(dramatic music) ♪ (Jimmie) Come on!

Let's get some Black people in here!

I remember watching television and then kind of gradually realizing that I did not look like any of the people on there.

(Diahann) I was not a domestic.

That was the problem.

♪ (Edward) It's the first time that a Latino has been placed in that position ever.

We must not forget the reasons why so many sacrificed so much in the cause of freedom.

(George) For Asians, the image of Asians, it was a tremendous breakthrough.

Let's have the conversation, say, "Here's what it was."

♪ (piano music) (narrator) They blazed a trail through American culture.

It was embarrassing to say that in the United States of America, I was the first Black actress to have her own series.

You know, Baker, you've got guts.

Thanks.

(soft music) (narrator) They overcame unimaginable obstacles.

Because, basically, they stereotype you, and stereotypes are like the worst.

I mean, how to kill a culture.

They were gonna take our show off the air if we didn't get rid of Arthur because he was Black.

Back in that time, you didn't even have commercials with African American people except for Aunt Jemima on the pancake box.

(narrator) They created some of America's favorite characters.

I always felt and I still feel to this day it's one of the greatest comedies ever written.

(Andy) What do you think, Lightning?

(Lightning) This sure is a thin house!

(audience laughing) These were actors, and they were brilliant actors.

They made you laugh!

You can't do comedy, you can't do-- there's no Asians in comedy, you can't do that.

And I didn't care, like I just did it.

Did my mother send you?

-Pardon?

-She's about so-tall.

Kind of a Korean Bea Arthur.

Before Gene Roddenberry put together Star Trek, there were no Black people in the future.

I was always mindful of the fact that I had a special responsibility in the roles that I played.

(Sulu) Maybe you oughta plot a course back from Vulcan just in case.

It all sounds wonderful and I'm thrilled, but what took us so long?

There is less programming focused on people of color than there used to be.

I don't know why that is.

♪ (narrator) Together, they broke through barriers to make television better.

♪ They are the Pioneers of Television.

♪ The first sitcom to portray African Americans in white collar jobs, Diahann Carroll blazed that trail in Julia.

-You see, Corey-- -I know, Mom.

-What do you know?

-Like in school, there's some kids who just don't like other kids if they're not the same color or religion, even if they don't know anything about them.

And I guess there's some grown-ups like that too.

It's pretty dumb if you ask me.

(Julia) You are too much, Corey Baker, you are really too much!

And you're right, it is very dumb.

(piano music) (narrator) Television's track record with African Americans became painfully clear on the very first day of production on Julia in 1968.

The studio had no makeup for African Americans.

(Diahann) The studio had only dealt with little American girls or little European girls, all the same color.

How could you have a makeup department and you don't have enough makeup for every skin in the United States of America?

(bright music) (narrator) Although Julia was launched in the turbulent 1960s, the character stayed far from any racial activism.

For Diahann Carroll, just the presence of a person of color on television was enough of a first step.

(Diahann) The racial involvement was very miniscule on all television shows.

You know, it was absolutely, "Let's stay away from that.

That is too controversial."

So we knew that going in that first you make the success.

After you've done that, then you can make other steps.

There was nothing like this young, successful mother on the air, and we thought that it might be a very good stepping stone.

(narrator) While the Julia character was insulated from the civil rights movement, Diahann Carroll was not.

She actively supported Shirley Chisholm's run for president and hosted fundraisers for the controversial Black Panthers.

It was not really the thing that one said that you are maybe in agreement with the Black Panthers, but then I had a party at my big Beverly Hills mansion and invited several people from the Black Panthers to be a part of it to allow them to meet some of the people that I knew.

Everything they did was not wonderful.

I could see some of the good things in the Panthers.

What made Julia different was that it was the first sitcom to portray an African American woman with a college degree in a professional position.

At about the same time, Asian Americans were seeing their first positive role model on network television, a physicist and helmsman named Hikaru Sulu.

(Hikaru) How do you figure it, Chekov?

First we're going to Vulcan, then we're going to Altair, then we're headed to Vulcan again.

Now we're headed back to Altair.

(Chekov) I think I'm going to get space sick.

For me as an individual Asian American actor, it was a personal breakthrough, but for Asians, the image of Asians, it was a tremendous breakthrough.

(Sulu) We're dead still, Captain!

Helm doesn't answer.

We can't move.

(narrator) For the first time on television, Americans saw an Asian American speaking without an accent.

(George) It was not a stereotype role.

