# Racial Surprises on old TV shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [December 28, 2022, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222 "2022-12-28T15:55:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/1 "2022-12-28T15:55:35Z")
So, I was watching Dragnet (the TV series) on Amazon Prime. In Season 2, Episode 10 (The Missing Realtor) which aired in 1967 there were some surprises for the era. Detectives Friday and Gannon go to a real estate office. The receptionist is a black woman. She says she will get her boss. He’s a black man (Scatman Crothers). An employee at this office is missing. She’s a black woman. They go to a bar to talk to her boyfriend. He is black, as is the only customer in the bar. When they go to several homes the missing woman had shown, the home owners are all black. When they eventually catch the man who killed the missing woman, he is black. I looked around online and found a review on IMDB: > This episode illustrates that Jack Webb was ahead of his time in one respect. > This is a different kind of review (although this is one of the better Dragnet episodes). As noted in the trivia section of the IMDb page on this episode, this show featured black real estate professionals, which was rare for a late 60’s show. > Jack Webb, who has the reputation for being starchy and conservative, was actually quite progressive for that time period. If you watch Dragnet regularly, you will see black real estate agents, judges, lawyers, doctors, and nurses. Black criminals are somewhat uncommon. In one episode, the Lieutenant giving directions to Sgt. Friday is black, and Sgt. Friday is clearly displaying respect. > Moreover, the black professionals portrayed in the show are not stereotyped. They are well dressed and clearly well educated. > Yes, at times Dragnet can be inadvertently campy (e.g. “Blue Boy”), but we should also note Webb’s willingness to portray blacks in a positive manner (and to make them the victims of crime, rather than the criminals). If you do not have Amazon Prime, [the episode is also on YouTube.](https://youtu.be/WrPMDZX053w) Can you remember any similar surprises from “back then”? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/2 "2022-12-28T15:58:18Z")
Sammy Davis Jr kissing Archie Bunker. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/3 "2022-12-28T15:59:30Z")
Hah! That was the only other example I could think of. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/4 "2022-12-28T16:02:18Z")
I never watched the TV spinoff, but what about (the TV Series) In The Heat Of The Night? Was it at all similar to the movie, at least WRT race relations? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/5 "2022-12-28T16:04:06Z")
Never watched it. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/6 "2022-12-28T16:08:18Z")
I’m not sure if this works, especially since it was in the 90’s and we were already starting to get a bit more progressive, but remember when Will’s mom was in town and she brought her new boyfriend. The one that was really…um, tall. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/YGViIjOCAoY/maxresdefault.jpg "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - White Boyfriend") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGViIjOCAoY) Also, I honestly don’t remember if it went deeper than just being a gag and I’m quite sure this episode was the only time he was ever mentioned. Come to think of it, they even used a rarely shown character. Had it been, say, Ashley dating something that…tall, the topic may have come up more often. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/7 "2022-12-28T16:09:06Z")
_The Dick Van Dyke Show_, Episode 3.1 “That’s My Boy??” > Rob tells Mel about the time he thought he brought home the wrong baby from the hospital. The hospital staff kept mistaking Laura’s room (208) with that of a Mrs. Peters (203) who also had a baby boy that same day. Rob begins to believe that the Peters’ baby and theirs were mixed up. Not wanting to concern Laura, Rob tried to find evidence of the mix-up and talks to the Peters on the phone. Only after meeting the Peters does Rob become certain that they had the correct baby all along. [Amzie Strickland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amzie_Strickland) appears as the nurse. [Greg Morris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Morris) appears as Mr. Peters. During the show Rob had called Mr. Peters and had been assured there’d been no mix up so he invited the Peters to the house. Afterward he said, “Why didn’t you tell me on the phone??” “And miss that look on your face?” [Mimi Dillard](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0226840/?ref_=tt_rv_t9) played Mrs. Peters. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/8 "2022-12-28T16:09:41Z")
I remember the reveal in that episode. I don’t think anyone saw that coming. Not on that show anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/9 "2022-12-28T16:10:33Z")
LA’s public face in regards to racial integration was a small step ahead of the rest of the country in the 1960s. The first interracial pop groups (Love, the Rising Sons, etc) were from LA and many of the Jewish execs in Hollywood were sympathetic to integration. _I Spy_ predates that episode by two years. That was the image (if not the reality) the city wanted to project and _Dragnet_ (and specifically Jack Webb) was the primary TV ambassador for that image. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/10 "2022-12-28T16:11:35Z")
Adam-12 did tend to have more Black criminals than victims, but then they also dealt with race-related 60s issues, such as the pseudo Black Panthers who were ready to get violent with the cops. However, there was one episode where Jim Reed actually espoused “defunding the police” (in its intended meaning) because they were frustrated dealing with mental health and domestic issues that would be better served by trained social workers. I was shocked to her that! ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/11 "2022-12-28T16:19:18Z")
