Craig Blankenhorn/HuluErika Alexander is delighted at the influx of successful black creatives and shows with black casts, but the Living Single alum says it’s unfortunate that we’re not further along when it comes to our shows.
“People call it a renaissance and I call it a resurrection,” Alexander tells ABC Audio. “I think we were doing really well, [but] imagine how much… billions of dollars, shows with black casts [could have been] making.”
“From Family Matters, to Fresh Prince to Living Single to Martin to New York Undercover,” she continues, naming 90s series with predominately black casts. “And then they just went silent around 2000. That’s an active sort of thing to pull programming..and say, ‘We’re not going to service that because we don’t need to.'”
According to Alexander, who currently stars in the Hulu series, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, networks missed the mark by not realizing the power of black talent and the black audience.
“Now, because of… media and everybody just trying to grab for every market… everything becomes important,” she says. “Especially black people and young black men — they start trends.”
Alexander says that people are only now “realizing how powerfully influential, and more importantly, the branding and the marketing” value of diversely cast shows. She calls the networks’ failure to recognize the importance of such essential programming disappointing.
“Shame on them that they didn’t know that and continue that,” Alexander says. “Can you know how much further we’d be, how many different show runners besides Shonda Rhimes could have come through?”
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