I was without an accent, part of the leadership team of the Starship Enterprise, the best helmsman in Starfleet, and that was at a time when there was this whole stereotype about Asian drivers being terrible drivers.

Well, I showed them.

I was the best driver in the galaxy.

(Spock) Progress, Mr. Sulu?

(Sulu) Sectors 1 through 25 charted and examined.

No chance at all of power originating in those areas.

Throughout the history of certainly movies and television, Asians were seen as the other, and usually the scary or the threatening.

(narrator) That stereotype of Asian Americans as the enemy was all too real for George Takei from his very youngest days growing up in Los Angeles.

I remember that morning, in fact, I can never forget that morning, it was a terrifying morning.

I was in the living room looking out the front window, and I saw two soldiers come marching up our driveway, and I saw at the end of their rifles shiny bayonets.

They stomped up to our front door at our two-bedroom home on Garnet Street in Los Angeles and banged on the front door.

It was terrifying.

My father answered, and we were ordered out of our home.

(narrator) George Takei's family had committed no crime.

Along with thousands of other law-abiding Japanese Americans, they were taken from their home in California in 1942 and forced to relocate to an internment camp.

The reason was this: (engines buzzing) On December 7th, 1941, Japan bombed the U.S. Navy Base at Pearl Harbor.

(somber music) Overnight, America was at war with Japan, and the U.S. government became suspicious of anyone of Japanese heritage.

(soft music) As a group, these U.S. citizens were labeled by their government as "enemy non-aliens."

(George) What's a "non-alien"?

That's a citizen.

They couldn't even call us "citizens" then.

We were "enemy non-aliens."

Why?

Because of this.

We were taken to the horse stables, and thinking back now, I can't imagine how degrading and humiliating it must have been for my parents to take their three children, one a baby, from a two-bedroom home and told to sleep in that narrow, smelly horse stall.

I remember the barbed wire fences and the sentry tower, the searchlight that followed me when I made the night runs from our barrack to the latrine.

It was a racist act, pure and simple, and it was an unconstitutional act.

I mean, you can't imprison people for their race, and that's what we were imprisoned for.

(narrator) Because of the internment, the Takei family, like many others, lost their home and their business, but George never lost his dream.

(dramatic music) In the early 1950s, when he saw an ad in the newspaper to dub a Japanese monster movie, George Takei boldly took his first steps -into show business.

-It was a thrilling experience.

(man) Look, right out there, there it is!

(monster shrieking) -Get the squad in position!

-Taking position, sir!

(roaring) I did about not quite a dozen voices in that.

(announcer) This was war!

A war of life and death between man and an enemy who seemed indestructible!

(George) And I had a lot of fun, and they paid me for it to boot, and I thought, "Mm, this is what I enjoy doing!"

(soft music) (narrator) Soon, George was landing on-camera roles, but in the early 1960s, parts for Asian Americans were hard to come by.

Takei had a small role in A Majority of One.

The lead character, a Japanese businessman, was played by an English actor, Alec Guinness.

(Bertha) I came in a taxi, and I got out, and he disappeared.

I've been looking all around.

-There are no numbers!

-Now it is you who will catch cold.

Please do me the honor to enter my house.

(Bertha) Thank you.

♪ (speaking in Japanese) (Koichi) It is customary to remove your shoes.

(Bertha) Oh!

I don't mind.

The makeup that he wore, it was so heavy-handed.

He looked reptilian with that layer of plaster or whatever he had on.

(Koichi) In Japan, there is a festival for almost everything.

In the spring, it is (speaking Japanese).

(Bertha) We have the same.

In the spring, it's (speaking foreign language) (Koichi) (speaking foreign language) (George) And the way he played it and the smile looked reptilian.

You know, that... (Koichi) Do you think that's strange, Mrs. Jacoby?

(George) It made me shiver, that very cavalier attitude toward the accent that he had, the whole thing was grotesque.

(triumphant music) (narrator) Four years later, George got his chance to help break down stereotypes when he landed the role of Sulu on Star Trek.

You are Lieutenant Sulu.

You were born on the planet Earth.

You are helmsman for the Enterprise.

How do you know this?

Where did you get this information?

Are you from this planet?

I am from here.

Then the planet is hollow.

Who killed Lieutenant D'Amato?

All right, the captain will want to talk to you.

That way.

I was always mindful of the fact that I had a special responsibility in the roles that I played.

(narrator) The Sulu character was a great step forward for Asian Americans on television, but it would be another quarter century before the nation saw the first TV series centered on an Asian American family.

