Television has had an issue with inclusion from the start, and to “deal” with said issues studios have long since thought as long as one character in the cast has an ounce of melanin – they were good to go. TV shows have relied on the token characters to check off a little diversity box since the days of black and white programming but really dove into it with lone Black characters as time went on with shows like All in the Family, Silver Spoons, Saved by the Bell, and even Full House. While representation is always appreciated, it can feel disingenuous when said characters are just there to fill some sort of quota, are clearly underwritten, written as a joke, or in the case of Boy Meets World, treated unfairly behind the scenes.
Watching TV, it’s clear shows with mostly white casts are considered universal while other shows have often gotten marketed as niche. Of course, that’s changing thanks to shows like ABC’s Abbott Elementary but looking back, take Friends and Living Single for example. They were basically the same show from the same era, but today one is considered the standard with merchandise still selling well despite not having aired a new episode since 2004 while the other is beloved, but not in that level. Friends has been criticized in recent years for its lack of diversity. Throughout 10 seasons, the show set in New York City only had one key Black character; Charlie (Aisha Tyler). Perhaps the creators, David Crane and Martha Kaufmann thought well…one’s enough because that’s certainly what shows did before Friends, and that’s what many have done since.
One cannot mention Living Single without mentioning Kim Fields as she found herself in a sea of white characters on The Facts of Life. A fan favorite in the ‘80s, The Facts of Life wasn’t unique then as many primarily white shows had one,…