered around Lt. Fuji, whereas poor Uhura never got the chance to really be at the center of an episode.

* On ''[[The Man from U.N.C.L.E.]]'', (which started running several years before ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]''), Illya Kuryakin (as portrayed by David McCallum) was one of the first positive portrayals of a Russian - more precisely, Soviet - character on [[Cold War]]-era American TV. This was all the more revolutionary because Illya was portrayed as being not just a patriotic Russian citizen, but ''a serving officer in the Soviet Navy'' (he's shown in uniform in one episode). In one second-season episode, "The Indian Affairs Affair", Native Americans in Oklahoma were portrayed in what would be considered a somewhat cringeworthy manner today, but it was quite clear from the context that they were the good guys (and THRUSH was portrayed in this episode as dressing up like stereotypical "black-hat" cowboy villains and treating the Native Americans in a contemptuous manner), and the Native Americans lent crucial help to Napoleon and Illya at the episode's climax in foiling the THRUSH plot.

* ''[[The Jack Benny Program]]'' is sometimes criticized for the character of Rochester, a butler who is routinely mistreated by Benny's fictional version of himself. In early episodes, Rochester is little more than a black stereotype, with lots of gags made about craps and razorblades. However, Benny became increasingly uncomfortable with racial humor and began scaling it back. After learning about the extent of the Holocaust, he demanded that all racial humor be eliminated from the show. Rochester remained poorly treated, but this is because Benny's character is an egomaniacal jerk. Many later episodes also show that Rochester and Benny's character are actually best friends.

* One episode of ''[[Get Smart]]'' featured Max pretending to be a Native American to foil a plot by a Native American splinter group to destroy the US. More than a bit cringeworthy by today's standards, but the episode's climax has Max admitting he has no good reason why the splinter group should expect better treatment from the US in the future, considering all they've been through so far (the Native Americans' plan is to [[Rule of Funny|fire a giant arrow at the White House]]).

* Jodie on ''[[Soap]]'' suffers from a pretty bad case of [[Have I Mentioned I Am Gay?]] (and later [[Suddenly Sexuality]] when he sleeps with a woman), but was downright groundbreaking at the time, given that he was the first openly gay regular cast member of a primetime American television show. Not only that, he ''wasn't'' a stereotype - in fact, he frequently played the [[Only Sane Man]] role. Additionally, later on in the series run, there was a story arc in which Jodie sued for sole custody of his daughter (the result of the aforementioned [[Suddenly Sexuality]] situation). Since the mother is a vindictive and unstable woman, Jodie is presented as being the unquestionably better parent and more sympathetic character, and the idea that he would be denied parental rights because of his sexual orientation a gross injustice.

* ''[[Bewitched]]'' is often attacked as a reactionary fantasy, in large part for Darrin's chauvinism and Samantha's tolerance of it. However, most of the early black-and-white episodes begin with Darrin clinging to the slightly exaggerated chauvinism of a typical television husband only to realize his mistake and apologize to Samantha by the end of the episode. Darrin's chauvinism was necessary so that he—and the men in the audience—could learn that episode's lesson against male vanity, male consumerism, and male bravado. Unfortunately, that aspect of the character was [[Flanderized]] as the series moved into color.

* The original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'' had, in its second episode, a case where almost all the male pilots were incapacitated by a disease. In desperation they create a squadron of all female pilots, gleaned from shuttle pilots, who turn out to be just as competent as the men at fighting the Cylons. This was 20 years before the US Military allowed women fighter pilots.

* ''[[Carrusel]]'' may not have had any of the girls be into science, sports, or any other traditional male pursuits. But most of the girls still had career goals- and their teachers and parents encouraged the girls to pursue them. Which can be deemed progressive, considering the fact that this was Mexico in 1989-1990, a very conservative society with gender roles stricter than those in the USA/UK.

* A lot of [[Serious Business|"serious" comic fans]] hate the [[Batman (TV series)|Batman TV Series]] of [[The Sixties]] because is an [[Affectionate Parody]], but [http://tothebatpoles.blogspot.com/2011/09/spotlight-on-hi-diddle-diddlesmack-in.html this article] argues that given the [[Values Dissonance]] between the executives in charge in [[The Sixties]] and [[The New Tens|now]], the mere fact of a show about [[Superhero|SuperHeroes]] being green lighted at [[The Sixties]] as an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the comics written at [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]] made perfect sense or even was a bit radical.