(man) What do you think your mom would say if she could see us now?

(Margaret) Oh, I know what she'd say.

"No tongue kissing!

No tongue kissing!"

(man) Well, guess I'd better take off.

(Margaret) Thanks for the movie.

(man) Yeah, it was good, huh?

That was weird, though, with all those empty seats, the way that Korean guy sat right next to you.

(audience laughing) (narrator) All-American Girl premiered in 1994 as a vehicle for comedian Margaret Cho.

(piano music) From the beginning, Cho faced enormous pressure to deliver a mainstream hit.

I didn't have these attributes that they think of when they think of like a female star of a show.

I wasn't thin, I wasn't white.

I think that because I wasn't white, they had to somehow make me conform in other ways that would make me more palatable to an audience.

The major problem was that I was too overweight to play the role of myself, which is insane if you think about it, but I didn't know that that was crazy then, -I just wanted to keep my job.

-Thanks.

(narrator) Just before this first episode was filmed, Cho was encouraged to go on a crash diet, losing 30 pounds in two weeks.

Her kidneys shut down, leading to long-term health problems.

(Margaret) Oh, she makes me so crazy!

Why does she make me so crazy?

(Benny) Maybe because you're so much alike.

(Margaret) Alike, Mom and me?

-Oh, yeah.

-Please, how are we alike?

For starters, you're both very beautiful, very smart.

Well, yeah, in that way.

When you're the first person to kind of cross over this racial barrier, then you're scrutinized for all these other things that have nothing to do with race, but they have everything to do with race.

It's a very strange, strange thing.

(narrator) The scrutiny extended beyond just Cho.

Although the series portrayed a Korean family, some of the actors were Chinese and Japanese.

There was like an issue with that, that they were all Korean, and yet, you know, there's always actors, white actors doing like different accents, doing things that are not of their origin, and so for some reason, we were held up into this sort of scrutiny or this need for cultural authenticity that white people were not.

(narrator) All-American Girl lasted just two seasons, a casualty of too much pressure from too many forces.

Decades later, Cho's sitcom remains the only broadcast series ever to focus on an Asian American family.

So much emphasis was put on our ethnicity and the fact that we were Asian American.

That took us out of comedy, it took us out of the job that we were supposed to do, which was to be 22 minutes of comedy.

(narrator) Unlike Asian Americans, Latinos were visible in TV's earliest years.

Thanks to a leading role on the biggest show of the era.

Lucy, before I kill you, would you mind telling me the details?

(Lucy) Well, you were so smart last night and you knew all the answers and I thought you were a cinch to win all the money, so I called the radio station-- (Ricky) And why did you call the radio station without asking me first?

(Lucy) Well, how did I know that you were faking?

I thought you were an overgrown Cuban quiz kid.

(laughing) (upbeat music) (narrator) I Love Lucy made Lucille Ball a beloved icon, but at the time, few understood the key role her husband, Desi Arnaz, played in Lucy's success.

She said, "I used to come in, Desi would have done everything with the scripts and the this and the that and all I had to do was be Lucy!"

♪ (narrator) Desi oversaw every aspect of production, including the creation of the first sitcom filmed in front of a live audience.

In the early 1950s, the technical challenge of coordinating three cameras and an audience in real time was considered insurmountable, but Desi found a way.

And bless Desi Arnaz for creating three camera, 'cause I think Lucy liked an audience.

You could find out what's funny or not with an audience faster than anything.

(narrator) From scratch, Arnaz built Desilu into a powerhouse studio that would go on to produce The Untouchables, Mission Impossible, Mannix, and Star Trek.

Desi Arnaz was business, and since he introduced the fact of residuals, owning the properties, coming up with producers, other product, I mean, Untouchables and things like that, it was like, yeah.

What Desi Arnaz did in the '50s when he did the I Love Lucy show and he was the creator and executive producer of the show and created three-camera event, and Desilu Studios, so they were really-- he was very-- a great pioneer.

(narrator) But it was I Love Lucy that made Desi Arnaz a household name.

(Ricky) ♪ I'm on my way to Cuba ♪ ♪ That's where I'm goin' ♪ (bright music) ♪ Cuba, that's where I'll stay ♪♪ Desi Arnaz was a very attractive man, and yes, very professional.

He knew his part, he knew who he was on that show, and he certainly knew her value.

They worked-- they were perfect together.