One other point about Jack Webb. He was the unofficial public relations department for the LAPD which at the time was trying to shed the racist Neanderthal image they acquired two years earlier in Watts. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/12 "2022-12-28T16:28:38Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Detectives Friday and Gannon go to a real estate office. The receptionist is a black woman. She says she will get her boss. He’s a black man (Scatman Crothers). An employee at this office is missing. She’s a black woman. They go to a bar to talk to her boyfriend. He is black, as is the only customer in the bar. > > When they go to several homes the missing woman had shown, the home owners are all black. When they eventually catch the man who killed the missing woman, he is black. Seems to me that the implication of that is that the realtors work only with the Black community. It’s advanced if it shows an actual “equal” with its “separate”; but it’s still assuming at least de facto segregation. That might have been as much as they could get away with in 1967, of course. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/13 "2022-12-28T16:43:54Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > If you do not have Amazon Prime, [the episode is also on YouTube.](https://youtu.be/WrPMDZX053w) _Dragnet_ also streams for free on Freevee. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/14 "2022-12-28T16:50:53Z")
Yeah, on Amazon Prime it is actually through FreeVee so you see some commercials. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/15 "2022-12-28T17:05:16Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > That might have been as much as they could get away with in 1967, of course. It may have accurately depicted 1967 Los Angeles. I lived in LA then but was only three. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/16 "2022-12-28T17:26:53Z")
DVD had another episode where [Rob and Laura both dyed their hands black (don’t ask) and had to accept an award from a civil rights group for the Alan Brady Show](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0559732/?ref_=ttep_ep28). Wacky hijinks ensued, along with an author’s message. Greg Morris also showed up on DVD as an old Army buddy of Rob’s. And contrary to the rumor, [there actually were Black folks in Mayberry](https://legendsrevealed.com/entertainment/2012/07/24/tv-urban-legends-revealed-were-there-really-no-black-people-in-mayberry/), including Opie’s football coach. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/17 "2022-12-28T17:33:40Z")
I like to watch the old Perry Mason series. Okay, mostly for the cars. 🕶 Watching this 1958 episode, [“The Case of the Fancy Figures,”](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0673256/?ref_=nm_flmg_eps_tt_1) I noted actor Frank Silvera who was born in Jamaica. I looked him up because, even in black and white, he was clearly Black, but in this episode his race/appearance/ethnicity does not figure into the plot at all. Could that even happen today? > **[Frank Silvera | Actor](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0798826/)** > > Known for: Killer's Kiss, Fear and Desire, Hombre He has 78 credits on [IMDB.com](http://IMDB.com) in virtually every major TV series of the 1950s-1970s > In motion pictures, Frank Silvera was cast as black, Latino, Polynesian and “white”/racially indeterminate (due to black + white film stock’s lack of discernment when rendering light-skinned African-Americans). > > He was actively engaged in the Civil Rights Struggles of the 1950s and 1960s and called on all of his associates in the theater and film world to support the efforts of Black Americans during this watershed in American history. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/18 "2022-12-28T18:04:07Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Can you remember any similar surprises from “back then”? I’m not sure what you mean. Surely there were more than just a few instances in TV that respectfully portrayed black characters back then, Star Trek, Mannix, Julia, Mission Impossible, Good Times, Fat Albert, A different World, just to name a few. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/19 "2022-12-28T19:31:48Z")
Yes, I was going to mention Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura on _Star Trek_, which premiered in 1966. Some Southern stations threatened not to carry the show if she remained in the cast IIRC. Roddenberry was also ahead of his time in showing people of color as Starfleet commodores, computer geniuses, scientists, etc. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222/20 "2022-12-28T22:38:55Z")
I’m going off of an old memory but there is an example from the show _The Courtship of Eddie’s Father_. The was a sitcom about a widowed dad with a young son. A lot of the hijinks revolved around Eddie trying to find a new mom for his dad. On one episode, Eddie sets his dad up a date with the single mom of one of his classmates. They don’t know each other but talk on the phone prior to the date which was for her to go to his apartment and he would cook dinner. She shows up at the door and she’s African American (womp womp). There is an awkward pause (“I didn’t know” … “neither did I” lol) and they decide just to make the best of it and have a nice evening. Obviously there wouldn’t be a second date but we may as well eat. Edit: I just looked it up and the mom was played by Cicely Tyson. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racial-surprises-on-old-tv-shows/977222.md?page=2)