There have been a number of articles that have looked for examples of the First Lady Michelle Obama. When I say examples I mean some pop culture reference that could be used as a template or model of her personality. Of the few articles I’ve seen trying to do this, only one example comes to mind; Claire Huxtable. In fact, when there is talk of the First Family, the example that is first and foremost is the Huxtable family from the Cosby Show.

It makes sense because they definitely aren’t The Jeffersons or the Evans family from Good Times. Here’s where things start to turn, if you take out those families, name a family on TV that resembles the First Family.

Back in the late 80s and through the 90s, the NAACP, in one of the few things we could agree upon, talked about and pressured producers and executives to have more diverse representation on TV. The point wasn’t just to have one lone black or Asian on a show, but was to have TV look like America. I remember in the old days of the internet getting into a discussion about this with a producer from 90210. Little did I realize it was Darren Star, who would go on to create Melrose Place and Sex in the City.

What was eye opening in those talks and looking back on them it was amazing how Darren Star told me how tough it was to create and maintain black characters for TV. He admitted, and I was thankful for him in saying this, that without black writers it was tough to make sure the voice was right. I know what he means because if you write from a perspective you don’t understand you will get things wrong. As an example look at the new 90210, where they have the worst black character I’ve ever seen. It’s like a bunch of politically correct white writers decided to come up with the perfectly color blind black guy. Now, it can be argued that the character is bland, and I can say that watching the show I hope that’s the case because the character to be is bland, but when you have so few black people on TV, he become the example and not the exception.

That is the issue I have with the articles written on the First Family and pop references. There were times when black people did make a small resurgence on TV, but there are very few black shows or black characters on TV today. On an ensemble cast show, like the NCIS or CSI type shows, you will have at least one black character as part of the team. Unless the show is on for a number of years, you will never get to understand how that black character thinks. Those shows, however, will have the back in the pool moment. That’s a scenario where the team has to go into unusual territory and only the minority character will be able to navigate the surrounding, just like Bwanna from those old jungle pictures. An example would be a recent rerun I saw of Criminal Minds. The team had to investigate some killings going on in a project section of Detroit. Who had to be the person to get the team accepted by the residents? The black guy.

This season, the last two black shows on network TV were canceled. Looking at the new season of shows, unless there is an ensemble cast there are no shows with a black lead or any other minority. I just realized something about that; there’s the show The Mentalist, another procedural show which just finished its first season. There is an Asian on the show and I don’t even know the guy. I know the other characters, some of their backgrounds, but the Asian guy I know nothing.

So we’re at the same place we were years ago. A few black characters as background material and that’s it. Now there are some comedies on cable that have black casts that have been on for a few years, but no dramas.

The Darren Star talk also gave me a perspective into something else. I didn’t know at the time but I suspected Darren Star was gay. There was another discussion we and a lot of other people had about the civil rights movement and how it related to the gay community. While Darren Star may not have been able to get black characters on his shows, he sure is able to get gay characters on the show. I have to admit when I began thinking of this article I did what I think a lot of people do with minority characters. I could come up with a few gay characters and extrapolated they were a lot on TV. A physical count shows they are as misrepresented like any other minority.

We need to have more people of all types on TV.