(soft music) (narrator) Given Desi's role as the highest profile Latino in America, Ball and Arnaz worked hard to ensure I Love Lucy didn't perpetuate ethnic stereotypes.

Ricky Ricardo was an intelligent, successful businessman, and the only person allowed to make jokes about his accent was his wife.

(Ricky) Lucy, this is absolutely fantastic.

This is unbelievable!

I would like a logical explanation of it.

Well, I'd like a low-gical 'splanation of it, too.

(audience laughing) (solemn music) (narrator) Desi and Lucy divorced in 1960, but they remained friends for decades.

Betty White was with Lucy on the day Desi died.

And it was such a shock to her, 'cause let's face it, there's a certain part of a real love that never goes away, and it was an experience to see her react to that.

(narrator) After Desi Arnaz left the air, Latinos found themselves relegated to secondary parts.

Television wouldn't see another Latino in a marquee role until the 1980s.

-Listen, Lou-- -No, you listen!

I haven't heard word one from you for a whole stickin' week!

No case reviews, no updates, no progress reports, and no backups!

(dramatic music) (narrator) In the first few episodes of Miami Vice, Gregory Sierra played the lieutenant in charge, but the Crockett and Tubbs characters had so little respect for their boss, Sierra left the series.

(Lou) Go home, you guys, huh?

Get some rest.

I mean it.

(narrator) Replacing Sierra was Edward James Olmos.

(Crockett) Lieutenant, I want you to meet my boss.

This is Lieutenant Martin Castillo, Lieutenant John Malone.

(Martin) Good to meet you, Lieutenant.

(narrator) Olmos had negotiated for creative control over his character, and he didn't want to see a Latino authority figure get disrespected.

The very first scene that I did, I was supposed to say one thing, and when Philip Michael Thomas gets into my face... (Tubbs) Hey, whose side are you on?

(Edward) I'm supposed to say one thing and I say, "Don't ever come up into my face like this again, Detective."

(Martin) Don't ever come up to my face like this again, Detective.

And that's not written.

It was not written.

So I say that, and he's standing right in front of me, and now he's stuck, 'cause he wasn't expecting that.

(Crockett) Come on.

From that day, for the next 12 shows, I never looked at either one of those two guys on camera again, ever.

Everything was like.

They'd come walking in and I'd just grab the things that they were talking about, and I'd talk to the wall.

(Crockett) Come on, let us in on the sweep.

(Martin) Go home, get some rest.

I would stand up and talk to the-- literally talk to the wall.

(Crockett) Gentlemen, we're looking at about 75 million on the street.

(Martin) Is it Jorgenson's?

-It's somebody's.

-Let's sit on it.

(Edward) So the tension was built and it became a beautiful, beautiful example of really construction of scene, and it really worked very well.

The show took off.

(narrator) Before Miami Vice, Edward James Olmos had mostly played ethnic bad guys.

(mellow music) To land better roles, one casting director suggested he change his stage name from Eddie Olmos to something more Anglo.

(Edward) "Don't use 'Eddie Olmos.'"

I said, "Excuse me?"

He says, "That's not a name that-- it's not a star name, it's not a name that's going to get you any kind of recognition and it's kind of ethnic and it's--" I said, "Oh, I get it.

Oh, my God, you're absolutely right.

What am I doing here?

You're so right.

Thank you, I forever will thank you for this, man.

From now on, everyone's going to have to use Edward James Olmos.

Write the whole thing out."

And I walked out the door and the guy just shook his head and he said, "Boy, you didn't get it at all."

(narrator) After Miami Vice, Olmos starred in a range of important Latino themed roles.

(soft music) But it was his starring turn on Battlestar Galactica that almost believed had the greatest impact in changing racial views.

(man) Commander Adama.

(applause) (Commander Adama) Thank you very much.

The Cylon War is long over, yet we must not forget the reasons why so many sacrificed so much in the cause of freedom.

Battlestar Galactica is the best usage of television I've ever been a part of, ever.

You know, when we fought the Cylons, we did it to save ourselves from extinction, but we never answered the question why.

Why are we as a people worth saving?

(Edward) There's only one race, and that's what the show is really about, it's the human race, period.

That's the first time that a Latino has been placed in that position, ever.

How long until you storm the ship?

I'm hoping that won't be necessary.

I think that you and I can come up with some kind of an understanding.

This is not the only crisis that I'm dealing with.

The water shortage affects the entire fleet.

Your men are on their way even as we speak.

There's still time to work this out.

Have the president step down and call for elections.

That's not gonna happen.

