Primetime Blues

By Donald Bogle

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 494 pp., $18 (paper) Donald Bogle adds another exceptional book to his works about African-Americans in film and television with Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. Bogle's work discusses by decade African-American actors and directors, African-American archetypes in TV series, movies, and miniseries, and the impact of those images in their larger social and cultural context.

Bogle's critique is unsurprisingly sharp. What makes Primetime Blues extraordinary is his shameless approach to the medium. Unlike other critics who bemoan television, Bogle admits his enjoyment of it with no apology. Still, his television viewing was (and is) always filtered through the prism of one who did not see himself reflected in it, and when he did, wondered why the images, even when offensive or one-dimensional, still drew him in. His prodigious knowledge of the medium, insight, and enthusiasm make Primetime Blues a fascinating study.

Besides the inviting introduction, the most illuminating chapter is "The 1950s: Scraps," which traces the emergence of African-American actors from vaudeville and radio who transitioned, with mixed success, to the then-new medium.

Primetime Blues is an important addition to the serious media watcher's library, yet a thoroughly entertaining work for the general-interest reader.