Then I look forward to meeting your men.

(Edward) I'll never forget the phone call I received from a very close and dear friend.

She was crying on the phone and I said, "What's the matter?"

And she goes, "My nephew just called and he's 12 years old, and he was so excited, he just couldn't-- he just kept on saying, 'We're in the future!

We're in the future!

I saw it!

I saw Battlestar, and we're in the future!'"

(mellow music) (narrator) Shows like Battlestar and Star Trek visualized a future in which people of every ethnicity worked together.

♪ But an alien watching the first 30 years of American television would have drawn a very different conclusion about America's past, because television of the 1950s and '60s portrayed a nation where people of color were all but invisible.

(upbeat music) From its beginnings in the late 1940s, television was a nearly all-white medium.

♪ Yet even in its infancy, there were forces pressing for integration.

For example, Milton Berle championed African American acts beginning with the Four Stepbrothers.

Here they are, the dynamic Four Stepbrothers!

(lively music) ♪ (jazzy music) (narrator) Ed Sullivan thought to book African Americans on his show, as did daytime talk show host Betty White.

I had this wonderful dancer, Arthur Duncan, and all through the South, there was this whole ruckus, they were going to take our show off the air if we didn't get rid of Arthur because he was Black.

So I said, "I'm sorry, but he stays or-- live with it."

(narrator) In most TV shows, people of color were visible only in highly stereotyped roles, like the Mexican bandidos of The Cisco Kid.

Why do we have to ride so far to look for trouble when we have plenty trouble where we was?

A little trouble here and a little trouble there.

(Pancho) Yeah, a little trouble here and a little trouble there, you put them all together, that spell "Cisco."

(laughing) (Cisco) Come on.

Andale!

"Oh, Pancho!"

"Oh, Cisco!"

"Oh, Pancho!"

"Oh, Cisco!"

It was, "Oh, Cisco!"

And he'd be smoking his little cigarillos, and then he'd put it in the back here while it was lit.

(soft music) ♪ I remember seeing Secrets of the Sierra Madre, in which, "I don't need no stinking badges," was put forth, and that was like the epitome of the stereotype of the bandido.

(bandido) We are Federales.

You know, the mounted police!

If you're the police, where are your badges?

(bandido) Badges?

We ain't got no badges.

We don't need no badges.

I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"

(somber music) (narrator) Native Americans faced an even bigger obstacle.

Not only were they portrayed on television as stereotypes, the acting jobs often went to Caucasians.

(Ed) Nowadays, by the way, the chances are, and rightfully so, they probably would have got a very good Indian actor to play that part, but in those days, they didn't do that.

They used Caucasian guys to play Indians.

(narrator) The exception was Jay Silverheels, a Mohawk who landed the role of Tonto on The Lone Ranger.

(Tonto) Your hat me wash in stream, dry in sun, make whiter.

(The Lone Ranger) Thanks, Tonto.

(Tonto) Your gun to kill bad men.

(The Lone Ranger) I'm not going to do any killing.

(Tonto) You will not defend yourself?

Oh, I'll shoot if I have to, but I'll shoot to wound, not to kill.

(Tonto) That's right, kemosabe.

(narrator) Silverheels was never content with Tonto's one-dimensional personality, but when the series ended, other roles were scarce.

When you think of all the cowboy and Indian movies that were made, you know, that they would not have even asked him to be part of, and I don't know that he would've wanted to be part of it, because it told a very skewed story.

You are all alone now, last man.

You are a lone ranger.

Yes, Tonto.

I am a lone ranger.

(mellow music) (narrator) In the '50s and early '60s, African Americans were also marginalized in largely one-dimensional roles, nearly always playing the servant.

Eddie Anderson on Jack Benny, Ethel Waters on Beulah, Amanda Randolph on Make Room For Daddy.

(man) Louise is going to play for you now a selection from her latest album entitled Music to Fry Pancakes By.

(audience laughing) (Louise) ♪ I can't give you anything but love, baby ♪ ♪ That's the only thing I have plenty of, baby ♪♪ (narrator) Asian Americans faced similar stereotyping.

Even martial arts master Bruce Lee was relegated to the role of subservient houseboy on the Green Hornet.

(Green Hornet) We're heading for another clash with the Caped Crusaders, and I don't like it.

(Kato) Why not?

We've never run away from trouble before.

Yes, but this double identity poses extra problems this time.

We know they're heroic crime fighters, they think we're criminals.

We must come out on top, but they mustn't suffer.

Gung fu is gung fu.

It's not child's play.

The fact is that Asian Americans are so invisible in television that when one does appear, they can't just appear on their own, there has to be a whole backstory to justify their existence.

And you see this on like crime shows, like when you see an Asian person, there's always like trouble in Chinatown, you know?

(soft music) (narrator) In the 1950s and '60s, just one network show featured an all-Black cast, and it quickly became a lightning rod for controversy.

(Andy) What kind of fur is this anyway, Kingfish?

(Kingfish) Andy, that's the rarest of all wildlife, the rare and beautiful Analusi mink.

(Andy) Mink?

(Kingfish) Yeah, Andy, just like this animal here.

(Andy) That looks more like a fox to me.

(Kingfish) Oh, Andy, that's a long-legged mink!

(Andy) I seen a mink in the winter once, but it didn't look nothing like this.

(bright music) (narrator) Amos 'n' Andy premiered on television in 1951.

It was hysterical.

It was not just funny, it was hysterical.

Amos 'n' Andy, of course, were hysterical.

I think I knew a lot of people like Amos 'n' Andy.

Amos 'n' Andy, these were actors and they were brilliant actors.

They made you laugh!

First and foremost, yeah, it was funny.

I mean, they were good.

Now would you mind telling the court under just what circumstances you met the defendant?

Well, about 18 years ago at a carnival.

I reach into my pocket to get my wallet and shook hands with Mr. Stevens.

(laughing) My mother would make me watch it from outside the house.

I mean, I'd have to watch it in the backyard looking through my bedroom window at the TV, because I would laugh so hard, I mean, it got physical.

My mother said, "Amos 'n' Andy is coming on, you go outside.

You're not gonna break my furniture tonight."

(narrator) Despite its popularity, Amos 'n' Andy was seen by many as perpetuating racial stereotypes.

Pressure from the NAACP and others led to the series cancellation.

So I didn't see that as perpetuating a negative stereotype.

Some people did, and then the NAACP got involved, and they got Amos 'n' Andy taken off the air, and they wanted every Black character on television to carry an attache case and wear a suit and a tie, which is--that's just-- that's taking it to the extreme the other way.

How about a little ditty called Just You, Just Me?

(piano music) (narrator) In 1956, Nat King Cole became the first African American to star in a network variety show.

♪ Just you ♪ ♪ Just me ♪ ♪ Let's find a cozy spot to cuddle and coo ♪♪ (jazzy music) (narrator) Ratings were good, and NBC did all it could to keep Nat King Cole's series on the air.

But no national advertiser would buy commercial time on the show.

In an era when ad agencies controlled television, it was Madison Avenue that killed Cole's show after just one year.

♪ Pretend you're happy when you bloom ♪ (soft music) ♪ It isn't very hard to do ♪ ♪ And you'll find happiness without an end ♪ ♪ Whenever you pretend ♪♪ (mellow music) (narrator) Gradually, in the 1960s, producers began to push networks to allow more roles for people of color, but the networks were nervous.

When producer Bruce Geller cast Greg Morris on Mission Impossible, the network wanted to ensure there would never be even a hint of romance between Morris's character and Barbara Bain.

It became an issue of panic for the network before we went on the air.

♪ They just were really frightened.

(narrator) The network repeatedly instructed Bain to avoid getting anywhere near Morris when the camera was rolling.

So we'd manage to get them together in that apartment scene all the time, as much as we could.

(laughing) (Cinnamon) Will there be any flames?

(Barney) Yes, an effluence of carbonaceous, opaque material.

-Thanks.

-A lot of smoke.

-Nobody likes him.

-Sorry.

(jazzy music) (narrator) When Bruce Geller took the reins on Mannix, he pushed the envelope further by casting Gail Fisher in a lead role opposite Mike Connors.

CBS balked, but Geller was persistent.

He said, "CBS is not too hot on it," he says, "They're giving me a bad time."

And I says, "Why?"

and he says, "Well, she's Black."

And finally they said, "Okay, I'll tell you what, if we get any male from the South or anyplace that is negative about her, she's off the show."

♪ (narrator) No such letters came, and in 1970, Gail Fisher became the first African American woman to win an Emmy award.

So we look for somebody with the name Kelly Green.

That's, uh, what the computer said.

I took the liberty of going to a-- well, you know, a certain organization, and-- now don't be angry, because it worked.

Intertech put "Kelly Green Frame" through the computer and what do you think?

(Mannix) That I'm gonna strangle you.

(Peggy) Well, there's a girl named Margaret Green who is the daughter of a prominent judge, Francis M. Green, and her nickname just happens to be -Kelly.

-Kelly.

(Peggy) Right.

(somber music) (narrator) Premiering a year before Mannix was Star Trek, presenting for the first time on a television drama a leadership role for an African American woman.

The first important non-traditional role, non-stereotypical role, the first.

(Kirk) Lieutenant Uhura, take over navigation.

(Uhura) Yes, Captain.

She was a smart, intelligent part of the crew.

(Kirk) Ship to ship, Uhura.

Put this on the screen.

(Uhura) Hailing frequencies open, sir.

(Nichelle) On that bridge as part of the command crew, she was always business.

It was always about the mission.

Things could not happen without talking to her as well, so I love that, you know, I love that, that it wasn't just, "Oh, she's cooking."

(vocalizing) (narrator) By the mid-1970s, producer Norman Lear was bringing a new wave of African Americans to television in Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and Good Times.

Mama, Daddy, can I have ask you an important question?

-Uh-huh.

-If you meet a brother on the street who was tired, hungry, and had no place to go, -would you help him?

-I guess so, that would be the Christian thing to do.

(Michael) I thought so, Mama.

Come on in, brother!

(audience laughing) (Florida) Ned the Wino?

Oh, not in my apartment today!

(piano music) (narrator) Norman Lear made a special effort to include people of color in all facets of production.

(Jimmie) Norman did more for Black writing, Black behind the scenes, Black behind whatever, producers, directors, associates, hair girls, makeup people, writers, grips, whatever, he did more for that than anybody.

(narrator) Lear also introduced television's first interracial couple on The Jeffersons.

(Helen) Remember when you first told your mother about us, Tom?

I never heard such yelling and screaming.

(Tom) That was my father, my mother didn't say a word.

(Helen) Because she fainted.

(laughing) Then there was the disinheritance.

The folks cut us off without a cent.

Oh, that's terrible!

Were your folks that mad, Tom?

(Tom) Oh, not my folks, hers!

Norman Lear is just such a genius, you know.

He wanted them to be a real couple, and they treated each other like anybody else would.

People could believe it was a normal relationship.

(Tom) I'd like to speak to my wife, if you don't mind.

Helen, I can't find my fountain pen.

(Helen) Use one of the ballpoint pens, there are lots of them on your desk.

Ballpoint pens are not for writing, they're for making marks.

I need a pen with a point, now what have you done with my pen?

(Helen) I don't know!

I might've taken it to do the marketing list!

(Tom) You wrote with it?

(audience laughing) -Junior?

-Junior!

-Junior?

-Don't stop me now, Mama!

I'm past the point of no return!

(laughing) (upbeat music) (narrator) Jimmie Walker played just one role on television, yet few actors have shot to prominence more quickly or created more controversy than Walker did on a show called Good Times.

I came on to be funny.

That was my plan of attack.

(Michael) A Black family should have a Black symbol!

(Junior) If Mama sees that there, she's gonna kill you!

-No, she isn't.

-Jesus may have your soul, but Mama gonna have your behind!

(audience laughing) When I come out, I want nuclear bomb comedy, and I don't think anybody else from the show, they're actors, so they're thinking we're acting.

I came out as a stand-up, different deal.

(Florida) And Junior, don't think of taking mail that ain't ours.

(audience laughing) I don't take things, Mama.

I find them.

Then don't find any mail that ain't ours.

God didn't make man to steal.

Then how come he gave us more pockets than hands?

(narrator) Producer Norman Lear had designed Good Times as a vehicle to portray the African American experience, but Jimmie Walker's character became so popular so fast, he changed the direction of the show.

Overnight, Walker's comic catchphrase became part of the national vocabulary.

(Junior) Dyn-o-mite!

Dyn-o-mite!

Dyn-o-mite!

(narrator) "Dyn-o-mite" made Jimmie Walker famous, but the very first time he used it, Walker wasn't so sure.

(Jimmie) Director John Rich, he says, "I want you to do it like this."

And I went, "John, that's a little silly.

Just to have somebody stand up and say 'dynamite' in the middle of a show?"

He says, "This thing is gonna be big."

Dyn-o-mite!

(applause) (soft music) (narrator) Jimmie Walker's outsized acting was popular from the start, but backstage, controversy was brewing.

I thought that they-- we had lost the focus, which was the family as a whole and not just, you know, buffoonery.

Today hasn't been a good day in the chicken delivering business.

(woman) Well, what happened?

Somebody rip off the coleslaw?

(audience laughing) No, worse than that.

I lost my job.

(Florida) You lost your job?

Oh, honey, what happened?

(woman) What, they catch you finger lickin' again?

(laughing) And I made it clear as to what my feelings were that, you know, how much more of-- how many more chicken hats and, you know, how long can we do this?

(Jimmie) As talent, I don't think Norman Lear agrees with anything that I've ever done.

I think that Norman felt that his show was hijacked, his idea, what he wanted to do.

And I think to this day, he still regrets that.

(solemn music) Sometimes we would have a moment, and Norman Lear would always say, "Well, didn't that moment feel much better than that tomfoolery you're always doing?"

And I would go, "No.

That's you.

I'm here for laughs.

If you need a laugh, let me bring it.

I'm coming in on the big Boeing 707, I'm trying to kill."

(narrator) For Walker, sitcoms should be about laughs, and the way to get laughs is to play it big.

(Jimmie) In any sitcom you do, someone has to be the guy to take the pie.

By that I mean that person has to be the one that you look to for laughs.

You gotta commit, snot's gotta come out your nose, your eyes gotta water, you gotta have hands flapping.

(upbeat music) You gotta get messy in comedy.

It's gotta be ugly.

You've gotta take the pie, somebody, and the person that takes the pie usually is gonna surface, 'cause that's what a person-- that's where people gravitate.

(narrator) In 1977, NBC took a chance on the most original African American comic of the era, Richard Pryor.

The show would break new ground from the very first shot.

The opening, one of the greatest openings of all time, he said, "Hey, it's me, Richard Pryor!

I'm on TV!

I didn't have to give up anything."

You know, there's a lot of things written about me.

People wondering if I'm gonna have a show, if I'm not gonna have a show, well, I'm having a show.

People say, "Well, how can you have a show?

You've gotta compromise, you've got to give up everything!"

Is that a joke or what?

And they pan and he's totally naked, and they think, "Where are they going?"

Well, look at me!

I'm standing here naked.

(audience laughing) I've given up absolutely nothing.

"I didn't give up anything to be on TV," and they get down to right about here, he's a Ken doll, there's nothing.

At that point, I went, "Yes!"

(laughter and applause) So enjoy the show!

And you see him running towards a white woman and then you see a shotgun come up and he runs past her.

I mean, it's just-- it's fantastic.

It's like seeing great jazz.

You know, when you saw him kick it hard, it was just be like broken-field running or he'd find a character that would just be so-- so painful, but at the same time, so funny.

It's beyond comedy.

It's--there's another level.

It's uber comedy or something, but it's beyond.

It's poignant, it's accurate, it's hysterically funny.

(rock music) (screaming) ♪ (Whoopi) He has thrown what you realize is all these pill-looking things out to the kids.

♪ And by the end of the piece, they're all done.

♪ They're all down, and it ends with him just going... (low chuckling) (man) Let's hear it for Black Death!

Far out.

It was the scariest thing I'd ever seen, but I totally understood it, like I got it.

(narrator) Richard Pryor ranks among the most influential entertainers of the 20th century, but his footprint on television was small.

His show was cancelled after just one season.

(somber music) It's a story repeated over and over for people of color, often pushed to the sidelines of the biggest medium.

My parents told me that I was the first person, first Asian person that they saw on television that they could be proud of.

It was people that look like me, and it was a joy just to see people like that on television.

It's strange how television is today as compared to what it was then.

It's, like, not out-and-out racism that we're dealing with, it is that subtle non-inclusion that is very hard to overcome.

They have the one Black cop on the show.

Boom, the end of it!

Thank you, we're covered!

You know, that's the way it goes.

The Indigenous, the Asian American, and the Latino are very, very-- they don't even exist in this culture of television.

At a time in our history when you cannot walk into almost any neighborhood without seeing varied people of different cultures and colors, it seems strange that that should be missing on television, which is the primary source of information.

(orchestral music) (narrator) The performers who have broken through have made a significant impact on American culture.

Their contributions make them true Pioneers of Television.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪ To make it real and to get the audience to believe that we believe, we had to make the panel, personalize the panel.

Warp 1 was here, Warp 2 was there, Warp 3 is there, and so forth and all the other buttons, for me, had a definite meaning.

And this director wanted me to go up there for Warp 9, which was not where it was.

(laughing) (jazzy music) ♪ (bright music)